Chapters Introduction : What's to Come
Introduction : What's to Come
Light filled the bedroom as Celestia woke with panting breath.
With a shallow huff, she got up from the luxurious bed and swiftly galloped to the window. She sighed in reluctant relief as she saw the sun gently start to raise in the horizon. "Luna, always eager to show me up...," she smiled as the watched the sunrise. Then, with a grim smile, she added with a hollow tired breath, "...if only tomorrow could be so pleasant."
"Oh, Celestia!" Sang Luna as she pushed open the door. "Oh, so you are awake. Sorry if I woke you up, but the sunrise doesn't have a snooze option~."
"You did a good job, but I think you might have been a few nanoseconds to early..." Celestia laughed lightly as she stared out the window. "You'll get used to it soon enough."
Luna frowned and trotted over. "Is something wrong?"
"To be honest, I couldn't sleep to well. I kept having... nightmares. But, you know of course. Always eavesdropping on your big sister's dreams..." she tiredly smiled as she watched the sun move itself over the distant buildings of Canterlot, "... I'm sure it's nothing to be worried about."
Luna blushed. "Actually, I was busy last night. I didn't even sense you were having a nightmare. How odd." She sat near the window. "Then I got up early and noticed you were not up for the day shift."
Celestia frowned. "You didn't sense anything? Not even a little?"
"No, I'm sorry."
"Well... that's a little less than comforting." Suddenly, Celestia stood up. "Do you feel that?"
"Feel what?"
"I sense some kind of wave of powerful magic. Don't you?"
Luna waited a minute, then suddenly a cold, unsettling feeling rushed through her back, the tension in the room magnifying. "Oh, I do! What is that?"
Celestia shook her head. "I knew it was to good to be true. I just knew it!"
"What is it? Was it in your dream?" Luna's eyes widened. "It is Tirek? Sombra? ... Couldn't be Discord..."
"No, no, none of them." Celestia stood up, glaring at the sunrise as a bright white light slowly overtook the sky. She then stared, blankly, in hypnotic fear. "I was wrong."
"What is that?!" Luna said, staring up at the sky as the white light faded.
"Something I've been dreading for a long time now." She trotted out to the hall, Luna fallowing behind. "Send all Guard Captains to the major cities of Equestria. Tell them to raise and maintain Alicorn level shields, and build walls just to be safe. That includes dawn and dusk guards, and the Wonderbolts. Make sure they know that the danger level is ultra high, battle lances and swords will not be enough. Open the Royal Arsenal, make those forbidden things once again. I don't want to see a single guard out there without something powerful."
"Celestia, explain to me now, what is going on? Why do we need THOSE? Was that a declaration of war? War with whom, the dragons? The deer?"
"It's a little more complicated than war, Luna. It was a... spell. Some kind of unrighteous spell to the likes never seen in millennia. If you want to put it in simple terms, yes, we are at war."
"With who?" Luna whimpered. "I... I can't think of any creature powerful enough to have that kind of blast cover Equestria!"
"You are forgetting a creature capable of that and more."
Luna paused, then nearly stopped in her steady trot. "Maybe... if there were enough unicorns... But a pony? This is an Equestrian's doing?!"
"As for whether they are Equestrian or not I am not certain. But this kind of magic is not as uncommon as you would think. They just normally are not as... " She opened doors to the Canterlot Archives, then turned in surprise to see Luna still following her in deep confusion. "Just remember, stay calm. Don't let the ponies of Equestria see you cry. It will only kill their hope."
Luna scrunched her face. "Cry? I'm not crying."
Celestia gave her a quick hug. "That's the idea. Now, hurry and get things going, the sooner we get this done the better off everypony will be. Just do as I asked, I need to be alone right now. I'll get my enchanters and court unicorns once I get a hold on the situation." She smiled. "And remember Luna. I love you." Celestia closed the doors swiftly, and Luna strained to pry them open.
"Celestia!" Luna glared, yelling as she pounded on the door with her bare hooves.
"Princess?"
Luna turned and saw two Canterlot guards following at a respectable distance, stiffening at her glance into a respectful salute. "Did you hear that?"
"Yes, your highness."
"All of it?"
"Yes. We apologize for eavesdropping."
Luna sighed, hearing the pacing hooves of her older sister. "Well, whatever is going on it has Celestia very worried. And that means that I am very worried."
"What are your orders, Princess?"
She glanced at the door, then at the two young guards. "You heard her. Do it. Now. Report back to me on anything you see happening out there. I'm still in the dark myself. Be cautious. Alert Cadence as well. I'm not sure if whatever is happening stretches to the Crystal Empire, but we all should take all precautions we can. We don't know what will happen here, and I can't get any answers out of Celestia." Luna trotted over to the window, looking at the confused citizens out on the streets of Canterlot, looking up at the sky in confusion. "And please, time is of the essence."
It was a dark morning. In a small town just off the edge of Ponyville, a young Earth Pony mare in a little bakery woke up to a blinding light filling her room from the small little window. With a yawn, she got up as the light dissipated, leaving her confused and disoriented as a harsh rapid tapping at the door woke her up.
With a tired sigh, she went to the door and was hugged by what seemed to be a strange pink blur. "Good morning, Crumb Cake!"
"That's not even close to my name. It's Autumn by the way, in case you forgot. No big deal we've only known eachother for what, ten, fifteen years?" The earth pony laughed a little. "How did you get in here anyway?"
The pink blur revealed herself to be a tall elegant pink unicorn with a bright smirk scrawled across her face. "Oh, I have my ways." She smiled, looking to the dining room window. "Did you see that light? It was so pretty! I think there was an eclipse, or maybe..."
Autumn lightly pushed her off her. "So, what do you want anyway, Rose? I just got up, you know."
"Oh, I know. I've been sitting in your kitchen waiting for you to wake up, but I just couldn't wait anymore!" Rose giggled. "By the way, your mom left this morning. She made muffins!"
With a smile, Autumn brushed past her to the dining room. "Oh, how thoughtful of her to make muffins for me." She stopped to sniff the air. "Oh, she made coffee, too?"
