The Equestrian War

     It had been about two months after Apple Bloom's death, and it had left us all with great despair.  Ever since Apple Bloom had died, we became extra careful when letting new survivors in the group.  From then on, every survivor had to be checked to see if they weren't disguised as a changeling. The group was beginning to lose hope, and if we didn't do something fast we were all going to perish.  The last plan we had was to gather an army, but for the past two months, the changelings were growing by the numbers and our group at that time was in no shape for a fight.  We did manage to sneak into town a few times and we found some survivors.  One of them was my assistant, Spike, he was a baby dragon whom I had raised ever since he was a hatchling.  Spike was hiding out in an abandoned store, when we found him he was nearly on the verge of death, but we managed to nurse him back to health.

     We also found Applejack and her family, only Granny Smith was not with them.  Applejack and her brother, Big McIntosh, hid themselves in their barn.  Big Mac had nearly broken his back after being crushed by falling rubble, and when we found them, he could hardly get up, so I helped Applejack carry him back to our base.  Applejack was not injured, but she was quite upset after losing her grandmother.  I could not bare the thought of telling them about what happened to their little sister.  I had to be the one to tell them, because I was the one who failed to keep their baby sister safe.  When I told them, they both became overcome with grief, and they hardly spoke to us afterwards.

     Now two months has gone by, and we haven't had much luck in finding survivors.  Thankfully, we haven't lost anypony, and we are starting to regain some hope, but it's not safe to go out yet.  The whole experience felt like as if we are waiting out a storm, and that it was going to clear up soon, or that this situation we found ourselves in was nothing but a horrible nightmare.  I thought about the possibility of this being nothing but a dream, but the truth of the matter was, that it was all real. I also had to except that this would definitely not be over anytime soon.

     I began thinking about my family, about my big brother, Shining Armor, and about my mother and father.  I could only hope that they were safe as well.  I also thought about my other friends, and wondered where they were, and if they were safe.

     We all sat silently around the camp fire, as we kept our thoughts to ourselves.  There were now eight of us in the group, me, Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, Rose, Cheerilee, Applejack, Big Mac, and Spike.  We lost Thunderlane when we tried to escape Ponyville, and a changeling disguised as him came back in his place.  When we went back into Ponyville a few times, we searched for Thunderlane, but we found no trace of him.

     I look over and see Rainbow Dash comforting Scootaloo, this whole experience can't be easy on her.  I'm just glad she's got Rainbow to take care of her.  She's always looked to her as her big sister, and as far as I know, she doesn't have any other family members.  Rose and Cheerilee just sat and stared at the burning flames of the camp fire.  Big Mac went to bed early, saying that his back was hurting and that he needed to lay down.  Applejack was the first one to break the silence.

     "So, what's the plan?" she asked unexpectedly.

     It took me a while to realize that she was talking to me, "What?" I replied, a little confused.

     "You know, what are we gonna do?  How are we gonna get into Ponyville?  We can't just stay here in the forest."  Applejack explained.

     "Applejack, we are in no position to do anything at the moment, we're all hurting, we need more time." I replied.

     "Shoot Twilight, it's been two months, what are we gonna do, just wait here for the changelings to come and attack us?  We need a plan."  Applejack said with the sound of encouragement in her voice.

     Although I still felt like we weren't ready to go and look for more survivors, Applejack did have a point, we couldn't just sit there and do nothing.  If there were more survivors out there, we may have been their only hope for survival.  I thought the matter over for a second or two, and finally said.

     "Alright, we'll go.  We leave first thing in the morning.  But I don't want anypony dragging around tomorrow, so everypony make sure you get some good rest tonight."  And with that, we put the fire out and everypony went to sleep. Everypony else was sleeping, except for me.  All I could do was look up into the darkness and wonder why this all had to happen to us.  I tried not to think about it too much, so I just turned to my side and closed my eyes.  But then another thought went through my mind, I began to recall that horrible night of when I saw Apple Bloom's dead body on the cold ground. I barely slept that night, all I could do was cry.

