Rotting Away

The news would be impossible to contain; a sick pony, being hauled off by the Princess, only to vanish, not to mention half of the caboose suddenly going missing. Twilight needed to make a choice, and she thought quickly to solve the problem. Entering the next cart, she peered over the concerned ponies, who all seemed slightly taken aback by the princess.

“Don’t worry. There was a monster, disguised as a pony, on the train.” She moved a little further in, feigning a relieved sigh. “I made sure she got off and won’t be a danger to us anymore.” The sigh, though fake, proved contagious and flowed through the crowd. “But she put up a fight and the train has taken some damage. So, please, avoid the caboose. It’s unsafe right now.” Twilight’s friends bundled together, Spike joining the group silently.

“I uh… Heard there was some trouble. Is everypony okay?” The dragon looked up to the others, who stayed silent, but nodded. Joining in the silence, Spike turned to watch Twilight as she left, noticing a difference in the way she was walking. She had a faint tremble over her body and she seemed uneasy. Spike went to support her, but Applejack put a hoof in his way, keeping him back.

“Give her some time, Spike. She ain’t too okay right now. I reckon she’ll want a bit of time to think.” Applejack slid Spike back a little, not looking from Twilight, until she’d vanished past the crowd and into the next car. “Did y’all see what I saw?”

“If by that, you mean Twilight completely destroying the caboose and a pony die, come back and try to kill us, then yeah, I saw it.” Rainbow Dash chimed in under her breath, moving to Applejack’s side. “Why?”

“Nah, I meant her face. Her eyes were dead, glassy. Twilight’s I mean, not the… Dead one.” She shifted in place nervously, keeping her voice low. “You think she’s okay? That can’t be an easy thing to do, even if she didn’t mean to do it.” Focusing her eyes back, Applejack looked to her friends. “We’ll talk to her once we’re all safe in Canterlot. Okay?” The group nodded, confident in each other and sure they could help Twilight back onto her feet from any danger. “She’s still our Twilight. Ain’t nothin’s changin’ that.”

Twilight continued through the train, stumbling over a lot of the Ponyville residents. Familiarity brought a kind of relaxation to Twilight’s heart, making her trembling slow to a stop.

She couldn’t believe what had just happened. Violence was never the way of Equestria, but what was she supposed to do? It was kill or be killed, a situation like nothing she’d ever seen before. These things had no reason, no mind of their own to drive them, only a cold, baseless instinct. Biting her lip, she continued to think, the world around her fading away as she considered possibilities; a bite had induced a fatal sickness, which caused transformation, so there was that bit of knowledge learned. How long was the incubation period? How long until the symptoms became fatal? Was it different per pony? Was this all hopeless? What could she do!?

“Yo, Twilight!” Twilight’s fatalism was interrupted by the familiar voice of Vinyl Scratch. The brightly colored mare grinned, glasses resting on her horn, leaving her eyes uncovered. “Hey, we’re good to go wherever we want when we get to Canterlot, right? Me and Neon wanna find Tavi.” Neon smiled as his oldest friend spoke, stepping closer to Twilight, putting him right beside Vinyl.

“She means Octavia, of course.” He grinned, laughing. “Not everypony knows our old nicknames, Vinyl.” Neon nudged his friend, who grinned back at him, tossing a hoof over his shoulders in a playful gesture.

“Anyway, we wanted to go hook up with Tavi. She was in Canterlot for a big concert. We couldn’t go before, but looks like plans cleared up.” She laughed so genuinely, not knowing that, only a few cars away, a pony had just died. In a way, their blissful ignorance helped Twilight’s mind ease up a little.

“I don’t see why not. You three won’t be vital to building up the defenses. Just be sure to bring her back once you finish, alright?” Twilight said, keeping calm. Vinyl laughed as she turned to Neon.

“You think she’ll be expecting us? We could drop in on her and bring the Princess along. That’d throw her for a loop! She’d stammer over her words like a baby!” Vinyl chuckled after her words, Neon joining her. He opened his mouth to talk, but simply shook his head and laughed harder for a few seconds.

