Our Days are Numbered

Rainbow Dash

Things were going much better with Pilot around, we didn’t have to hide from the robots anymore because of his skills with that sword (which he told me was called a Rapier) and my speed. We made a really good team. It wasn’t long before we were able to get out of ponyville and onto the road that led to Fluttershy’s place. It didn’t seem like there was anything trying to block our way so we had a nice little chat while heading down the road, and I had one question I had to get out of my mind.

“Pilot, would you mind explaining what this essence thing is to me?” From what it seemed, the reason those things were here was because of this force and I wanted to know exactly why they would want something like this.

“I should have known you would have asked me that,” He start “I guess you could say that essence is the very thing that allows us to exist. Without essence, none of the minerals needed to form planets and stars would exist. There are many different forms of essence, but only a few kind be used by mortal souls. There are the normal elemental ones like fire, ice, water, earth. and ect. but also others. Time essence, for example, is what keeps everything moving. You remember that Monochrome thing I used against some of those machines back their?” I nodded my head in reply. “That was me using essence to stop time, I can’t do it for more than a few seconds because we’re mortal and our minds can’t take that kind of energy,”

I was shocked at this information. I get that he would have been able to do it for that long, but the fact that this meant unicorns aren’t the only thing that can use magic was a big surprise. Wait, if essence can manipulate time and cause spontaneous bursts of fire to come into existence, then did that mean that magic was actually essence? I didn’t really know but it seemed to make since.

“There is also something known as essence enhancement that only a few people could use,” Pilot continued on “When a person is superior in a certain area of expertise they can use essence to enhance that skill even further. It is very rare to see someone with this ability but I do know some people that can use it. So you’re ability to break the sound barrier without injury is probably due to you having that ability to use essence enhancement. If that's the case, however, then that means all of your kind is special and has the ability to use it,”

Oh, so that’s why he said I was using essence when I showed them the sonic rainboom. If he is right, and all ponies, pegasus, and unicorn have their talents because of essence, then this was an amazing breakthrough for our species. However, it also explained something else. It explains why these machines saw us a resource.

“That's explains why they are gathering us up then. This essence is a much more powerful resource then I imagined,” Pilot stopped as he heard this.

“Their gathering you as a resource?” He asked in monotone voice. He kind of scared me a little when he said that. I don’t know why but he seemed to be trying to hold something back, something he didn’t want me to see. He finally looked at me like he has been for the time we have been traveling together. “They must be making some sort of machine or device, but who in their right mind would ever using a living being as a resource” He started running, a look of worry now on his face. “Quick, we gotta get them as soon as possible,”

Haydn

We were now out of ponyville as we made our way to the home of Rainbow Dash’s friend Applejack. The road seemed to have been completely surrounded by apple trees, many of which seemed to have been destroyed with squashed apples on the ground. If this pony managed to survive this, I will honestly be impressed. We had started running as soon as we saw the destroyed trees, hoping we weren’t too late.

After some time we came to a wooden arch with a sign on it that read “Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres”. This was the place that pegasus had told us about, it had to be. When we arrived it didn’t seem like any of those machines had yet to show up, or had already left with Applejack and whoever else was on this farm in tow. Ellith seemed like she was about to speak when we saw something fly past us and crash through a pile of hay and into a nearby fence. With a look I saw the body of a Orange pony with blond hair and a cowboy like hat. She also had a tattoo of three apples somehow showing through her fur.

“Where the hay did these crazy beast come from?” She spoke out with a southern accent. Skyler rushed over to check on her before she could get up. I took one look over to the left to see another one of those strange machines, blood stained on its claw-like arms.

I looked behind it as it came closer to see if I could find a cause for the blood, as the orange pony seemed unharmed except for a few bruises. It wasn’t that long until I saw the body of a red pony, dead on the ground with a terrifying gash in his stomach. I suddenly wished that Pilot was here, he diffenently would have had a fun time tearing this thing apart.

“Haydn,” Ellith yelled, standing beside the orange pony and Skyler. “You help out Skyler with checking her wounds, I’ll handle the pile of rusted bolts behind you,” Knowing I didn’t stand a chance without a weapon, I stood aside and let Ellith handle the enemy.

Ellith

I walked past Haydn and stood ready to face the enemy as it came towards me. The thing seemed to notice I wanted to fight and immediately launched towards me and great speed. I quickly dodged the attack and threw a good blast from my hand cannon at it to knock it back. I didn’t seem as fragile as the one we saw when we first came in contact with Rainbow Dash, as it merely seemed to push it back instead of falling into pieces. It after came straight back throwing more quick jabs at me. I wasn’t use to fighting by myself but I was quick enough to dodge its attacks.

