And they all saw it; a blast wave of dust, glass and ash hurtling towards them from the distance.
The Earth had just been hit by an asteroid (or as they called it, a flying rock); something that everyone in the Great Valley had seen before and were normally not concerned about. However, the asteroid that had just hit the plant about 1000 miles away was huge, about the size of the highest mountains that existed, and was traveling at a speed of 45000 miles per hour upon impact. When the monsterous rock hit what would eventually become known as the Gulf of Mexico, it gouged out a crater that would be known as Chicxulub, and sent the aforementioned blast wave out in all directions, which would, within the impending hour, go around the entire world, incinerating everything in its path.
The ground quaked as the wave got closer and closer to the Great Valley, and our prehistoric pals began to panic compulsively, fearing for their very lives, which flashed before all of their eyes. But they were all too panicked to notice the issues thereof.
That's when Littlefoot suddenly noticed a hole in the ground that looked just small enough for them all to go into. "Quick!" he called. "In here!" And as fast as their legs would carry them, Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike all crawled into the hole, safe from the exterior elements, and not a moment too soon...
Outside, there was a scene of chaos being played out. The blast wave sent from the asteroid had just enveloped the entire valley with its brunt force. Not even the Great Wall could shield the valley from it, as it just went over the mountains and into the valley. Trees were uprooted and thrown around like common rag dolls. Rock formations collapsed and were swept up into the sky. Dinosaurs were sent flying into the walls of the valley. They were burned alive by the heat from the blast, being scalded alive, their flesh melting off of their bones, while their insides were cut to pieces by the particles of dust and glass, sending bodily fluids spurting out, which evaporated in the heat.
...
An hour later, the brunt force of the blast had subsided, with Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike still safe inside the hole. But outside, it was still the exact opposite, as they were soon to discover.
"Is it over?" Ducky asked, trembling with fear on Spike's leg. "What happened up there? Huh? Huh?"
"Let me check." And with that, Littlefoot poked his long neck out through the hole to look...
It was the most horrifying sight of his life. What was once their peaceful, prosperous Great Valley was now at least a million times worse than what they were trying to get away from on their way to the valley; something that could only be described as the equivalent of a nuclear wasteland. Every trace of green had faded to black, charred beyond recognition. Fires had sprung up all throughout the land, consuming what was left.
But what stunned Littlefoot most of all were the corpses; the carcasses of dinosaurs and other creatures they'd lived with littered the destroyed landscape. Their bodies were only barely recognizable, as their features had been melted off by the flesh-melting heat of the blast. Not a single creature within Littlefoot's line of sight was alive; it seemed as if they were the only survivors of this catasrophe.
As the sun was then blotted out completely by a huge cloud of dust, and as the temperatures began to drop rapidly, starting what would become known as an impact winter, Littlefoot contracted his head back into the hole; the sheer shock of the horror that he had just seen caused him to suddenly cry uncontrollably.
"Oh my... is it really that bad?"
As Littlefoot continued to sob, Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike jumped as they noticed that they were not the only ones in the hole; there were not one, but two other creatures there with them. Both were small, about the same size as Cera and Spike, and were furry mammals, and they very much resembled creatures that millions of years later would be known as badgers or opossums (they were actually of a species known as Didelphodon).
"How long you be here?" Petrie asked them in confusion.
"The whole time," replied one of them in a gruff voice. "This is our burrow. We would've kicked your asses out, but given the circumstances, we had no other choice but to let you shelter with us."
Then the other Didelphodon, the mate of the first one, squeezed through over to Littlefoot, who was still in a sobbing, crying fit. "Dear me, it really is that bad, isn't it?"
"It's horrible!" Littlefoot cried. "Everything is destroyed! The valley, the treestars, the other dinosaurs... all... all... GONE!" And he cried only harder.
"Oh my!" exclaimed the female mammal. "Are you sure everything is destroyed!"
"Mm-hmm!" Littlefoot sobbed.
"Whoa... I guess I'd better look." And the female Didelphodon poked her head out of the burrow, only to retract it back in a second later, her face twisted with shock and confusion."
"So it's true?" asked her mate. "EVERYTHING is gone?"
"Yes," groaned the female as acid rain began to fall outside, washing burnt nitrogen and carbon out of the atmosphere. "It's freezing cold out there, and yet everything's on fire. It's all gone!"
"So..." Ducky shivered at the thought of this unspeakable turn of events. "What do we do now? Huh? Huh?"
"I... guess all we can do is wait in here until it's safe to go out again," sighed the male Didelphodon. Cera let out a disgruntled sigh, and for a while after that, they all just stayed cooped up in the burrow, with no one saying word...