Ten Carriage Guns
“Resolved, that a swift sailing vessel to carry ten carriage guns, a proportionable number of swivels, and eighty men, be fitted with all possible despatch for a cruise of three months, that the commander be instructed to cruise eastward for intercepting such transports as may be laden with warlike stores and other supplies for our enemies, and for such other purposes as the Congress shall direct.
That a Committee of three be appointed to prepare an estimate of the expenses, lay the same before the Congress, and to contract with proper persons to outfit the vessel.
Resolved, that another vessel be fitted out for the same purposes and that said committee report their opinion of a proper vessel along with an estimate of the expense.”
“Resolution of the Continental Congress that marked the establishment of what is now the United States Navy.” - Source: Journal of the Continental Congress, 13 October 1775, in William Bell Clark, editor, Naval Documents of the American Revolution, Vol. 2, (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1966): 442.
(Reminder that I own nothing!)
‘Thought’
“Dialogue”
“Words in a foreign language.”
***
Twilight Sparkle dragged herself down the well-worn road towards her home of Ponyville. Canterlot, the place where she had been forced into servitude for the past several weeks, was slowly shrinking into the dust of the road behind her. The sky was filled with the same dust, and a bolt of unnatural lightning flickered across the sky. Maybe Equis herself was reflecting the sorrow brought down upon all of her children through the overcast sky and sporadic crackles of angry lightning.
Twilight’s eyes fell to the grey dust of the road beneath her hooves, and she suddenly took note of the state of her own appearance. Her hooves were covered in mud and dirt, as was her mane. She supposed that she looked pretty pathetic. Twilight shook her head and pushed the frivolous concerns out of her head. There were more important things to worry about than her own appearance. She took comfort in the familiar weight of the young dragon on her back, asleep and as dirty as she. Setting off again, she passed what once was one of the factory-like farms most of the earth ponies had been forced to work in. The ground was dry, cracked, grey, and spent like the rest of Equestria. She was too tired to feel the dark and conflicting emotions that she knew she was supposed to.
The road wound to the left. As Twilight rounded the bend, she encountered the burning wreckage of one of the quadrupedal war machines that she had seen in the past few days... She tore her eyes away from a relatively small corpse beneath the machine as the corpse’s hidden machinery sparked and sputtered. She had wondered what had happened to Lori. Twilight blinked the tears out of her eyes. She would mourn for the strange mare who, under better circumstances, might have been her friend, but she would do it once she was sure her friends were safe… once Ponyville was safe. Twilight had to force herself to start walking again. She wanted to rest, to lie down in the road and sleep, but she had to keep going.
A loud hum and a tremor that sent pebbles dancing across the ground drew Twilight’s eyes to the sky. There, crossing over the mountain behind her, was one of the human ships. Once proud and powerful like a dragon in their prime, now beaten and barely flying. It was distant in the sky despite being the size of one of the large buildings in Manehattan. It skirted the underside of a dust cloud, its once gleaming white hull blackened and melted to the point where she could clearly see the damage from where she had stopped on the road.
‘Survivors.’
There was a loud crack as the Butchers found the vessel, and she shut her eyes tight, not wishing to see. The sounds told her the story just as well as if she had seen it. The loud screech of shearing metal, the hum that invaded her horn every time she came close to one of the human ships faded to nothing, and a faint explosion reminded her of all the death that had visited Equis. Too emotionally drained to care, Twilight pressed on to the tiny village she could see emerging from the haze.
‘Not anymore.’
Twilight trudged over the creaking wooden bridge that led over a small stream and into the town, pausing as she reached the apex. The town almost looked the same as she remembered. If it hadn’t been for the omnipresent dusty haze that blew through the empty streets and choked the few ponies that had already moved back into town, she might have been able to pretend none of it ever happened.
She could see her destination from here, the little library she had called home for so long, back when her life was unmarred by the cruelty of the universe. Setting off once again, she didn't remain unnoticed for long. The residents of her little town murmured as she passed, quickly leaving what they were doing to follow her down the street. Muffled, reverent murmurs of “Princess Twilight” followed her down the street faster than the ponies who uttered them. She screwed her eyes closed again and moved faster. She didn't deserve her crown... or her wings. She could never be a leader to these ponies.