     The next morning, everypony was up and about getting ready for our little trip into Ponyville. There was only one who was not up, and that was Spike. He was always the kind to sleep in. I decided that I had better go and wake him up, so I went over to where he was sleeping.

     "Alright Spike, get up, it's time to go." I said, nudging at him to get up.

     "I'm not going." he responded.

     "Why not?  We need you Spike, we need everypony's help, now please get up."

     "You didn't seem to need me before." Spike said as he rolled back on his side, facing away from me.

     "What are you talking about Spike? What do you mean by that?" I responded.

     "Just exactly what I said, you didn't need me before, and you don't need me now!"

     "Spike, I don't know what you're talking about, but I need you to come with us, we need your help, in this tragic situation we need all the help we can get."

     "Then why didn't you try to save me!?" he screamed at me with tears in his eyes.

     "Spike, what do you mean why didn't I try and save you?"

     "You know what I mean!  You left me to die in that abandoned store!  I stayed there for two months living in fear that I could die at any second, and you weren't there for me!" Then Spike began sobbing and started choking through his tears.  "When this whole mess broke out, you didn't even attempt to try and find me.  You didn't look for me, so you obviously didn't need me, so why do you need me now!?"  I stood there speechless, as he was crying, not knowing what to say.  "I thought you loved me Twilight, I thought you cared for me, I thought you would be there for me, but you weren't."

     "Spike, I have always loved you, and I will always love you, don't ever think that I don't care for you because I do, I really do."

     "Then why didn't you try to find me when the attacks started?"

     "Believe me Spike, I wanted to find you, and all of my other friends, but I had to find the group safety first. I know I could've done better, and I know you probably hate me for abandoning you, but I never wanted to. I'm sorry Spike, please forgive me, I'll protect you from now on, okay?" I said to him as I wiped the tears from his eyes.

     "Okay." and with that we hugged each other and we cherished that moment, for we knew what we were going to walk into when going back to what was left of Ponyville.  With that, we gathered up anything that we needed and headed on out.

     As we stepped out from the Everfree Forest, I looked over at Fluttershy's abandoned cottage, still just as torn apart as the first time we saw it.  On our first trip back into Ponyville, we looked in the cottage to see if we could find Fluttershy, but there was no trace of her to be found.  All of her animal friends were gone, and the whole interior of her home, which was once very warm and inviting, was now in shambles. Broken pieces of furniture laid scattered across the floor of her cottage, as if something came in uninvited, and tried to attack her.  I could only hope that she somehow managed to get away.

     We moved on into Ponyville, or what was left of it.  With each visit into the small little town we used to call home, the town just seems to be decaying more and more.  But something about this visit is different, there are no more changelings.  Where did they all go?  As far as we all knew, this invasion only occurred in Ponyville, unless the changelings are taking over other parts of Equestria as well, which the very thought of scares me to death.  But we stopped them once when they took over Canterlot, and I am positive that we can do it again. However, the only difference between the invasion that happened in Canterlot and the one happening right now, is that the changelings have become more...ruthless.  I found that out when I saw what they did to Apple Bloom.  Why was I so stupid to just let a changeling disguised as Thunderlane slip under my nose so easily.  It's my fault Apple Bloom's dead.  It's all my fault.

     "Hello!" Rainbow Dash yelled, interrupting my inner thoughts. I immediately covered her mouth.

     "Rainbow, what are you doing? Do you want the changelings to know where we are?" I told her in a quiet whisper. We stood there silently for a moment, waiting for a group of changelings to attack us at any second.  But nothing came.

     "What's your problem Twilight? I was calling to see if there was anypony around." Rainbow said as if she felt offended.  But right now I was more worried about where all the changelings were. It didn't make sense.  Did they just leave?  I looked around and saw that there was not a changeling to be seen. Come to think of it, where did all the bodies go? When we last left Ponyville, there were bodies of ponies lying in the street, and now all of a sudden they've all just disappeared.  Did the changelings do something with the bodies before leaving?

