Another day. Another disaster befalling Ponyville.

Vunkerthorn - Grand Visor of the Southern Kingdoms - had not taken kindly to the Princess’ repeated requests to disarm his drakefire weapons program, and had unleashed his draken army upon Equestria. Though much smaller and less dangerous than typical dragons, what drake wyrms lacked in size, they made up for in numbers.

Initial skirmishes in the great plains to the south had not stopped the relentless horde, and now the vanguard of the dinner plate-sized creatures had invaded the town without much prior warning.

“This way! This way to safety!” Doctor Whooves yelled, ducking just in time to avoid a burning belch from one of the drakes flying overhead. Behind him, the impromptu gathering of Lily Valley, Cloud Kicker, Vinyl Scratch and Thunderlane followed as closely as they could, ducking, dodging and weaving various bits of debris sent flying by the chaos all around them.

“How do you know it’s safe?!” Cloud wailed while flying overhead, rubbing her skull where a drake had collided with her head-on.

“Just trust me...and don’t...stop...running!”

“Where’s Princess Twilight and the others?!” Lily squealed, watching in horror as the roof of the house they ran by caught fire.

“Oh you know, probably waiting for the last possible moment until they can save the day, as usual!” Cloud replied.

“Hey, that is like...not cool y’know!” Vinyl panted, just about keeping up with Cloud.

Thunderlane broke away from the group briefly, soaring sideways to land a meaty hook on the drake trying to scorch Roseluck’s prized petunias. “Agreed,” he said, rejoining them. “They’re off somewhere doing their best. You know that.”

Cloud harumphed, falling back to let Doctor Whooves more out in front. From the centre of town he had led them, through the smoke and chaos, and was now on a direct path leading out of the town. She angled her neck downwards, preparing for the final dash to safety, when the earth pony suddenly put the brakes on, screeching to halt before a nearby tree.

“Okay, here we are!”

Cloud doubled back, joining the others as they nearly fell over themselves coming to a sudden stop. She looked at where he was pointing.

“Did you...paint this tree blue?”

Whooves looked at her as if she had gone insane. “Well of course! I had to make sure it was the right one, now quick! We can’t waste time!”

“You can’t be serious dude.” Vinyl lifted up her sunglasses, peering at the pony-ish sized hole in the trunk Whooves appeared to be suggesting they should all climb into. Dried paint droplets littered the grass around the tree’s base.

“Yeah,” Thunderlane agreed. “There’s no chance that’ll fit all of us!”

“It’s bigger on the inside, you melonheads!” Whooves said, jabbing his hoof at the entrypoint. “Please, all of you, inside!”

About to respond, Cloud heard a noise from behind, and saw at least a dozen drakes eyeing them up from across the street. Too many to fight, and likely too many to flee from too.

Wondering if she had truly gone mad, Cloud took the plunge, hurling herself through the hole.

---

“Oh my gosh! How did you guys find my emergency water-pistol room?!”

Cloud opened her eyes to a toothy grin, having just undergone the uncomfortable sensation of being used as a landing cushion by four other ponies.

Doctor Whooves clambered off of the pile, brushing himself down. The room they were in resembled the inside of the oak library, but contained lines of water-pistols, all hooked up along the walls.

“Yo Pinkie!” Vinyl waved. “We were wondering where you were. You guys uhh...aware of the situation up there?”

“You betcha! Drakes get scared by water-pistols like you would not believe. I’m just here to drop some off to the girls!” Pinkie scampered to each wall, building a precarious tower of the objects onto her back, before bundling them all into a suitcase too small for the task. “If Twilight’s right, we should be done by tea-time!”

“Marvelous, Miss Pie. You don’t mind if we wait here for it all to blow over?” Whooves asked.

“Nope! See you all later!” Pinkie bid them a final wave, and bounded through the room’s only exit, which promptly vanished, blending into another solid wall.

“Wait,” Lily asked, looking around in confusion. “How do we get out of here?”

And Whooves found himself on the receiving end of four very pointed stares.

“Ah…”