Finally crossing the threshold into her library, she slammed the door behind her with a quick spurt of magic. Almost single-mindedly, she ascended the stairs up to her room. She was too tired to even notice the disarray her books were in, or the broken windows letting the dusty haze inside. Finding the door to her room, she quickly entered and placed Spike in his basket. That done, she eyed her own bed. It was covered in dust from the broken window, but she couldn't bring herself to care about that or even her own filth as she slipped underneath the sheets.
Before Twilight could slip away into the much sought after embrace of sleep, she heard a clunk from downstairs, causing her to groan to herself. She didn't want to deal with anypony right now. Reluctantly, she dragged herself from her now dirty sheets and opened the door to her room, so she could tell whoever was here to come back tomorrow. As she pulled the door open, a pair of ponies paused on the other side, both as filthy as she.
“Twilight? Is that you?” came a scratchy voice from the gloom of her hallway.
Rainbow Dash. It was Rainbow Dash. Twilight perked up a little, energy flowing back into her weary bones. She raised a hoof and placed it on Rainbow’s face, feeling, making certain she was actually there.
“Twilight, darling, you look terrible. It’s below the station of a princess to look so horrid,” the posh accent laced with a few giggles came from behind Rainbow Dash.
Twilight almost wanted to laugh at Rarity’s joke. Almost. Instead, she grabbed the two of them in a death grip. What was going to be a happy laugh instead emerged as a half sob. She tried to speak, but she just couldn't get the words out. Instead, all she could do was clutch her friends and vent her sorrow.
Author's Note
Welcome to Ten Carriage Guns! I started this fic as a way to work through my writers block so expect updates to be infrequent. So far this is shaping up to be a colab with myself, Alan Smithee and, Admari.
As always edited by the talented JBL.
Ten Carriage Guns
Chapter1
(Reminder that I own nothing!)
‘Thought’
“Dialogue”
“Words in a foreign language.”
***
(Three Weeks Ago)
It was delightfully quiet in the library this morning, and Twilight had taken advantage of some rare, unscheduled reading time. She cringed as another wave of pain shot down her horn. With a frustrated growl, she placed aside her book, 101 Interesting Facts About Jam. She had been getting the odd pains ever so often for the past hour, and it was driving her batty. She pulled herself to her hooves and tried to shake off the sensation, but it was stubborn and wouldn't relinquish its hold. "Spike!?" she called to her young, draconic assistant.
"Need something, Twilight?" asked the boyish voice of Spike from where he peeked around the top of the stairs.
"Could you please bring me the aspirin from the medicine cabinet? I have a terrible headache," Twilight moaned, pressing a hoof to her horn in a vain attempt to ease its pain.
"Sure thing, Twilight." Spike scampered back up the stairs and returned a few moments later with a glass of water and a couple of white capsules.
"Thanks, Spike." Twilight took the capsules with her magic and popped them into her mouth, quickly followed by the water from the glass. Twilight sighed, already feeling a little better; just the anticipation of relief was enough to take the edge off.
With the pain slowly draining from her horn, Twilight returned to her favorite reading spot. An odd flash of blue caught her attention from outside, and she quickly turned to look out the window. She strained her eyes, trying to find anything out of the ordinary in the afternoon sun, but it all just looked… normal. With a shrug, she turned back around to return to her reading. As she turned the page, another bright flash of blue had her gritting her teeth.
'Where is that coming from!?' Twilight seethed. ‘Probably Rainbow Dash again.’
With a flash of magic, she was standing outside, looking for the pony responsible for the interruption. The day was sunny, and there wasn't a potential prankster in sight. Another flash assaulted her eyes, and she finally looked up to see... Rainbow Dash messing with a storm cloud.
With a roll of her eyes, Twilight spread her wings and took to the air, quickly coming to a halt next to the Element of Loyalty, who was taking careful aim, placing the fluffy, dark cloud over a target painted on the ground below. "Rainbow Dash, what exactly are you doing?" Twilight asked, the strain in her voice only slightly obvious.
"Hey, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash said while delicately arranging the storm cloud. "Just a little target practice." With a swift buck, lightning arched from the little cloud and carved a divot out of the earth below. Unfortunately, it was nowhere near the target.
