Rampant

Rampant

End of Ponyville

Ch. 7: Forever A Broken Home

The bell’s clangs were heard all the way to the wall. The militia had assembled in two straight lines atop Ponyville’s north gate, pegasi at the front, unicorns at the rear. The captain was in the center. He gritted his teeth and set his jaw, then hollered everyone into attention. The militia pulled their hooves closer, stood straighter, stared forward no matter their frowns.

The captain raised his wings in a flurry of raindrops and feathers, and in a clap louder than the rain, everyone flapped open their wings at once, stretched across the wall in a dark, damp rainbow. A spear rested under the hoof of each pony. Closing his eyes, the captain muttered the closest thing he had to a prayer:

“Fuck my life.”

The clangs reached past the wall as well. Regalia’s troops were already at attention as she stood again, this time a snarl twisting over her face as she glared back across the way to the militia on the wall. She raised her hoof, and the horns of all those behind her lit aglow. Though the colors were all different, it was somehow the same glow—the same energy they all produced, lighting the hill like a beacon.

Regalia lifted her sunglasses over her horn as a fire glowed behind her gaze, hissing just one conscious thought to herself:

“You’ve failed me, Ponyville.”

The clangs rang loudest in the plaza. The mayor’s corpse lay already forgotten, half buried by the ungodly mound of mud covering the gallows. Line looked to the mound only a moment, peering longer around it rather than at it. There was no sign of Twilight or Rainbow even as more ponies entered the streets, rushing through the plaza to other parts of town to find their friends or family.

Several students squeezed around Line in their blind rush, nearly knocking him over before he refocused; he ran forward again, as much as the weather made running possible. There was only one place that made sense where Raindawn might be; the only reason the bell would ring like that was if someone who knew what the threat outside was—someone from the wall—had orders to ring it.

Line slammed open the doors to the bell room inside the Rarity Memorial Building, then slammed his hooves over his ears as the bell tolled down the tower. He scowled. The pony tugging the bell’s rope was not Raindawn, but some terrified mare. She gaped at Line, sputtering for him to leave, but Line only raised his voice. His words were clear over the bell:

“Where the hell did Raindawn go?”

The clangs echoed clearest through the nearby roads. Kennedy Gold reached only for her saddlebags on her way out the front door of her house, collecting nothing else. Her street was already filled with citizens loading what they could onto the few carts they had available; much more than they could, in most cases. Kennedy barely offered a glance to them as she galloped south.

She knew that Fluttershy and Silver lived closest to the north gate, that Raindawn was still on wall duty last he’d left their house, and that her waitresses and bartenders all lived near randomly across town. Her employees, she had no time to help evacuate; Raindawn, she could only pray wouldn’t be made to fight; and Fluttershy…

Kennedy shook her head as she ran, choking back the thought. Even if Fluttershy tried to dawdle, Silver would get her out, no matter what. Kennedy let that thought hold the front and center of her mind as she shoved past those still trying to bring mementos out with them, though she whispered a different thought as she went:

“You better not still be packing, Mom….”

The clangs added only to confusion on Main Street. Twilight and Rainbow waded through even more ponies than in the plaza on their way out, the madness only compounded by the worsening weather. Though both of them were slogging, Twilight glanced back constantly to make sure she wasn’t getting too far ahead of Rainbow, who was dragging behind despite how hard she pressed her three functional limbs.

Besides them, nearly everyone else on the road was pulling along luggage, some of them tag-teaming whole trunks on their backs. None of them were yet heading to the gates, as best Twilight could tell—looking around again, she still wasn’t sure which way to even go.

A shiver ran down her rump as if something touched her. Twilight turned around with a vengeance, but saw just a faint green wisp vanish into the rain behind her. She sighed in relief a moment later, however, as she saw Zecora and Pinkie sloshing toward them from the same direction. Pinkie waved hard, stopping until when she got close enough to throw a cheerful hoof over Rainbow’s back.

“So it turns out the bell isn’t a good sign now either, and we’re probably about to die again if we don’t hurry—you girls ready to go?”

The clangs echoed just as loud toward the south gate. Even amongst the ponies already near, only a few were already heading out, their most precious belongings in tow. Applejack was now the only pony helping Fluttershy along, keeping at least a barrier between them and the frantic citizens running past.

She hushed Fluttershy, the old mare still crying as she looked back in the direction of the plaza. Applejack kept her gaze forward as they jostled through the street, pushing through those still dragging bags and suitcases.

She kept a steady pace, not letting the mud nor Fluttershy’s sobs slow her. Neither did she look back. Applejack put a hoof to her face as the rain gusted ahead, pushing away the loose strands of her mane. She narrowed her gaze, grumbling too quiet for Fluttershy to hear.

“Better bring back my hat, fella. Still owe you a supper for it.”

The clangs were heard just a few side roads from the north gate. Derby stood before Fluttershy’s house, knocking quickly on the door. She glanced to the rest of the street often, everyone else already fleeing. She could see some kind of light flashing in the sky to the north when she looked there, too.

She knocked again, grimacing as she tapped her hooves on the porch. Maybe Fluttershy wasn’t home? Gods, but if she was, it’d be really terrible to leave her. And she told Raindawn she’d check up on his mother, and she wasn’t going to break a promise to him.

Someone hit her shoulder as they fled, knocking her whole body into the door. Derby scowled back at them as she regained her balance, but thought better of wasting her time yelling back. They were just evacuating, after all. Like she should be doing. She knocked again, still frowning.

“Rainy, you owe me for this hard!”

The clangs continued across the north field, though the sound was gone from the ears of those flying. The militia blew over the field like their very own storm, every pegasus holding the formation perfectly despite the winds pressing around them. They flew over cover of lightning, every unicorn on the wall zapping bolts of electricity across the field toward the corpse eaters.