"Nope. that was all me. I got tired of waiting." Rose's horn glowed and levitated out a coffee cup, then quickly gave it to Autumn as she sat down at the benched off table, along with a warm muffin wrapped in a brightly decorated napkin. "Need anything else?"
"I should really tell my mom not to let just anypony into our house claiming to be my friend. That's how stalkers take pictures of me sleeping and poison my coffee." Autumn lifted an eyebrow and smirked, wiping the muffin crumbs off her muzzle. "What do you need?"
"Now, I know you don't like social events..."
"Here it goes..." Autumn rolled her eyes as she savored the delectable fresh baked muffin.
"... but it's so boring! It will be far more enjoyable with you there, please, please, please say you'll come! It's an early birthday party. For me." Rose rolled her eyes. "My mother's idea. It's her kind of excuse to show me off to all the 'eligible stallions' of the Canterlot crypt. She's hoping that I'll run off and get married to some rich pony so our family can keep it's super-duper elite status."
"As if. I'd chew off my own hoof before I'd go marry one of those stuck up Canterlot jerks. I can't imagine any of them would even be your type." Autumn took a long sip of her coffee. "Not that I really would know what your type is nowadays anyway."
"It's not really like that." Rose sighed. "Some of them are... nice. But in the end... that won't really matter." She cleared her throat. "Either way, I guess if you want to stay here... I'll just take an order..."
"Geesh, if you insist. Let me get ready and I'll take the cart to the party. Maybe I'll stay."
"Yay! But just be ready for her- Royal-highness to go off at you. The party is at the park." Rose smiled. "Actually, could you get there early? I'll run it by my mother. Don't worry, your going either way."
Not that Autumn really wanted to go anyway. She wasn't really sure why she was going to go in the first place. But, hey, at least she'd get to sit around and eat cake instead of sitting around her bedroom reading books. She debated in her head what would really be worth it, but she already knew it was set in stone. Rose just had that strange way of persuading her.
After Rose left, Autumn, still half asleep, decided to take a quick shower then load the cart and trudge her way to the inevitable. At the very least, Rose would pay her for them.
"Are you mad?!" Primm slammed her hoof in the ground for some kind of enthesis on her point. "You invited an Earth pony to the social gala? What were you thinking, Tea!"
It was midmorning and Rose already felt emotionally exhausted. "I was thinking that I would invite one of my childhood friends to my birthday party. Like a normal adult pony my age."
Primm frowned. "I will let you get away with this. For now. But young lady, we have a reputation to uphold. You can't just act like a spoiled filly who can get whatever she wants." She smiled a little. "To lighten the mood, you will be pleased to hear that Prince Dragon Blood is coming this evening~."
Rose blushed a little. "Dragon Blood?"
"Don't act like you don't know the poor stallion. Well, he's not poor, he is in fact very talented and has royal ties to the princess!"Primm nearly squealed in happiness. "And do you know what I heard? I heard that he is interested in you!"
"I know who he is." Rose glanced away.
"He is in the Royal guard, you know!"
"Yeah... I know."
"Have you been doing your exercises?"
Rose blushed even harder. "Mother!"
"What? oh, and Rose, maybe you should gain a little weight. I hear that stallions these days like a more rounded figure, that and it might help your chances to getting me grandfoals!" She smiled. "And remember to smile and be pleasant. Stallions don't like grumpy flanks." Primm looked around and noticed an earth pony trot into the park with a cart of cake, cupcakes, and other dainty assortments. "That must be that baker mare. Oh, what is she wearing!"
Rose glanced over. "She's not wearing anything."
"Exactly!" She looked away in disappointment. "Direct her to that one dressmaker friend you know. Nothing too expensive, but nothing to commoner looking. And for Celestia's sake, have her fix that rat's nest of a mane and tail."
Rose quickly trotted over. "Autumn!"
"What?" Autumn said as she set up the dessert table.
"Good news, my mother says you can stay..."
"That's good in your opinion."
"But I need to take you to Simple Stitch's. To get a dress." Rose sighed. "To be... 'refined'."
"As refined as a bleached bag of flour, got it." She decided just to go with the flow.
Autumn had passed by the dress shop every now and again- it was a small town after all with only two streets, more of just a city revolving around tourists on their way to the historic Ponyville. She never really had a reason to go in and wasn't even sure what the tailor looked like these days, despite going to school with her for years. Inside the shop was a small creamy coated unicorn with curly grey purple mane, dark blue glasses framing her face. "Oh, Rose, I'm not ready yet, I was going to wait for Star... oh, hey there Autumn!" Simple Stitch smiled as she trotted over. "It's been so long! How've you been?"
Autumn teetered uneasily. "Oh... you know. The usual."
"Oh. Well, what can I do for you? Need an outfit for a baking convention?" Simple Stitch was already flipping through racks of clothing in search of a cute apron when Rose interrupted her train of thought.
"She's going to the party too. My mom wants her to find something nice to wear." she said calmly.
"Primm is letting you go?" She was momentarily perplexed by that. "Did she say any kind of outfit in particular?"
"Something cheap yet presentable." Rose frowned. "I should go. I'll see you at the party Sitch." Without another word, Rose hurried away.
Autumn sat in awkward silence until Stitch trotted over with several dresses in tow. "Now, what color would look nice on you...."
"I don't know. My work uniform is red. why not red?"
Simple stitch cringed a little. "Oh, deary, um... I'm not sure if red is your color... maybe blue?"
"Ick, blue? Like sky blue?"
"Oh, heavens no! I was thinking more of a navy... maybe with a brown jacket?" she floated out several examples. "Maybe this one?"
"Ugh, why do I even need to wear a dress? Can't I just throw on an apron and put my hair in a bun or something like that?" Autumn paced impatiently. "And jacket? Isn't it to warm for a jacket?"
"Oh, I don't know... winter is just around the corner. we have been getting a lot of wind lately." Stitch levitated out a measuring tape and quickly noted the numbers as she dug through the racks. " Do you even want a dress? Why not... a dressy jacket?"
Autumn was a little relieved at that. "That sounds a lot better actually."