Twilight just gave Rainbow a flat look. "Do you have to do that right outside my window?"
"Oh… sorry." Rainbow at least had the decency to look sheepish.
"Anyway, why are you trying to hit a target for? The last time I read The Weatherponies’ Almanac, it didn’t mention needing to be able to hit something." Twilight stared curiously down at the blackened grass as she floated next to Rainbow.
"Oh, it's this awesome old pegasus sport I heard about. They called it ‘striking.’ There was also something about it keeping your skills sharp... or something like that," Rainbow Dash said while wringing out the little cloud to make a comfortable spot for the two mares to sit.
Twilight nodded. "Striking is an old pegasus tournament game, like jousting," Twilight supplied, the chance to distract herself from her headache with a lecture too good to pass up. "It was primarily used to keep pegasus lightning squads in practice between campaigns."
Twilight was about to launch into the next part of her lecture on ancient pegasi culture when her head split open... or at least that was what it felt like. Her vision started to narrow and dim, and she grabbed her temples, not daring to touch her horn. Twilight writhed in pain on the cloud. She could hear Rainbow Dash shouting at her from what sounded like a long distance away, but the agony prevented her from forming a coherent response.
In her tossing and turning, Twilight rolled over onto her back. The sky was in plain sight... and so were the burning trails of meteors streaking through the atmosphere. The pain in her skull diminished and was replaced with a loud humming that changed in pitch and volume every few seconds. It still didn't do any favors for her headache, but at least she could function again. Twilight was just about to flip herself back onto her hooves when the debris started to fall faster and faster, filling the sky with blazing smoke trails. The meteors began slamming the ground, most of them impacting a great distance away.
"Twilight, are you okay!?" Twilight suddenly realized Rainbow Dash was yelling right in her face, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the streaks of flames. "Twilight? Twilight, answer me!"
***
(Present Day)
“Twilight?”
"Twilight, you alright?"
Twilight shook her head slightly. She recognized that Rainbow's voice was filled with concern, but ‘alright’ probably wasn't something she would be for a while. She raised her eyes to look at her two friends - they were really there. "Sorry… was just lost in thought," Twilight mumbled, slowly turning the cup of soothing tea in her hooves.
"We understand, darling. A lot of ponies get that look nowadays," Rarity replied, placing a comforting hoof on Twilight's shoulder.
"So… where are the others?" Twilight ventured. She already knew they were at least alive, she had gotten that out of the way as soon as she had the chance to ask. Now she was clean, her books were back in order, and the windows had been boarded up. All in all, she was feeling much better than she had when she had dragged herself and Spike into town the day before. But she would still worry about her friends until she saw them all face to face.
"They took off to make sure their families were okay," Rainbow Dash said from the cloud cushion she had retrieved. "Rarity's folks live in town, and I was able to head to Cloudsdale in a flash to check up on my mom, so we volunteered to stay in town to wait for you."
"Fluttershy is in the hospital," Rarity blurted out from her seat across from Twilight, causing Rainbow Dash to shoot her a glare.
"I thought we weren't going to tell her about that yet," Rainbow Dash hissed at Rarity in a poor attempt at stealth.
Twilight took a long shuddering breath, bracing herself for terrible news. "What happened?" Twilight forced out, giving both of her friends a stern look.
"A bunch of humans hid under one of her trees," Rainbow Dash said, eyes turning towards the ground. "She was bringing them food and bandages. The other ones must have seen her going back and forth and figured it out." Rainbow Dash paused to take a deep breath. "When they blasted the tree, Fluttershy caught the edge of it. The burns are... pretty bad."
Twilight’s eyes joined Rainbow's in studying the floor as the information sunk in. "Is she going to be okay?" Twilight asked after a few long seconds.
"Yeah… she might be blind in one eye though," Rainbow Dash said, eyes still downcast. "Also… the scars won't be pretty."
A flash of anger shot through Twilight’s mind. ‘This was their fault. Nopony would ever had gotten hurt if they had never come here.’ The anger bled away. She raised a hoof and pressed it into her temple. ‘It’s not their fault,’ she reminded herself.
