It was almost night as a tall grey pony flew out of his apartment and glided down towards the town of Ponyville. On the way down he grabbed a couple clouds and started to condense them into a smaller ones. He then stopped by Fluttershy's cottage and picked up some feathers. He stuck them in his bag along with the few clouds he grabbed along the way. Sleepy walked over to the building where he sold his pillows. Although it wasn't that big or fancy, he always had customers. When he got there he found a note tucked into his door. "A *yawn* note? For *yawn* me?" He said sleepily. He opened up the letter and read it. "*yawn* Party? Palace? Urgent? Never been to *yawn* the palace but Canterlot is nice. I *yawn* think I'll go." He dropped off his stuff inside and locked the door. Sleepy started off toward Canterlot.
Dark plague walked with his two minions towards Fillydelhia. All of the major towns in Equestria are now guarded by the local law enforcement and the palace guards, thanks to Plague’s return. He was just outside the gate when he was stopped by palace guards. “Halt!” said one of the palace guards. “This area is under strict orders from Princess Celestria herself. Return the way you came and you will not be harmed” Plague laughed to himself “So she does know that I have returned.” The Guards then looked at each other and charged at Plague. One of his minions stopped one guard in his tracks, bucking him towards the gate while the other guard looked in fear at his hurt comrade. Plague then levitated the second guard and through him directly into the gate, destroying it in the process. Plague then walked in like nothing had happened, followed by his minions. They continued to walk until they reached the center of Fillydelphia, by then the civilians had hid inside their homes and the guards and local police outnumbered plague 1 to 20. A minion then talked to Plague in an alien like language, plague then smiled at him “I agree, this would make a great field HQ.” Plague then raised his right hoof, focusing his magic on it and slammed it onto the ground creating a gigantic shockwave, sending all the guards flying in different directions. The result of the shockwave destroyed several homes and injured anypony in a 150 meter radius. Plague then looked at both his minions seriously, “Infect all of them, and don’t kill anypony.” The two minions then left instantly and infected those nearby, turning those into plague’s minions. Plague then traveled to the tallest building in Fillydelphia and created a thick grey cloud and sent it in several different locations. “When it the cloud will rain, little black and purple orbs will fall, clumping together to form the start of my glorious army.” Plague then laughed as the cloud went toward the closest town, Ponyville. Celestria then saw the start of her visitors. She was pleased that they could all come to the palace in Equestria’s time of need. “Please, help yourself at the food bar. Once everypony’s here, I’ll tell you what’s going on”
Yan was admittedly dissapointed. Sure the palace was amazing and all, but she had expected a party and she was the only pony here, excluding Celestia of course. Though there was food, plenty of food, enough for a party. However before she could begin demolishing the feast, a pony entered the room accompanied by a couple of guards. Yan's eyes lit up as she recognized the pony as Edge before knocking the stallion off his feet with a hug. "Heya Edge, it's good to see that your hear, bythewaytherewasaponyontheroofandaletterandapartyand-" Yan paused for breath to stop herself passing out, before realising the how uncomfortable the colt must feel and releasing him. "So...how was your day?" (Edge is here now right? Oh, and if you haven't noticed yet, Yan can be a tad excitable)
Some mumbling was heard from behind as Zephyr entered the hall. He was obviously not pleased with the fact that he was summoned. As he looked up, his eyes grew wide in astonishment. He had never seen such a unique building before, it had a ludicrously high ceiling and monumental stained glass windows. As his gaze began to droop he took notice of the food set out before him. The amazing, glorious amounts of food before him. Zephyr could feel himself begin salivating just staring at it alone, he had never seen so much food in one place before and was he hungry. His wings took over all other functions and began to lead him to the feast in front of him. He greedily picked up a celery stalk and was about to devour it when something in the corner of his eye had caught his attention. There were 2 others in the room with him and they had just witnessed the scene. It was time to play it cool, act like nothing happened. "So..." he nibbled on the celery. "You guys got 'invited' too?" he made sarcastic gestures with his hooves upon saying 'invited'.
GearGrind opened the door of his house to look in his shed to find a small envelope. "Hm?" he asked nopony in particular, lifting it up with his magic and reading it over before looking up at the sun to estimate the time. "I'm late!" Using the only other spell he knew, he teleported to the entrance of the party, invitation in hoof. "Deepest apologies to Celestia, as I was quite in tune with my usual tasks and did not find the invitation until moments ago." The guards looked at each other and nodded, allowing the grey pony into the party.
"Oh hello Yan!," Edge said, "I didn't know you were here but I got a mace to the head and probably some guards are still in my traps,", He looked at her and looked at the other pony. "Um.. Hello there and yes we got invited or something," he said, he looked at Yan again and patted her head. "Well.. i'm glad your here!," he said, "I was thinking if I could invite you but no need," he walked over to the food bar and started to eat some hay strips that looked like wavy rectangles (Bacon!). He looked at Celestia and waved at her "hello there princess if you ever need a fortune told come to me!,".
Celestria looked at the pony’s that had entered the room. Even though she was pleased that they had come to save Equestria from Plague, she had no idea of how they were going to beat him. “I see you have already met each other, I will now tell all of you what is going on.” She announced to the ponies in the room. “I have Bad News, Dark Plague has returned from his imprisonment and wants to take Equestria under his rule.” The princess said with guilt. “He was the most gifted magic student I ever had. In fact he was so powerful with magic that some say he can create and alter life." "I was nearly defeated when we last fought him, I don’t know if I can defeat him again.” Luna then stepped into the room. “My sister has told me all about him, that’s why we summoned you to the palace because we both believe you can defeat him”
"Oh princess Luna!," he quickly said, he bowed and looked at her and looked at Princess Celestia "So... this Dark Plauge he sounds like a virus than a pony," he laughed. He felt a twinge in his head and suddenly screamed in pain "Argh! Something is wrong," he grabbed his head and slammed it into the wall it felt like having 10 head-aches at a time. He got up and looked at Celestia "Princess... Something big has happened,", he quickly said "it feels like someone has destroyed a huge town... let me go check all major cites I can see through their eyes if I ever read their fortune," Edge's eyes turned pupils turned very small quickly all he saw were ponies either talking or walking until he saw a pony was being surround by evil looking ponies. He could feel the evil emanating from ten and also they looked like a strange aura coming from them and it seemed judging by the surrounding it was Phillydelphia and then the ponies mind went blank,". He looked at the princess still having a painful head-ache, "Um... Princess you might want to go check on Phillydelphia," he said in a worried voice.