She smiled gently and took out a few examples. "These are a little last season, but I think they will make a nice... Autumn look." She giggled a little to herself. "I even have some cute pins you can dig through if you want. And, bear with me here, do you mind if I alter your mane style a little? Actually I think a nice little updo might be cute... or maybe we could curl your tail a little so it matches your mane? Your mane does have a nice natural wave."
"Oh, uh, I guess that would be okay. Just... do whatever as long as it's comfy." Stitch dropped three jackets and a box of old pins in front of Autumn as she started quickly fixing up her mane and tail. She pointed to a simple brown button up jacket. "Yeah, this one is cute I guess."
Simple Stitch glance over while magically adding a curl to Autumn's tail. "Oh that one is ancient! I suppose vintage is going back in style." She laughed a little to that.
"Are you ready to... what the hell are you doing?"
Autumn spun around and saw a pony she definitely recognized, a blue unicorn mare with bangs that flipped over one eye and a large star cutie mark. Simple Stitch smiled. "Hey, Star! It's Autumn, remember her from school? She's going to Rose's party so Primm wanted me to dress her up a little."
Starburst smirked, "Good luck trying to turn a turd into a dirt clump."
Autumn rolled her eyes. "AS pleasant as usual, Starburst."
She smiled harder and slipped on a flowy white dress edged in blue. "So what are you going to dress her up in?"
"Oh, well..." Simple Stitch floated up the jacket.
"Ha! That's it?" Starburst nearly knocked herself over laughing. "Sure, I'm sure that'll be soooo impressive." She snorted and turned to Simple Stitch. "Are you almost ready?"
Simple Stitch got a hair pin out of a drawer. "After I'm done with Autumn, Starry. Why don't you wait outside? I'll just be a minute."
Starburst reluctantly stepped out, and Autumn decided to chime in. "Why do you hang out with her? You seem nice and she's so... you know!"
Stitch sighed as she pinned back Autumn's mane and helped her get the jacket while Autumn glanced through the pin box. "I know Star can be a little... crude... but she's been my best friend for years. She can be a really nice pony... once you get to know her."
"Yeah, sure."
"No, I mean it! Star is... well, it's the way we were raised. All of us. Personally, I don't have a problem with Earth Ponies. I'm sure if she got to know one better she wouldn't be as..."
"... racist?"
"...difficult." Simple Stitch smiled. "Alright, you're all set to go. Did you find a pin you liked?" She slipped on a simple soft yellow dress.
Autumn picked out a little pin that made the most sense. "This one's nice."
She turned to Autumn and smiled, helping her pin it to her jacket. "You should get going to the party. Star and I will be leaving a little later."
Autumn counted in her head how many unicorns were there as she sat at a bench eating small dainty orderves. Twenty-Two. She looked around and tried to list off any pegasi she saw. Three. How about earth ponies? she looked down and smirked. One.
It wasn't a particularly cold morning, but it wasn't too warm either. She seemed to perfectly mesh into the background, Rose the only one to come over and say how much her jacket looked swell or how much she loved her mane. Simple Stitch waved to her when she and Starburst arrived a little after she did, Which was followed by a scowl from Starburst. Autumn laughed to herself a little thinking about her conversation with Stitch. 'As if THAT'S ever gonna happen.'
"That's an interesting outfit."
Autumn jumped and turned, seeing a tall reddish purple stallion next to her at the table, his accent reminding her faintly of someone Canterlinian. "Yeah, I guess. It's nice."
He smirked. "What are you doing here?"
"Huh?"
"I mean, you don't really seem like the type to go to a party like this." He levitated up a few crackers.
"Well, it's my friend's birthday party."
"Oh, your friends with Tea Rose?"
Autumn's eye's widened. "You know her?"
He laughed a little. "You could say that. I must say, I am surprised that you haven't heard of me. Most mares I meet at these gatherings quake at my presence."
Autumn laughed a little. "Really? You must be pretty seizure inducing."
The stallion laughed at that. "You are interesting."
That stagnated her thoughts. "Oh, I doubt you mean that."
"Really, you are... different."
Autumn smirked. "Really?"
"Really." He sat down and ate a caramel apple cupcake. "So, what do you do?"
"Well, I made that cupcake you're eating."
His eyes widened. "Seriously? This is amazing! Are you sure you're not a unicorn? Because these cupcakes are magical!"
"That was so cheesy I could make nachos out of it." Autumn giggled a little. "But you weren't to far off, I am part unicorn... technically. Both of my parents are unicorns. I guess that makes me a rarity?"
"Genetics are so complicated."
"Oh, um... my name is Autumn, by the way. I realized I've been sitting here talking about myself and I didn't even say my name!"
"My name's..."
"Prince Dragonblood!" Autumn jumped at the sudden arrival of Primm, plastering on a smile. "Oh, Prince Dragonblood, won't you come with me? I don't think I've introduced you to my husband!"
"Oh really?" Dragonblood frowned, then turned to Autumn with a smile. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Autumn. I hope we can talk again sometime."
As Autumn watched Dragonblood be dragged off by Primrose, she didn't expect the sudden appearance of Starburst who couldn't help overhear the conversation. "You know...," Starburst smiled, "... he doesn't like you."
"What do you mean?" Autumn said, only half caring.
"I mean he isn't interested in you or your outfit or your 'quirky', 'cute' little puns and punchlines." Starburst laughed, nearly falling over. "And you were just playing into it! Like you actually thought he would dirty himself by falling for you? Ha! He just want's your muddy blooded dirt pony plebeian butt THRUSTING on his..."
Simple Stitch gently tapped her shoulder. "Um... Star... you've had to much to drink, you should keep your voice down..."
"Not now, Stitchy, I'm just having a friendly chat with our friend, Autumn, here!" She promptly burped and winced. "Dang them cupcakes are nasty."
"Come on, Starburst." Simple Stitch smiled. "Don't you want some nice super special sandwiches? Over here!"
"Yes I would." Starburst smirked, following Simple Stitch after making a thrusting movement with her flank and laughing.
Autumn decided after that uncomfortable bit of drunkenness to go find Tea Rose. Eventually, she did find Tea Rose talking to, of course, the tall mysterious cheesey Prince Dragonsblood. "Hey, Rose."
Tea Rose looked over at Autumn and sighed. "Autumn, not right now."