“I need to visit her soon,” Twilight mumbled, picking up her tea and taking a long sip.
Rarity nodded and shared a glance with Rainbow. “Certainly, darling. I'm sure she would appreciate the company.”
Ten Carriage Guns
Chapter 2
(Reminder that I own nothing!)
‘Thought’
“Dialogue”
“Words in a foreign language.”
***
Twilight sat alone with a sleeping Fluttershy in one of the rooms at Ponyville General Hospital. The quiet beeps of the medical equipment and the ticking of a clock on the far wall made up the soundtrack of her visit.
Despite sitting only a little ways from her sleeping friend, Twilight could barely stand to look at Fluttershy. The butter yellow mare was almost entirely covered in bandages, and many of those had already started to darken even though the nurse had only changed them an hour or so prior.
Jerking her head away from the sight, Twilight forced herself to look anywhere but at the mare who least deserved to be harmed by everything that had happened. Almost as soon as that thought had run its course, Twilight snorted in anger at herself. Nopony had deserved anything that had happened, nopony. She wouldn't even have wished it on Sombra or Discord.
'Discord...'
'Fluttershy is going to be heartbroken when she finds out... Assuming she isn't already.'
Twilight squirmed as guilt gnawed on her mind.
'I wish I had been nicer to him all those times. That moron...'
Twilight smiled ruefully at the memory of what the mad trickster had done.
'What pony in their right mind throws themselves between two fleets of aliens to make them stop fighting?'
Twilight could only compare it to standing between two trains on a collision course and shouting at them to stop. No matter what anypony did, they were still going to crash and getting in between them was only going to get you killed.
'Still, he had been really brave... Just like how Lori had been brave, and Reed.'
Twilight blinked the tears out of her eyes and quickly stood up. She paced for a few moments, hoping the rhythmic clopping of her hooves on the tiles would soothe her. After only a few minutes, she paused and turned to look out of the window. The scene outside was one of tentative hope. The ponies, her friends and neighbors, had begun to clean the streets and repair the houses, coming together like the community she remembered. Then the ponies scrambled out of sight, hiding in homes and under debris. Twilight was confused as to why they would just vanish like that. Hadn’t the danger already passed?
Then she heard it. There was a sound, a familiar hum that was only now starting to rattle the windows. But the hum was only in her ears, not coming from within her horn like when one of the gleaming white human ships was nearby.
Twilight was still trying to figure out what the sound could be coming from when the scene outside of the window was suddenly cast in shadow. A cold dread settled in her stomach as she made her way to the window to look upward at the red, arrowhead shaped vessel hovering over Ponyville. Images flashed into her mind, memories of the first time an alien species had decided to visit Ponyville.
(Three weeks ago)
Twilight stared up at the burning sky. Rainbow Dash was shaking her and screaming for her to wake up. But Twilight was already very much awake. The sky held her in its unshakable grasp as a tone erupted in her ears. She could barely think, let alone move or speak. Just as the sound splitting through her head and horn became unbearable and Rainbow Dash started to pull her limp body from the cloud, a glimmering, golden wave washed over the burning sky, then the sound and the meteors stopped.
Twilight shook herself from the trance she had been in and looked up at Rainbow Dash who was glaring up at the sky. “Rainbow?” she asked in a daze.
Rainbow Dash gasped and looked down at her. “Twilight! Are you alright? What happened? I've never seen you collapse like that!” Rainbow rapidly babbled as she checked Twilight for wounds.
“I don’t know,” Twilight croaked as she slowly came back to her senses. Twilight gently pushed her concerned friend away and shakily rose to her hooves. She couldn't help but to look up at the sky, now filled with the golden shield. “That has to be the Princess’.”
“What’s going on?” Rainbow Dash almost shouted as she turned her own gaze skyward just in time for a large something to glance off the shield, leaving a long burning wake before it was catapulted back up into the space above Equis, trailing molten material and other debris.
“I don’t know,” Twilight repeated. The sky wasn't burning and the tone had stopped, but she still found it difficult to pull her eyes away. “We need to make sure the others are okay,” Twilight said after forcing herself to look away from the spectacle taking place over their heads.