The whole troupe of corpse eaters were forced to keep up a magic wall against the assault. Regalia was the only unicorn on the hill who saved her energy. She watched the wall as reinforcements arrived atop it—but instead of joining against the corpse eaters, the newcomers’ spells were aimed at their student allies. The coverfire ended as everyone atop the wall flung their spells at each other, crying for help.

The corpse eaters lowered their magic wall and turned back toward those in the sky. They shot the same electric bolts, each attack arcing through the rain right into the students’ airborne charge, torching every pegasus with a flash and a scream. Lightning streamed from the hill as the militia fell, charred husks dropping across the field beside clattering spears.

Regalia looked above the wall next, her gaze set upon the sky itself, eyes glowing as bright as anything on the hill. The wind billowed her mane back, blue streaks whipping about within it, and her horn glowed next. A deep orange emanated from her body, concentrating in her horn, until it smoldered with magical power. Regalia finally smiled.

“Your chance is over, Twilight. Burn in hell.”

The bell was now the last thing on Line’s mind as he reached the north gate, Raindawn’s station. The only way up the wall for those without wings was a precarious set of wooden planks extruding from the stone, which Line took several seconds in struggling up. He grimaced on the last steps, still not even sure how to drag his little brother away from his post in the middle of a battle.

Line reached the top determined to do just that anyway. But as he looked around atop the wall, he saw only two other ponies still alive there with him. Neither of them were Raindawn, but he recognized both—and he didn’t have the chance to ask them what they were doing there before a bolt shot through his chest.

All his senses spun around, and for a moment he didn’t even feel it as he fell back off the wall. The mud didn’t cushion anything. The next moment, nothing quite felt right in his body. Something was twisted, and his stomach felt so hot that—oh. It had a hole burned through it.

Line felt his hat lifting from his head next, even though his body wasn’t telling him that sensation was as important. He looked back from himself up to the wall, his hat levitating within the pink glow of Frills’ magic. She stood at the edge of the wall, leering down at him with a smirk, as Rock ambled up beside her. Frills plopped the hat atop her partner’s head as she bid farewell to their last victim.

“Sorry, partner. Wrong place, wrong time.”

The clangs kept ringing slower, only the bell’s momentum keeping it swinging. Even the ringer was fleeing, though she was too late.

Kennedy wasn’t. She galloped out the south gate ahead of almost everyone, slowing only to look around for family. All of the evacuees were doing similar, waiting and watching for their friends.

“Gold!”

Fluttershy tottered up from her side, embracing Kennedy. Applejack trotted up near, keeping an eye.

“Oh, gods, Mom,” Kennedy said, nuzzling her head into Fluttershy’s neck. “I’m so sorry, I’m—I’m so glad you’re safe. I’m just so glad. Where’s Silver?”

“That Silver fella is getting that Rainy kid,” Applejack said. “And if they don’t show up soon—”

Thunder cut her off, but it wasn’t from lightning. Everyone looked back to town. An orange light rocketed into the sky from just beyond Ponyville, exploding again into the clouds over it. Every cloud turned red from the inside out, and a moment later, the rain turned to fire. Every drop was alight, like a curtain of flame draping around the town’s wall. An eruption fell over Ponyville.

Raindawn escaped without time to spare, his wings a little bit on fire as he burst over the wall, Derby in the crooks of his forelegs. He crashed head-first into the mud, both that and the rain quenching him, as he spilled Derby at a roll.

He spit the wet earth out from his mouth even before he shook off his tie. As Kennedy and Fluttershy rushed to him, he looked back to Derby and called, “Well… I think that makes us even.”

Kennedy pulled him back up into her grasp, holding him tight. Raindawn’s head hung over her shoulder as he hugged a little bit. Fluttershy stood over both of them, knees shaking as she looked into Raindawn’s eyes. He looked back at her, smiling, until he saw that it wasn’t just rain on her cheeks. Fluttershy fell to the ground, her eyes clenched shut, but her mouth open. Her scream joined only more from the other broken families that escaped.

Derby remained splayed in the mud several meters behind, her hair a wet mess. She ignored it, instead watching the family. Her eyes widened as she looked to each member, seeing only the three, and she turned back to town as her own tears started. “Oh, no…”

Even as the rain poured over everyone outside, the walls and everything within burned. Even the mud boiled. Applejack watched as well, her eyes fixed upon the gate. She gritted her teeth, steadying herself even as her gaze narrowed—until another light shone through the flames.

A power bubble parted the molten curtain, thousands of embers bouncing off it from every angle as Twilight, horn and eyes aglow, hovered through the gate with Rainbow, Pinkie Pie, and Zecora tucked beside her. She dropped the bubble just another meter out from the gate, dumping herself and her friends into the sweet outside as Applejack came running.

“What the hell kind of spell is that?” Rainbow grunted, pushing herself back up. “Seriously, how—like, who can even do that? Why? We really could have died again! We could have—”

Applejack’s face stopped her. They all looked from her over to Fluttershy, in a heap together with her two children. Rainbow gulped. “Oh.”

Only Pinkie went to Fluttershy, leaning down and offering a hoof around her. Twilight looked around at everyone else; most that had made it outside were now grieving. Of the thousands in Ponyville, of how many had joined the town since decades past, only a few dozen had escaped. Only a few dozen refugees at all.

The plan had been simple. Go to Ponyville, get Fluttershy, read up on the bloodlust. The plan had been a straight line. The plan had never failed so horribly before.

“This will get only harder,” Zecora said, looking toward Fluttershy. “We cannot make her continue with us.”

Twilight looked to Applejack and Rainbow first, only the fire’s flickers showing them each other, but Applejack shook her head. Though she didn't argue, Twilight's voice cracked as she looked back to Zecora and said, “Then what was this for?”