"No, it's alright." Prince Dragonsblood said with his nonchalant attitude coating his words with as much innocence as glitter and hugs. "Please, join us! I was just talking to Ms.Tea Rose about those delicious cupcakes you made."
"No you weren't..."
"Well, I was about to get to it." Dragonblood smiled. "They really were good, by the way. Perhaps you would be interested in catering for me sometime?"
"C-catering?" Autumn's eyes widened at the idea of potentially expanding her parent's business to the wealthy galas of Canterlot. 'We could finally fix that draft!' she thought, Joy sprawling across her face. "That would actually be amazing!"
"Excellent! You know, one thing these parties could definatly use is food that actually tastes good, you know?" Dragonsblood smiled. "We can talk business later. Right now, I am curious, how do you two know each other?"
Rose glanced away. "Well... um..."
"Oh, Rose and I have been neighbors ever since we were cutie markless fillies!" Autumn smiled brightly on a business opportunity high. "I see her almost every day, if it wasn't for her I'd be sitting around on my days off!"
"How cute," Dragonsblood said, "You've really known her that long?"
"Yep!"
Rose scowled at her. "Autumn. Please."
"What?"
Primrose trotted over quickly. "Oh, Prince Dragonblood, I have just gotten done talking to your father!"
"Oh?"
"Yes, and I am proud to announce that my daughter is going to be married to Canterlot Royalty, a member of the royal guard as well!" Primm made sure to say it as loud as possible, drawing attention from the party goers.
"Really? It will be a pleasure to meet them." Dragonblood said with a dim-witted smile across his face.
"She means you, son," said an old stallion in a pristine fancey shirt, "we both agree that it is the best decision for everyone."
"It's for the best, Tea." Prim Rose smiled at Tea Rose, staring in shock. "You two probably have a lot in common, your cutie marks are both flower related, and both of you are sure to provide our families with beautiful pure blooded unicorn foals."
Rose frowned and looked over to where Autumn was, hoping to just look for an excuse to run away from the whole situation, but, to her regret, she was already gone.
Autumn did a lot of thinking in the bathroom. Of course Dragonsblood would end up with a pretty mare like Rose. She shook her head of thoughts of even considering him in any romantic way. 'I mean, what kind of name is "Dragonsblood" anyway?! Sounds like some kind of foal's Battle Brigade character!' She thought, wiping her eyes of tears, her face feeling warm and flushed. 'And besides, Rose is your friend! Now get out there and... oh, do you really want to support her? I doubt Primm would consider her feelings... did you even consider her feelings?' She shook her head of any doubts. 'Oh, buck up and face it, Autumn Darling! Be there for your friend.'
As Autumn began to leave, she heard a loud scream outside and froze as several other screams overlayed on top of one another. 'What was that?' She thought. Did she even want to know? 'Screw it.'
Autumn slowly went to the bathroom door, and after she opened it, she briefly saw a blur of Primrose as she pushed her out of the way and onto the grass and cement, followed by the thunderous trotts of several other ponies from the party.
Then Autumn looked up.
Blood splattered the ground as she heard the gurgling moans and squishing of teeth gnawing at the flesh of the ponies in front of her. The colorful unicorn's were now all nearly dulled to a putrid off grey and muddied red, their eyes rolled back and glossy, mouth agape in the last scream they would ever utter. Autumn trembled as she saw the creatures responsible for this; thin as bone creatures with limbs on the cusp of being snapped like twigs yet someway, somehow, staying together. They didn't even look like ponies, they looked more like living mud- covered Nightmare Night decorations. Autumn slowly got up, staring in horror as they chewed flesh off the bones of the ponies she saw living and enjoying their lives only moments before. She felt as though she was paralyzed after she got up, her hooves shaking and quaking as her eyes just wouldn't look away. Slowly, her eyes focused on somepony in particular that filled her with grief, Simple Stitch, the creatures left her, her neck bit open and her jaw hanging down as she laid, dead, on top of the desert table.
Autumn slowly backed away when the unicorns softly glowed with a white aura, their eyes rolling back, then with a slow sloshing crack of bones, they began to get up. Then Autumn realized something even more terrible.
She was screaming.
Quickly, she ran towards town, tens of creatures squirming towards her. To safety. 'There are no safe havens in hell.' she thought grimly to herself. "Shut up!" Autumn yelled to herself, which in hindsight only attracted more of those things towards her way.
The streets of her home were decorated in a pureed pulp of her neighbors, her classmates, the few ponies she could call 'friend', a putrid viscous blood and gore mural splattered about the stone streets. She sloshing sounds wouldn’t let up. They were chasing her. They were trying to kill her.
“Over here!” Autumn looked over and saw a tall older looking stallion holding open the door to his house. “Get inside, hurry!”
She ducked over and rushed through the door. “What’s happening?!”
“Hell if I know.” He said simply. “Go inside, I’ll hold them off!”
“It’s too dangerous!”
“Better than having them bust down the door!” Autumn saw the unicorn light a stick of sparkling fireworks, chucking it at the hoard. “Go inside, and hope that this works…” He pushed her in the open doorway and slammed the door behind her.
She heard the fireworks explode down the street, then large smaller explosion noises. Then, suddenly, screaming.
Then she didn’t hear anything as the room filled with deafening silence.
Chapter 2 : The Best of Things
Chapter 2 : The Best of Things
'It's just a little vacation, it's not the end of the world.' Zian couldn't look away from her cozy little shack. She had gotten accustomed to living in the woods, and the thought of leaving made her heart sink. 'It's only five days.'
She gently touched the leaves of the plants she dreaded to leave, and smiled at her memories of making a multitude of potions and ingredients, even cooking from time to time. She sighed. She almost found it stereotypical, a zebra having an affinity for plants and creatures of the forest, alchemy and the magic of nature, but she couldn't help herself. She knew that not every zebra was in love with nature, but in truth she had never even seen the zebra homeland.
She laughed as she looked about the room and saw the artifacts she had collected over the years, spears made of metals she'd never even dreamed of in the forest of Everfree, as well as decorations scavenged off people. She knew that most of them probably weren't even authentic, but she still treasured them all.