“Yeah... yeah okay.” Rainbow Dash nodded and tensed her wings for take off. “You going to be okay while I get them?” she said over her shoulder as she remained poised for takeoff.
“I'll be alright, Rainbow, just be quick. I’ll check on Rarity first. You make sure AJ and Fluttershy are okay,” Twilight said as she made her way over to the edge of the tiny cloud.
“Be back in a flash!” Rainbow said as she nodded and sprung off the cloud and quickly vanished into the distance trailing her signature rainbow.
Twilight turned nervously from where her friend had sped away to look down at the ground from her perch on the cloud. “I hope I can do this.” Twilight still felt shaky after what had happened to her, and she wasn't sure if she could trust her wings. Under normal circumstances, she could have levitated herself down, but she dared not trust her magic after that strange sound had seemed to come from her horn itself. With a gulp and one last nervous glance, she allowed herself to tip over the edge and spread her wings.
Twilight shakily glided to the ground and suffered only a small stumble when she touched down. After picking herself up and starting off towards town, she couldn't help but glance at the sky again. The bombardment had not slowed in the slightest. Instead, the debris had gotten larger and larger until, according to a few quick mental calculations, building sized objects rained down on the Princess’ shield.
Shaken by the sheer size of the projectiles, Twilight galloped as fast as her hooves would carry her. She had to find Rarity. If that tone from her horn had hurt her that badly, what had it done to Rarity? Would it have been milder or more severe? Carousel Boutique came into view as Twilight rounded the corner of a house. As her hooves struck the dirt again, time seemed to slow, the air was suddenly vacant of sound, and everything became awash in blue.
Twilight turned her head to look over her shoulder when the brightest blue, almost white in its intensity burned into her retinas. A bright gash split the sky, hammering through the golden shield like it was tissue before a lightning bolt. Celestia's shield was shattered, and the beam was momentarily halted by a similar dark blue field, likely Luna 's own effort. Then that too was swept away as the unstoppable bolt struck down at the tall mountain that stood on the other side of the Everfree Forest. The mountain was flash heated until the disparate temperatures caused it to suddenly erupt in a violent detonation that sent the mass of partially vaporized rock collapsing into the sea of green at its feet.
Twilight jerked her head away from the sight, her mind only now recognizing that her eyes had been in pain from the bright light. As her hooves carried her a step closer to Rarity, the shockwave from the event behind her caught up and blasted her off of her hooves, along with shattering of every window in Ponyville.
After the sudden gust and the sound of shattering glass, Twilight found herself on her back with a perfect view of the sky. A sky now once again filled with meteors, some of which were large enough to blot out the sun for a full second before they passed. Twilight couldn't help but indulge her curiosity for a moment as one of the largest pieces passed right over Ponyville. The object was ringed in fire and cloaked in a thick layer of smoke, but that was what she had expected. What she hadn't expected was the tiny black dot that followed the larger meteor. As it got closer and closer, Twilight could feel the same pain in her horn from earlier creep back into her awareness and a sudden force that dragged her across the ground for a few inches only to vanish as the object sped over the town. The sound took a moment to work through her shock addled brain, but when it did, it reminded her of the sound of drapes caught in a vacuum cleaner. The pain from her horn was almost blinding, but the agony from her ears was worse as the roaring shriek vibrated the stones and fragments of glass all around her.
As the flaming meteor passed overhead, it visibly slowed and even seemed to turn towards an open flat meadow some distance behind Fluttershy's cottage. Then, just before it touched the ground, the smoke cleared, and Twilight could see the object for what it was. A building... or part of one anyway. It didn't look like any building she had ever seen as it plowed through the earth. She could see what were obviously floors, layered compartments that had been hidden under a skin that was now tearing away from it like how gryphons cleaned the skin and scales from a fish.
The rumbling ground slowly stopped, and the tiny black sphere shrank into oblivion before Twilight had managed to pull herself to her hooves. Her head swam in pain, and she took another shaky step towards Carousel Boutique, then another, and another. With her strength returning to her and the pain in her head ebbing, she finally reached Rarity's home.