“You’re horrible, Vinyl,” He chuckled through tears of laughter. “What’s next, more clowning around with hot sauce?”

Twilight left the two friends, noticing Lyra out of the corner of her eye. It was obvious the aqua equine wanted to speak to the others. Twilight had known for a while that Lyra had always looked up to Octavia. When she wasn’t with Bon-Bon or studying ancient mythological civilizations, Lyra enjoyed her music, practicing with the hopes of performing in Canterlot one day. Octavia was a musician who reached that goal with little effort, only a year after her graduation from Canterlot University.

Twilight offers the pony a smile, her horn glowing faintly. Lyra let out a little yelp as she was nudged into the conversation at hoof. The shyness melted away as the three talked, Twilight heading further up the train.

Derpy Hooves and Time Turner, or ‘Doc’ as ponies sometimes called him, had gravitated together, as they always seemed to do; close friends, even with so little in common. The two were silently looking out the windows, passing the time with silent company. Even Twilight needed to admit, sometimes in dark times, that was the best kind of company a pony could ask for. As Twilight watched, she saw Dinky Hooves, Derpy’s little filly, jump up beside her mother, squeezing between the two to look out over the landscape. Twilight felt like she was intruding, watching such touching sight, quietly moving on and leaving the three alone.

While Twilight was walking towards the next car, the Cutie Mark Crusaders came bustling out, chatting out what they would do in Canterlot. Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle still had yet to find their talents. Ever eager to learn about who they were, the three were still regular troublemakers around Ponyville, but never intentionally. Their resolve had been tested over and over, and yet they never gave up. Twilight was more than proud of the three.

Progress through the train was slow, but filled with sights like those: ponies coming together in a time of hardship. But Twilight knew that if they knew just how severe things were, ponies would start to crumble. She worried about the day when she’d need to tell them all the truth. As she walked, she started to hear shouts. It was the Mayor, pushing her way through from the front of the train.

“Princess Twilight! Twilight, please hurry! You need to see this!” As Twilight began to move, she heard gasps behind her, as ponies began to crowd to the windows. A sickening feeling settled in Twilight’s gut at this and she looked towards a window. Ponies moved aside to make room for the princess to see.

It was Canterlot, off in the distance, magical bursts striking here and there among flaming buildings. A dark-blue barrier shimmered over the inner ring of the city and the outer ring was in shambles. Blasts of blue and black energy, which Twilight recognized as Luna’s magic, crashed into the buildings, setting them ablaze.

“No. No no no no!” It took several moments for the images to settle in Twilight’s mind. She’d been too slow, and now Canterlot was under attack. And worst of all, the train would stop amidst the chaos! Hurrying back to her friends, Twilight passed all the ponies she’d just seen, seeing the world in a new, darker light. The CMC were being lead into a large group by Cheerilee, who was calming all the children as best as she could. Derpy and the Doctor were closer, eyes filled with worry, Dinky squished between them, staring at Canterlot with wide, uncomprehending eyes. Twilight had never seen an expression like that on Derpy’s face. Fear burned in her mismatched eyes and it made Twilight even more desperate.

She passed into the next car, and was immediately met with shouts. Vinyl, who only minutes before had been laughing, had discarded her glasses, tears streaming from her eyes as she cried, pounding on a window with her hooves. She was screaming for Octavia, begging her to be alright. Neon quietly placed a hoof on her back, while Lyra remained distant and silent now. Quietly, Twilight slipped past, hurrying towards her friends.

“You.” Twilight looked back towards Vinyl, who had turned her eyes on the alicorn princess. “This is all your fault!” Twilight’s blood froze in her veins. “You came to Ponyville! You stopped and rounded us up! You should’ve come here!” The white mare motioned to the window, at the burning capital. “I swear, if anything happened to Tavi, I’ll-” Neon stepped in, putting a hoof in front of his friend.

“Vinyl, stop it. Princess Twilight did everything in her power. She saved us all and now she’s going to do her best and try to save Canterlot.” He turned to her, lifting his glasses to gaze at her with confident, if scared, eyes. Twilight was trembling, paled and nervous.