Looking through her things and packing her bags for her trip, Zian stumbled across her collapsible spear. She smiled, thinking of her sister she hadn't seen in so long. After Zian told her she was moving to the forest to study, her sister ran out and managed to somehow get the old metalworker to make one personalized for her. Of course she never needed to use it, but her sister insisted incase some kind of wolf broke into her shack in the middle of the night. Putting aside her better judgement, she packed it, hoping it wasn't illegal.
A few more miscellaneous things later, her saddlebag was packed and she was ready to go. It had nearly been a few weeks since she set up a short vacation to a nearby town to stay in the historical inn slash bed and breakfast. If she was going to take a break from her studies, she figured she might as well learn something other than botany. She locked the door to her shack and made her start down the long dirt path.
The house to the old 'museum' didn't take to long to find, it seemed to be the only authentic looking house in the whole little village with a big sign hanging over the door. After only one light knock on the door, a yellow unicorn filly with a straight cut red mane answered the door as if she'd been sitting there in suspense, waiting. "Wellcome, wellcome!" she said with a bright smile. "You must be Miss. Zian! Daddy and I have been expecting you!" She zipped around, taking Zian's saddlebag with her magic. "You're the... one, two... fourth pony staying here!"
"You mean third." Zian turned to see a light greyish yellow unicorn stallion coming out of the kitchen. "Pleasure to meet you, my name is Flambe, and this is my daughter, Cherry. You spoke to the travel assistant?"
"Oh, yes I did!"
Flambe shook her hoof. "Welcome to the Hoofing Hills Historical Hotel! Hope you make yourself comfortable, hey have a muffin!" Flambe smiled, levitating one over to her out of a basket.
"Oh, um, thank you." Zian set it down on the end table. "So, what makes this inn so historical?"
"Well, it used to be a farmhouse until the war almost broke out."
Zian's eyes widened. "Excuse me... war?"
"Yeah, after those Diamond dogs collapsed the Hollow Shades and slaughtered the city of bat ponies. This building was almost turned into a military base, but then the war tensions dropped and here we are with a monument to the ages!" Flambe trotted to the next room, and Zian followed with the muffin out of curiosity. She looked curiously at the shelves lined with weapons throughout the ages locked behind thick glass. "This is the Wall of Weapons! Believe it or not, Equestria has seen its fair share of battles in the past. From modifications to extensions, swords to spears, the evolution of the weaponry of Equestria is breathtaking, don't you agree?"
Zian trotted over to a strange item in a special case, a large tube- shaped box with a soft grip handle and a trigger like a spray bottle. "What's this?"
"Ohhh, so you're interested in the PPbv1, or Unicorn Blaster."
"What do all those letters stand for?"
"Pony Protection Blaster, version 1. This one was my father's, he was in the guard when the war tension started. It's pretty rare, too. It doesn't take ammunition, but is powered by unicorn magic. It was primitive at it's time, but it was pretty impressive. Not a lot of ponies got the chance to even know about their existence," Flambe smiled in nostalgia, "I have a later model, too, from when I was in the Equestrian Military. It was a requirement to learn how to use them at the time." He pointed to a longer white model of the blaster on a shelf next to the older one. "This is the final model of the blaster, mostly based off of the griffon alternative. These ones were meant to be levitated and pull operated, that's why the mouthpiece is retractable. You could think of it like a magic-focusing cannon with more advanced arcane reliability."
"Fancey." Zian commented, taking a bite of the muffin.
"Ain't it!" Cherry smiled. "But that's enough for the tour for now, Come on, Miss Zian, let me show you your room!"
Zian followed her up the stairs and saw a long hallway with a few doors. "Do you get a lot of guests here, Cherry?"
"Not usually, but we do get ponies from lotsa places in the summer! But business is slow now. We got some other ponies here now, with big, pretty wings! I nevea see too many of them before!" Cherry looked back at Zian with a questioning look. "Miss. Zian, why do you have all of those fancy stripes? And where's your cutiemark?"
"Well, technically I'm not a pony... I'm a Zebra. I was born with these stripes." Zian said proudly, then glanced over to her flank. "Honestly, though, I don't really know how zebra cutie marks would work. I mean, they do have markings, but..."
"So you've never seen another zeeba?" Cherry said with cheerful enthusiasm. "What about your parents? Aren't they Zeee-bas too? Maybe they could help explain it!"
Zian sighed a little. "Oh, no. I was raised by ponies."
"Why?"
"Well... because I was adopted." Zian frowned a little in thought, then smiled. "How about you show me which room I'm in, huh, little hostess?"
"Yay! I'm a cupcake!" Cherry skipped down the hall to a large wooden door. "Here it is!" She reached into her saddlebag and gave Zian a key with a large tag on it. "Heeere you go! Drop your stuff off in your room and come downstairs why don't ya? The ponies with the big wings should be back soon, they went to go somewhere!"
"I see. I'll be sure to be right down then, posthaste."
"Okay, whatever that means! See you soon Miss Zian the zee-ba!" Cherry sang as she skipped back down the hallway.
Cherry bolted to her dad waiting for her downstairs. "Daddy, did I do good? Huh, huh, did I?"
Flambe smiled. "Yeah, Cherry you did great."
Cherry nearly exploded with joy. "Yay! Do I get paid now? Do I?"
Flambe laughed a little. "Well... sure why not. Here you go, two whole bits for being a great helper." He floated over two clinky shiny bits to Cherry who took it with joy fluttering throughout her.
Then a thought crossed her mind. "Daddy, what does 'adopted' mean?"
Flambe's eyes widened at that. "What brings this up?"
"Miss Zian said that she was adopted and raised by ponies! What does that mean?"
He glanced at her a minute, then ruffled her mane with a smile. "Let's talk about this in the living room, okay?"
"Okay!" Cherry happily trotted down to the living room and jumped onto the couch, Flambe joining her shortly after.
"Well... um...", he cleared his throat, "... adopted means that probably when she was a foal about your age, maybe younger, she needed somewhere to go."
"Ohh..." Cherry tapped her hooves together uneasily on the couch. "Are her parents where mommy is?"
Flambe crunched back in surprise. "Huh? Well... I don't know. Don't ask her though, that would be rude."