Foregoing the usual courtesies when entering somepony's house, Twilight barged through the door. She looked around frantically for the white shape of her unicorn friend calling out, "Rarity!?" every few seconds. Despite her searching, she found nothing in the main showroom, but a thump and a muffled groan gave away Rarity's location. With a clumsy haste born of concern and possibly damaged eardrums, Twilight bounded up the stairs, managing to only stumble twice on her way up.
Bursting into Rarity's bedroom, Twilight quickly spotted the rising form of her friend. Rarity was shakily getting to her hooves, the only sign of injury a small gash on her nose, probably from the glass of the window which was scattered all over the floor.
"Rarity are you okay!?" Twilight shouted as she quickly offered her side to steady her still swaying friend.
"Yes, I think so," Rarity said after a moment. The white unicorn shook her head. Her usual upper crust mannerisms were momentarily forgotten as she checked herself for injuries. "What happened, darling? One moment I was tidying up and the next was a flash and my horn..." Rarity trailed off as she massaged her horn with a hoof.
"I don't know either. Something... something fell," Twilight said, also at a loss to explain the day's events. "Are you okay to walk? We have to go get Pinkie and then see if the others are alright."
"I think I will be alright darling, just a little shaken up. No need to worry," Rarity answered with growing strength.
"Okay, let's go. We should probably take it slower until you feel better." Twilight trotted out of the room and carefully made her way down the steps just in case there was another tremor or explosion.
Rarity followed her down the steps, taking one at a time on shaky legs. She moaned a wordless complaint when she spotted the heaps of shattered glass all over the floor of the showroom. She looked like she wanted nothing but to immediately start cleaning but steeled herself and followed Twilight out into the streets with clenched teeth.
Twilight gasped when she emerged back onto the street. The peaceful and quiet town of Ponyville had been transformed in a matter of minutes into a dust choked vision of Tartarus. Hot dust and ashes drifted down onto the once pristine village coating it in a grey haze, and pieces of debris had struck homes here and there, setting them alight or blasting them apart completely. From what she could tell through the thick haze, the tall mountain beyond the Everfree had been completely reduced to a pile of rubble that spread over most of a devastated forest.
Huge metallic monoliths lay in the fields around Ponyville and stretched far into the distance. Twilight could see charred white plating on most of them, and those that weren't burning wrecks had managed to crash in such a way to avoid their kin, obviously guided somehow.
The entire scene was like something out of one of those films she wouldn't let Spike see at the theatre or one of his particularly bad comics.
"What?" Rarity said in horror filled awe. "What happened!?" she shrieked, beginning to sound almost hysterical.
"Stay calm; we need to get to Pinkie and meet the others," Twilight said after a moment of collecting her own wits. She was a princess. She had to stay calm and take charge, make sure everypony was alright.
"Twilight?"
She started a checklist in her mind. Fires were obviously first and foremost, followed by search and rescue.
"Twilight, can you hear me, darling?..."
After those, it was medical aid and food and water supplies. Twilight shook her head. She would also have to get in touch with the mayor so their relief efforts didn't conflict. There was just so much to do!
"Twilight!!!"
Twilight was startled out of her thoughts by Rarity shouting in her ear. She was about to ask what the problem was when Rarity pointed towards the center of town. Following her hoof, she could see a straight-maned Pinkie Pie pushing a collapsed cart off of a trapped Big Mac, a scene that was echoed many times around the marketplace as ponies struggled beneath fallen booths, crates, or carts.
Gasping, Twilight hurried towards them, levitating the debris off of a dozen ponies that had been trapped under carts or fallen crates of produce. Rarity followed behind, pulling somepony's drapes from their window and rapidly shredding the fabric into bandages to use on the wounded ponies saved by Twilight.
Finally reaching Pinkie Pie and Big Mac, Twilight slowed and lifted the final pony out of danger before she turned to her friends. "Pinkie, are you okay?"
Twilight didn't expect Pinkie to look at her with a venomous expression or to practically spit her words. "Do I look fine? This is a disaster! I tried to warn everypony, but do you think they listened? No! NowtheirallhurtandidontknowWHATTODO!" Pinkie's angry rant turned to panicked sobs as she finished. Pinkie had a death grip on Big Mac, and the stallion winced in pain as the mare squeezed him a little too tightly.