     "W-Where did all the changelings go?" Rose asked, shaking a little.

     "I don't know, but I say good riddance!" Rainbow said, making sure that everypony heard her.

     "Well this is good news y'all! If there are no more changelins', then that must mean that everypony left in town must of fought them all off!" Applejack stated.

     "Well if that's the case, then where is everypony?" I said turning to Applejack, and then it suddenly dawned onto everypony that not only were all of the changelings gone, but all of the ponies as well.  No changelings.  No bodies.  No ponies.  This was all getting too strange, and it was making everypony feeling uncomfortable.

     "Alright, here's what we'll do, we have to check all of Ponyville, there have to be survivors out there.  Cheerilee, Rose, you two will go to the Ponyville Schoolhouse and look.  Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo, you'll go and check Sugarcube Corner.  Me and Spike will go from house to house looking for survivors.  Applejack and Big Mac, you two go and scope out Sweet Apple Acres for anypony.  When we're all finished looking, we'll all meet up at Sweet Apple Acres.  Everypony got that?" I said trying to be as hopeful as possible.

     "Yes ma'am." Everypony said before taking off.  Once everypony had left, it was just me and Spike.

     "I think we should start looking in the town hall, to see if anypony is in there, and then after we look there, we'll start in town square and then just expand to the rest of town, alright." I said to Spike, making sure to see if he was listening.

     "Yeah, I got it." I began to walk away, until I felt him tug on my tail.  "Twilight, I'm sorry I yelled at you, I was just under a lot of stress."

     "It's alright Spike." I said giving him a reassuring smile.

     We searched the town hall to find just as torn apart as the rest of Ponyville, and seeing as how all the changelings were gone, I saw no reason to not call out to see if anypony was there.

     "Hello!" I yelled, hearing my own voice echoing from the walls on the inside.  There was no response.  We searched and searched but we could find nopony.  This concerned me because it seemed kind of odd that nopony would be hiding out in here.  I thought that the town hall would be the first place everypony would go.  We checked the whole interior of the town hall and there was no sign of life.  We then moved out into the town square.  We double checked every cottage. We yelled and shouted, just waiting for any kind of answer from anywhere, but it never came.  There was not a living soul left in these cottages.  They were all abandoned.

     "Everypony, they're all...gone." Spike said beginning to tear up.

     "No, that can't be true Spike." I said wiping away his tears.  "The others had to have found some survivors, they just had to.  Come on, we'll go to Sweet Apple Acres and meet up with the rest."  So with that, Spike and I made our way to the farm, where we could see everypony standing by the barn waiting for us, but there was nopony else with them.  I ran to them feeling almost out of breath.

     "Didn't you find anypony else?!" I yelled, still gasping for air.

     "I'm mighty sorry Twilight, there was nopony at the Schoolhouse, nopony at Sugarcube Corner, and nopony here!  I don't know what happened, but it looks everypony we knew and loved are gone! They're all gone."  Applejack said before she began choking through her tears.  I could feel myself beginning to cry as well.  There was no way that this could happen.  There was no way that those changelings managed to kill everypony left in Ponyville.  It was just impossible.

     "Help! Can anypony hear me?! Please answer me!" I shouted as I ran all around the farm.  I must have looked like a lunatic running around screaming at the top of my lungs, but I just couldn't believe that they were all gone.  I finally gave up, I sat down in the dirt and started crying again, while everypony else just stood in silence.  Then all of a sudden I heard something very faint. I couldn't quite make out what it was, but I could hear it.

     "Do any of you hear that?" I asked the rest of the group as I stood back up.  They all began agreeing with each other as they listened and heard it as well.  It was so faint, and yet so clear.  It took awhile for me to make it out, but it sounded like somepony crying.  Not so much as sobbing, but it sounded more like, a baby crying.