"Okay." She glanced down to the floor. "I'm sorry. I made you sad."
"No, it's okay, I'm okay, see!" Flambe smiled.
"Yay!" She smiled, then a thought crossed her mind. "Hey, what did mommy look like?"
He frowned a little and looked around "Oh, I guess we don't really have to any pictures of her up around here... I have some I could give you in my closet..."
"Later! Tell me what she looked like!" Cherry said happily, hugging a pillow. "Now, please!"
"Your mom... well... she had your eyes," Flambe magically tousled Cherry's mane. "And she had the same cute little horn, too!"
"Hey, my horn's not little, I am!"
"Yeah, yeah," He laughed.
Cherry tilted her head. "What was her name?"
"What, I never told you?" Flambe glanced over to her with a smile. "Maybe I have been avoiding telling you about her to long. Your mom's name was Sour Cherry."
Her eyes widened and she smiled as wide as she could. "Did she like sour candy?! Was her cutiemark sour candy?!"
"Wow you really like sour candy, don't you?" he laughed. "She did like sour candy. Actually, more like she was in love with sour candy. You know, on our first hearts and hooves day, I was going to get your mom the basic stuff, you know chocolate and flowers? But you see, I was a little late to get her a present, so they were out of the chocolate hearts I was going to get her, so I got her a pack of sour gummy hearts and hurried to our date. Oh, I thought she hated it with her first bite, but then she just couldn't stop eating them! You could say that was my fault..."
Cherry watched him as he talked about Sour Cherry, listening in content to each word. "I wish I could have met her, she sounds awesome!" Cherry said.
"Yeah. I wish you could have too." He sighed. "Okay, let's go see if we can get ready for tonight."
"How was I supposed to know they had rain scheduled for today?!"
Zian turned to the stairway and saw a soaking wet blue pegasus stallion in the front doorway, next to a older looking pegasus in a black raincover and an umbrella attached to his saddlebag, holding a fabric shopping bag in his mouth. She curiously walked more down the stairs when Cherry rushed up past her yelling, "I'll get the towel!"
The older Stallion set down his grocery bag and closed his umbrella. "Whirly, even if I haven't worked in the weather factory for more than half my life, I can still look at the sky and see the dark clouds rolling in."
Zian laughed a little and came all the way down the stairs. "Are you alright? You seem a little... under the weather!"
The younger stallion turned his head with a glare to shame bad puns, then stopped. "Oh, um... woah, you're a zebra!"
Zian tilted her head. "Um... yes?"
"Smooth talkin the mares as usual, Whirlybird." The old pegasus peeled off his rain slicker. "Pardon my son for gawking, missy. He's never seen a zebra before."
"Y-yes I have!" His son interrupted.
"Sure you have, kiddo. That's the spirit!" He extended out a hoof to Zian. "How's it goin'? Ponies call me Mech, and this is my son, Whirlwind."
Zian curiously bumped his hoof. "My name is Zian."
"Towels!" Cherry sang, magically flinging three large towels at Whirlwind. "Have you met Miss Zian, Mr. Pepper-sus?"
"Pepper-sus?" Whirlwind said, puzzled, as he dried off his wings.
"You mean Peg- a -sus, darlin'." Mech said.
"Oh, okay! I'll remember!" Cherry smiled brightly.
"Oh, you guys are back!" Flambe trotted over to the doors. "Are you two enjoying your visit..."
"Of course we are Flambe. It's been forever since I've been here." Mech said. "Whirly and I were just looking around for something to take back to Cloudsdayle."
"Well, Cherry and I were just getting the table set for the complementary dinner. Would anypony be needing anything?"
"We'll be fine, thanks. Hey, Whirly, why don't you stay here? I'll be a minute." Mech said, grabbing his things and fluttering up the stairs.
"Whatever." Whirlwind said, finishing drying himself off, though he was still a little damp.
Flambe and Cherry disappeared to the kitchen, and Zian, followed by Whirlwind, trotted into the side room, looking at the exhibits.
"So, -Whirlwind, right?- what brings you here?"
Whirlwind glanced at her. "Oh, well... my old man and I have go on vacation during the off season, especially since he retired."
"You said you work at the weather factory?" Zian said out of curiosity.
"Cloud division."
Zian smiled. "That sounds wonderful... too make something so pretty and essential."
"Geez, it's not that impressive, really." Whirlwind shrugged. "It's practically all automated nowadays. Pull this lever, push that button, rinse and repeat..." He looked up at the military pictures on the wall. "What about you? What do you do?"
"I'm a student, you could say. I live nearby but I haven't really had a break in a while." Zian said, shrugging it off. "Herbology, mystics, the usual stuff."
"Huh."
"What?"
"I was just wondering why a zebra would choose to study around here. I mean, we're not exactly exotic." Whirlwind sighed. "You know, you're not what I really expected a zebra to be like. I mean, your mane doesn't look like they do in the pictures, see?" He pointed to a old photograph of Several Equestrian guards and zebra soldiers.
"Oh, I see. so then, Just because those zebras look like that all zebras do?"
Whirlwind frowned "Oh, um, I'm sorry, that's not what I meant..."
"It's okay, I figured you didn't mean to offend."
"Oh, dammit, I always gotta mess these things up..."
"I forgive you." Zian said with a smile. "I'm going to see how what's for dinner."
After a quick and simple dinner, Zian trotted upstairs and locked her bedroom door. Fluffing the pillows and cracking open the window to let in the post rain night air, she settled in over the blanket and fell into a peaceful sleep.
Cherry woke happily before the sun even came out, ecstatic for no reason in particular. Using her magic, she flung open her drapes and looked at the last of the early morning stars. Her eyes radiated with delight as she stared at the moon, even more so since she knew the next night would be a full moon.
Looking down at the street from her window, the glistening shallow pools of water had her even more excited to trot by the shops as soon as her father would wake up and splash in the puddles.
Frowning in boredom when she realized the sun wouldn't be up for a few minutes, she killed some time making her bed then magically folded tissues into cranes and levitated them about the room.
Once the light slowly started filling the room, she trotted over to the window and watched the sun rise and illuminate the drifting clouds into bright pink hues. She giggled, thinking sillily about how cute it would be to have cotton candy floating around the sky.