"Pinkie it's okay," Twilight said placing a soothing hoof on Pinkie's back. "We'll make everything alright," Twilight nervously said, hoping her words were true and they really could put everything back the way it had been just like they had always managed before. That's right! They had always managed to fix everything before. Why should now be any any different?
With growing confidence, Twilight puffed herself up a little. " I'm sure we can put everything back the way it was. We just need the Elements of Harmony and nothing will be able to stop us! As a Princess of Equestria, I won't let anything get in the way of helping my friends!" Twilight said loudly almost as much to herself as to Pinkie. What she didn't expect was the hooves stomping in applause from behind her. Twilight quickly turned around to find a group of nearly thirty ponies that had come out of hiding to help and listened in on her speech.
"Princess Twilight will help us!" shouted one stallion.
"Please save us Princess!" cried a blue mare that Twilight recognized as Ponyville's dentist.
"Gather around everypony. Princess Twilight will know what to do!" shouted one of the mares who sold flowers in the market and had been pulled from the rubble of her cart not minutes before.
The various ponies coming out of homes or emerging from hiding places joined in the crowd, all of them asking for directions or singing Twilight's praises. Twilight blushed in embarrassment as the crowd pressed towards her, but where old Twilight might have folded under the pressure, Princess Twilight stood resolute. Or at least that's what Twilight told herself as she worked up the courage to address the mass of ponies.
"Pegasi!" Twilight called out suddenly. One of the pegasus stallions in the front row actually saluted and stood at attention. That made Twilight feel kind of good actually... "Round up all the Pegasi you can find and put out these fires! If you spot Rainbow Dash, Applejack, or Fluttershy, tell them I need them here in the square!" Twilight pointed to the stallion standing at attention. “You’re in charge.” He blushed and grinned before taking to the skies over the crowd.
"Flyers, with me!" he shouted before about a third of the crowd took to the air and followed him towards some clouds that were scattered off in the distance.
"Earth Ponies!" Twilight shouted, getting another fraction of the crowd to stand a little straighter. "I need you to search for ponies trapped in collapsed houses or rubble. Wait for the pegasi to put out the fire if a house is burning. Big Mac, can you handle this?" She asked over her shoulder at the stallion behind her.
"Eeyup," Big Mac drawled before tossing his head with a significant glance at the crowd. Another third split off from the group to follow him towards a collapsed house a little ways down one of the side streets.
Twilight smiled at Rarity and Pinkie Pie behind her who both seemed kind of stunned but happy she was taking charge. Twilight had to admit she was getting the hang of this.
Turning back to the final fraction of the crowd, Twilight took a deep breath before giving her next orders. "Unicorns! I need you to split into two groups. First group is in charge of getting ponies medical help. Bandage up ponies as best you can and take anyone badly hurt to the hospital." Twilight was happy to see half the crowd take off down the street, ripping drapes out of windows and emptying medicine cabinets as they went. She had no need to choose a leader as they seemed to have already picked the best pony for the job among them. "Second group, I need you to find food and drinkable water. Don't use water that's open to the air; the ash will make it poisonous!" Twilight said as the final group marshaled and took off in a down a different street.
"Wow, that felt pretty good," Twilight said to herself as she turned to face her two friends.
"You certainly did an excellent job, Twilight darling," Rarity said, smiling at her. "You're organizational skills are just as good as they were on winter wrap up. C'est magnifique."
Pinkie hopped up and down with her mane almost back to normal. "Yeah Twilight! With that, I'm sure everypony is going to be just fineerific!"
Twilight smiled back at Pinkie and was about to thank her friends for their kind words when Twilight felt that same almost musical tone vibrate in her horn. Twilight grit her teeth and tried grabbing it with her hooves, but that only made the pain start to flare up behind her eyes. Twilight could see that Rarity was also feeling the pain. Pinkie Pie was shouting at them and trying to determine if they were alright, not that they could really hear her.
As the tone grew and the pain made her want to screw her eyes shut, something cast a shadow over them. Twilight was hoping that it was Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy just so that she would know they were alright, but when she looked up, all she could see was a sky that had been replaced with metal and lights, odd spires, and what seemed like miles of gleaming white metal plating.
Author's Note
Sorry for the delay in getting this out. I have a list of excuses as long as my arm...