After a few more rounds of this I finally started to feel fatigue come to my body, the stupid robot still standing there in front of me. The robot didn’t seem to be feeling any wear and tear from the fight and once again got ready to launch its claws into me. That's when I heard a bullet zoom past me and hit my enemy, hitting it right in the middle of the head. It bent backwards as sparks started to fly out of its body, before eventually hitting the ground. I looked behind me to see Skyler give me a thumbs up, rifle in her hands.

I took one last look to make sure the robot was offline before heading over to the orange pony and joining the others. “Thanks y’all, that thing came out of nowhere and started attacking us,” The pony said, tired “Name’s Applejack, might I ask who and what you guys are?”

I sighed as I heard her name, didn’t seem like we were too late after all. “I’m Ellith,” I introduced myself before adding “and these are Haydn and Skyler. Rainbow Dash told us to go find you, ponyville was attacked by the same enemy you were,”

Applejacks eyes widened with distress. “Is everyone okay? did you find Apple Bloom?”

I didn’t really know who to answer this, Pilot is usually the one dealing with situations like this. “Apple Bloom and her friends are safe, and Rainbow Dash is with a friend of mine, they are going to try and find Fluttershy at her place. We didn’t make it in time to save anyone else. Sorry,”

“Everyone?” She asked, I simply nodded. Her eyes started watering “Twilight, Pinkie, Rarity, all of them. How,” She burst into tears. “How did this happen,”

Pilot

“Hello,” I yelled into the cottage. Me and Rainbow Dash had reach Fluttershy’s house not long after we started running. The place seemed abandoned from the looks of it, but Rainbow seemed sure that she was here. “Are you sure she is here Rainbow Dash, the entire place looks empty to me”

“I’m sure she’s here, she’s just probably hiding. Fluttershy is scared easily so I bet she is curled up somewhere scared half to death, that's all,” If there was one thing about Rainbow Dash that bugged me, it was her inability to understand what to say and what not to say. She didn’t really seem to understand fear all that well, despite what state she was in when she got on the topic of what happened to her during the attack. I would have explained this to her if we didn’t hear something, or someone to be more specific nearby.

I looked under the nearby bed to see a scare yellow and pink pegasus under the bed. Even though I hate to admit it, Rainbow was right about her being scared half to death. Knowing what might happen if I spoke loudly, I tried to calming talk to her. “Um… excuse me” was all I got out before the pegasus bolt from under the bed and behind Dash. Guess me speaking was the problem to begin with.

“P-p-p-lease d-don’t hurt me,” She spoke softly and just loud enough for me to hear “I p-p-p-romise to behave,”

“It’s okay Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash said trying to reassure her “This is Pilot, he helped me out of a tight spot,”

Fluttershy took a peek at me from behind Rainbow before stepping out. Her entire body was shivering with fear. I made a note to wait for her to calm down before explaining to her what had happened. She was already terrified, and I didn’t want to do anything to make it worse (if that was even possible). I was about to speak before Asa spoke to me from the rescue ship we landed here on.

“Pilot are you there?” I motioned to Dash and Fluttershy to wait a minute before replying over the radio.

“Yes, I found another pony. Looks like this is the last of one in this area. We’re ready for pickup,”

“Got it, I just picked up Haydn and the others, they have Applejack with them. I’ll be there in a few,” After that Asa turned the radio off.

I looked back to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. Rainbow was telling her what was going on and that they won’t be coming back to Equestria for some time. She looked at me before turning to Rainbow Dash and whispering something to her. I decided to sit down on the floor and wait for the rescue ship.

“Um… Mr. Pilot?” Fluttershy said with the same quiet voice as earlier. “Sorry to ask, but what is this place you are taking use to? Are other ponies there as well?”

“Well, if you want to know where, it’s a city up in space called New Haven, and a lot of refugees from Equin are there as well,” I started to explained “New Haven is one of the safest places to be at times like this. The military forces are pretty strong, but at the same time the are many places with just ordinary civilians. Giving how there are many other species living there, fitting in shouldn’t be too bad, and the shops and homes are as nice as you can really get up in space,”

Fluttershy seemed to be calming down with the more she new, but still had one question she wanted to get out of her head. “Are we going to come back? Are you going to stop whoever it is that’s doing this?”

I gave a nod to her before replying. “Don’t worry, we'll make sure you can return home,” I crossed my heart and gave her a look of confidence before saying on final word “Promise,”

(I’ll admit, this isn’t as good as the first three chapters in terms of grammar, action, and other stuff, but I have a lot of freedom with what I can do now that the rescue mission is out of the way. So I hope you’re ready, because the next few chapters are going to be touching on a lot of important things and the last of the main characters, at least for the time, are going to be showing up. See you next chapter everyone!)