Zephyr ceased nibbling on the the celery stalk for a moment. "Did he just say Fillydelphia...?" He thought to himself He let his eyes wander skyward as his mind took it's own adventure. Fillydelphia was where Zephyr was born and partially raised. It was where he had experienced so many of his happy childhood memories. As he thought back on it he could still clearly remember his dad, being taught to fly, and unfortunately, successfully flying correctly for the first time. Zephyr shook his head in a vain attempt to dispel these thoughts. So what if Fillydelphia had possibly been over? It's no different from any other city he had traveled to over the years, and hell, it had been where his life took a turn for the worse. Still, it held a deep sense of nostalgia for him that he just couldn't shake, and the fact that the town was now in imminent danger made him angry. His gaze dropped back to eye level once more as he continued to chew on the celery. "What about Fillydelphia?"
Edge looked at the pony that was nibbling on the pony he saw his eyes and knew he was born or parents lived in Fillydelphia or even both. "Um.. it is kinda hard to explain but something dark and evil has taken over... and something has done something to the civilians to Phillydelphia," he said, he looked down and started walking towards a chair and sat looking depressed.
"Why is everypony so sad? If the Princess believe we can do it then this plague guy should be no problem, after all, he's only one pony and theres-" Yan stopped to try and count each of the ponies in the room "-5, wait no 4, or did i count Edge twice? dosen't matter, the point is that theres more than us then there is of him." Yan approached Luna "And there is a reward for doing this right?"
"Well I-" Princess Celestia began as a grey pony flopped threw the window. "Hello everypony. Sorry I'm late..." He said as he walked over, "I'm Sleepy Dreams, *yawn* Maker of pillows and Seer of Dreams. Nice to *yawn* meet you all."
Zephyr finished his celary stock and wiped his mouth of anything that could have possibly been left behind. He trotted over from the table and stood next to Yan. He had a smile on his face "Yeah she's right, after all, we totally have the guy outnumbered. Hell, last time Celestia barely beat him right? Well now we have Luna and all of us! Let's go and tear him a new one!" He punched into his hoof upon saying this. He was excited, and motivated to boot. Maybe with this whole saving the world business he might be welcomed back home, along with other cities as well. And besides, there was a reward to be earned, a reward from Royalty. Just imagining the sheer amount of money made him anxious to stomp out Plague's attack quickly.
Edge looked at everypony their coruage and determination filled him up "fine fine since you guys are such gun ho about this I guess I'll go with you guys... and that reward also," he said. He got off the chair and started to fill his pack with food on the table. "Oh yeah let me go see something," he said, his puplis went small again and returned back to normal "not to bad... I suggest to bring a umbrella with you," he said with better attitude.
GearGrind, however, wasn't as ready as the others. "Princess Celestia, perhaps I'm overstepping my bounds, but are you sure we can do this? I realize that everypony is fairly confident about this, but how are we going to beat a centuries-old evil with so few? What do we have that you didn't the last time you fought Dark Plague?" he asked, a fearful, worried look in his eyes. He didn't know how long this creature had been loose, but it already had Phillydelphia. How long before it attacked Ponyville? His mind started to race. He'd never invented anything for fighting. All his inventions were practical and homebound. He was small, but maybe his brains could help. Without really noticing, he started chewing his lower lip while he thought. A bad habit, especially in front of the princesses, but it helped him think.
"Is *yawn* everypony here?" Sleepy dreams asked calmly, with the response he looked out the window, it was getting dark. "Perfect time to go everypony."
Blackheart stepped in the room with white bandages wrapped around his head and with some blood stains on it. He started spiriting towards Celestia and started to apologized for his lateness but instead of waiting for her to accept his apology he turned around and looked at the other ponies in the room. Blackheart first stared wide eye but then he began to chuckle then he started to laugh. "These are the ponies I will be doing this task with, surely this is a joke?" he said still laughing.
Zephyr stared at the weird pony laughing to himself. "Well that figures" he thought to himself. Every time he had to do something with others there was always that one Pony who thinks that everyone is beneath them. He was used to this though as he had encountered many who have this sort of behavior, but there's not much to do about the issue. So he'd deal with him the same way he deals with everyone else. Zephyr sprung up from where he was standing and began to fly upside down. He cheerily hovered over to the weird pony and stuck his hoof out while having a ridiculous smile plastered over his face. "Hey there! Th'name's Zephyr! Nice to meetcha!"
Blackheart ignored Zephry and looked at the rest of the ponies and said "so I am traveling with you ponies well can one of you at least tell me what we have to do?" (Sorry for the short post but I don't have a lot to say)
"Oh that's easy. All we have to do is go to Fillydelphia and take out some evil pony called Dark Plague who almost beat Celestia. It's gonna be just like my graduation ceremony." Yan began to drift away in that memory before recalling herself to the present, and addressed her next comment to Celestia "Is there anything you could give us or tell us that would be useful against him? Or at least would give us a bit more of an idea as to how in Equestria he nearly defeated you?"