The sun was particularly bright that morning, making the wet grass glint a dark teal as a light fog misted through the street. Suddenly, the sunlight seemed to burn a bright white and soak the world in light, causing Cherry to fall back and cover her eyes.
Cherry's eyes still stung as the light dissipated, and she laid on the floor nearly crying, then decided to get up and see if anypony knew why the sunlight got so bright all of a sudden.
Trotting into the hallway, she caught Zian on her way back to her bedroom from the bathroom. "Miss Zian!"
"Hm? Oh, good morning Cherry."
"Did you see the light?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" Zian yawned. "Let's go downstairs. I don't want us waking everypony up."
Once downstairs, Cherry rambled about the near blinding sheen of light as Zian half listened, still shaking off the morning dizziness. "Are you sure you weren't just staring at the sun too hard?" She said, her eyes tired. "Or maybe you dreamt it and fell out of bed?"
"No! I've been up for hours, really!" Cherry said in her defence.
"Alright then." Zian smiled.
"You two are up early." They turned and saw Flambe waiting at the staircase. "Did you see that light this morning? It was strange to be sure... I'm sure it was just one of the princesses though." He smiled. "Do you girls want breakfast?"
While eating plates of neatly stacked pancakes, Flambe trotted over. "Cherry, actually I was thinking that we could go somewhere later this morning, if you wanted to. So I guess I'm glad your up, Zian! Could you watch the museum while I'm gone?"
"Normally I wouldn't condone business ponies to leave their establishments to strangers, but this time I will let it slide. Sure." Zian said, taking a bite of pancakes.
"Where are we gonna go?" Cherry said with a smile.
"Oh, you'll see. Why don't you go get ready when you're done eating? It's supposed to be a little chilly, why don't you wear that nice sweater?"
"Well... okay! I'm done now!" Cherry said happily, trotting upstairs.
Zian turned to Flambe, "So, where are you gonna go?"
"It's a bit personal, but I was going to take her to see her mom. We normally go once a year anyway, but I don't think she really understood what was going on," Flambe laughed a bit to himself. "And once she starts school and sees that all of her friends have moms... well, I'll jump that hurdle when I get to it."
"That's gotta be tough, but she's a good kid." Zian smiled. "As long as she has a good father like you, she'll be fine."
"Yeah. I'm just not looking forward to dealing with mare problems as an old horse, though!" Flambe laughed. "I thought once I'd never meet somepony, let alone have foals, and here I am a single parent with my own war museum..."
"Well, I hope you two have a nice time at least," Zian said optimistically, taking a satisfying final bite of her pancake.
Later that morning Cherry was as excited as ever, dressed in her fancy knit sweater she got for her birthday a few months back, her mane brushed back and she was all set for an adventure. She was a little sad that the puddles dried up, but she was ecstatic for surprises.
Flambe frowned at the flower shop. "Closed?"
"Oh, we were going to buy flowers! I like flowers!" Cherry said, trotting closer and admiring the window display. "Wow, they're so pretty! Did you know some plants grow better in colder weather?"
"Oh, wow! No I didn't!" Flambe smiled. "Well... where do you want to go?"
"I wanna get some shimmer paper!"
Flambe's eyes widened. "Really, the craft store?"
"Ori' showed me how to make stuff, I've been practicing!" Cherry smiled. "I saw these really pretty papers at the craft store last time, I wanna get some."
"Ori? Oh, the Saddle Arabian stallion from a while back! Oh, Okay. Maybe you could show me some at our next stop." Flambe smiled, tossling her hair.
After buying a couple packages of small square metallic paper, he stopped at a bench. "Why don't you sit down a minute and show me?"
"Okay daddy!" Cherry smiled, magically opening a package of paper and sitting down with a shiny red piece of paper. "Hmm... oh! I'll make a butterfly!"
Flambe smiled as he watched her red magic aura concentrate on the little paper and fold it, making little mistakes here and there, but still. He clapped his hooves a little when she was done, showing off the amazing paper butterfly she made. "That's amazing! You're getting pretty good at magic, aren't you Cherry?"
"I sure am!" she smiled. "I'm gonna be a wizard!"
"Oh? Well maybe we should go visit Canterlot in the winter. I bet you'd love it."
Her large green eyes lit up with excitement. "Really?!"
"Really!" Flambe smiled. "Come on, let's go."
"Where are we going?"
"Well..." he thought to himself. Maybe today wasn't the best time to bring up the big 'let's go see your dead mother's grave' elephant. "Let's go to... the park?"
"Oh." Cherry frowned a bit.
"Huh? What's wrong with the park?"
"Well..." Cherry scrunched her muzzle a little. "It's no fun anymore! Mrs. Primrose messed it up!"
Flambe thought about it. "Well... I guess it doesn't have a playground anymore, does it."
"We can go anyway." Cherry said with her usual chipper attitude.
"My apologies, but this is a private party."
Flambe sighed. "Oh, um... sorry, Mrs. Primrose. I didn't know..."
"Doesn't look like a party..." Cherry grumbled.
"Sush, Cherry. That was rude." he whispered.
"Sorry."
"If you don't mind, I'll be off to try to deal with this mess..."
Suddenly somepony started screaming. Cherry looked past the open fence and froze. "Monsters! What are they doing!"
"Huh?" Flambe looked over to what she was looking at and his eyes widened. "What?"
Several ponies started to scatter as creatures from nightmares filed out of the forest. They were pony in shape, nealy skin and pones and hairless, caked in thick mud and grass, their eyes, if they had them, seemed to glow a bright white. One stomped down a mare near a dessert table, it's whooves caught in her dress, and...
Magically picking up Cherry, he ran back towards the house. "Daddy? What were those things?" Cherry said softly. "Those ponies are in trouble!"
Cherry watched as several other ponies came out of their houses towards the screaming to help, only to be caught by a pack of those creatures. "Cherry, stop looking!" Flambe screamed, turning into the museum. and dropping Cherry inside. "Don't leave."
"But..."
"Flambe, what's going on?" Mech said, coming downstairs.