Twilight had said her magic wouldn’t have gotten her far. But in truth, that was a delusion, nothing more than a self-deception. Twilight knew, deep down, that she could’ve made it to Canterlot. She could have skipped over Ponyville and warped to the capital, to Princess Luna, with the news about Appleloosa. But she had stopped on purpose, to save the ponies she knew and loved. What if this was her fault?

Lowering her head, Twilight turned to leave, heading towards the rear cars. Vinyl went to shout at her again, but Neon moved to calm her down. Twilight’s friends had retreated to the caboose, given the situation. They knew Twilight would want to speak with them. Heading through the last door, Twilight entered in to see her friends.

“The worst has happened. Canterlot is under attack. We need to get into that barrier, without stopping at the station. It’s outside the safety of the walls of magic.” Twilight was quick, to the point and sounded confident, even if she looked defeated. “I’m thinking that the only way would be a combined effort from all the unicorns on the train. We need to lift the train off the tracks and into the barrier. It’s the only way I can think of on such short notice.”

Chewing on her lip, Twilight looked out to the approaching battle, before the train ducked into a tunnel. Turning to her friends, she sighed. “I suggest we dislocate any cars we can. The less weight the better. Then, Everypony will need to work together to lift the train.”

“This is a good idea in theory…” Rarity spoke up, a quizzical look on her face. “But that’s a long way to carry something as heavy as a train. And with everything going on, there will be a lot of distractions. I don’t know if we can do it, Twilight.”

“We have to try, don’t we?” Rainbow Dash nudged Rarity as she spoke, grinning. “It’s the only thing we got right now. It’s our best shot, even if it’s a shot in the dark.” Rarity closed her eyes, thinking, and then nodded.

“You’re right. You’re absolutely right. Quickly, we don’t have time to waste. Everypony, inside.” As one, the ponies moved into the next car. Rarity stayed back a moment, in the space between the two cars, using her magic to dislodge the caboose from the rest of the train. As its speed dropped and it rolled off down the tracks, Rarity turned back into the packed cart. Twilight was already telling the ponies what needed to be done and to pass the message up the carts. All of her friends volunteered to move through the cars and announce the plan to every unicorn they could find. Twilight took this time now to teleport out of the back of the train, warping to the front. Once she was up to the engineer, - an earth pony named Full Steam - she explained the plan to him. With a nervous nod, he agreed. The other pony in the car, All Aboard, the conductor, looked ready to do whatever was needed.

“Two minutes till we arrive at the station…” Twilight spoke out loud to herself, taking a deep breath. She counted down in her head, knowing her magic would be the cue for others to join in. Running out of things to count down, Twilight tensed and her horn glowed brightly, overflowing with energy. She strained, for only a moment, before the train seemed to become lighter.

With a loud rattling, it lifted off the tracks, soaring through the air. Twilight was proud of her plan for a few moments, before the realization of landing – or the lack of any plan to do so – struck her. “Full Steam…” The engineer looked over as Twilight said his name. “Get back into the cars. This is going to be messy. You too, All Aboard. Tell everypony to brace themselves.”

Hurriedly, the two ponies scrambled from the car. Twilight watched through the front of the train and saw the barrier, drawing ever closer, open up slightly to allow the train in. Twilight was relieved Luna had noticed them. That was one fear, gone, but now Twilight had to steer the train to soft ground.

The gardens of the castle seemed like the only place she could bring down the train at this point, safely. She knew Fluttershy would have objections, were she around, but she knew she had little choice otherwise.

Concentrating her energies, Twilight pulled the train up, lifting it higher into the air. It soared just off the ground, magical auras of all colors spiraling around it as the unicorns on board pooled their energy.

With a great heave, the train slipped through the barrier, which snapped closed behind them. The train buckled awkwardly, descending rapidly and crashing among the foliage of the garden in a spectacular display. The magic shielded the train as best as it could, hopefully keeping the ponies inside safe. Now wasn’t the time to worry about that though. The others could help unload the ponies. Twilight needed to see Luna about what was happening, right now.