"Don't go outside!" Flambe ran over to the gun case and magically unlocked it, grabbing the old model and levitating a box of fireworks he was saving for the end of the summer. "I hope this works."
"Are you insane?!" Zian said.
"Ponies are dying out there, I'm not going to sit back and do nothing!" Flambe gave a quick hug to Cherry. "Be a good girl, okay. Stay inside."
Cherry frowned."What? Where are you going, don't go!"
"I'm going to do my job." Flambe shrugged with a smile. "I'll be right back."
Cherry nearly ran to the door after Flambe trotted out, but then a yellow earth pony mare was flung through the doors. "Huh?" She said. "Who are you?"
The earth pony looked back at the door as it was slammed and heard several small explosions, followed by a few big ones. Then nothing at all.
"What's going on?" Whirlwind asked her, a thrill of panic in his voice.
"I... I don't know, ponies are dying then... coming back?! Those things came out of nowhere...," the earth pony said, "...like something right out of a nightmare!"
"What are we gonna do?" Zian whimpered.
"We should go to Canterlot." Cherry said, the emergence of the situation not quite sinking in. "Maybe someone there knows what's going on."
The room looked at her as the screaming outside subsided. Finally, Mech spoke up. "You know, she does make a good point. We should go to Canterlot."
"What? And go out there?!" The earth pony glared.
"Oh, and you have a better suggestion Ms..."
"Autumn."
"Autumn, right. Nice to meet you. We don't exactly have any other option here. Let's just head to Canterlot after it dies down outside. Probably a heck of a lot safer than sitting on our asses doing nothing." Mech offered.
Autumn gritted her teeth. She knew they both had a point. She just wished she knew what the in the name of Celestia was going on.
"Glowing eyes?" Zian said, looking outside from the window.
"Yeah!" Cherry said. "Do you see my Daddy Miss Zian? Is my daddy coming back? We need to go!"
Zian frowned, her stomach lurching. "Um..."
Autumn was already throwing up in the waste basket, the calmness disappearing as flashes of the gore popped into her head and the fowl smell seemed to catch up to her.
"Miss Zian?" Cherry was looking up at her expectantly, but Zian just didn't know what to say.
"Zombies?" Luna froze stared at the Night Guard reporting.
"Yes, Princess. It is the best way we could put it. We secured the great Canterlot graveyard on the hill and hurdled the creatures into a corner. We lost Celestial Guard Early Bird. So far, that appears to be the only Canterlot casualty." The lunar guard sighed. "What are your orders, Princess? The infestation has been handled but we can't keep them subdued forever. Should we attempt to annihilate?"
Luna shook her head. "Perhaps we should test them, to better understand the degree of magic we're dealing with. Is there any way to safely transfer them to the sub dungeon?"
"Well, yes, but...," the guard tensed her wings, "Some of the guards in my team are more... reluctant. They were once our family, ponies, citizens of Canterlot! I was hoping perhaps your highness could assist."
Luna frowned. "I cannot change the morality of my guards. But, maybe I could transfer them safely to the sub dungeon." She shrugged her shoulders. "Let me see if I can talk to my sister. In the meantime, make sure the creatures do not leak their way into the streets."
"Yes, my princess." Luna watched as the Guard flew quickly into the night. She trotted over to the study where Celestia was still locked away in.
"Celestia..." She said, knocking her hoof gently on the old door. "I could use your help."
Celestia cracked open the door. "I couldn't help but overhear."
"Well, things are going a little crazy out here."
"I know."
Luna winced. "Do you have any solutions?"
"Well, I've already been working on something," Celestia said with a light smile across her face, "but it's not really your concern at the moment. However, if you could help them transport the afflicted members to the dungeon, I would be much appreciative."
"You sure are good at being calm in these times, sister. You frighten me a little with that sudden optimism." Luna gave a nervous laugh as she tried to look over Celestia's shoulder to the study. "Should I gather the elements of harmony?"
Celestia's eyes widened. "No!"
"Huh? Why not?"
"Well..." Celestia sighed. "They're busy doing something. I already sent a letter to Twilight, and so far no reply." She adverted her eyes. "The Ponyville Stationed Guards said that there were minimum casualties, and that the Elements were out at the moment, but if anything happened to them we would be able to tell, right?"
Luna crouched. "I suppose your right again, Celestia."
"Why don't you attempt to contact them tonight? If they are somewhere safe they might go to sleep, right?" Celestia insisted.
"I'm going to have a very busy night tonight. I already have plans. I think I'll send out a message tonight once the dead have been dealt with and sent to their proper place." Luna gave her sister a grave look. "Just what do you plan on doing to them, Celestia?"
"Oh, just some tests and studies. I'll summon some of the higher of the magical students to assist. Remember to have the unicorns keep the field up." Celestia glanced out the window and smiled at the light pink glow. "Remember, keep your chin held high, and don't cry in front of the citizens."
"This is going to be a rough night for every pony." Luna grumbled. "I doubt I'll be able to rest for even a second."
Celestia laughed a little. "Talk about irony!" She smiled and tapped a hoof on her little sister's shoulder. "We will make it through this, Luna. Just try to stay optimistic."
Autumn had no idea how a five-year-old orphan could be more relaxed than her at a time like this. Every pony decided to wait for the zombies to dissipate, but that didn't seem to be happening any time soon so they decided once the sun came down just to stay there for the night. She watched Cherry, who had fallen asleep on the couch and wrapped herself in a throw blanket. Looking around her, she noticed that Whirlwind periodically stared out the front window, shaking his head, while pacing back and forth.
Autumn could hear the zebra in the kitchen, she thought she heard the filly call her 'Zian', though the zebra hadn't said anything since Cherry started crying. Once Cherry calmed down a bit, Autumn noticed that she had made herself scarce, although she questioned on whether or not the zebra was a girl, but it was a fair assumption. Lost in thought, she looked blankly just past the other pegasus, who had helped himself to a bottle of hard apple whisky stored away.
Mech gave Autumn a smirk. "Something on your mind?"
Autumn popped out of being zoned out when the stark silence was broken. "Of course something is... this doesn't exactly happen every day."
"Yeah, I figured." Mech sighed with a smile. "Well, I certainly can't wait to see Canterlot again. Them rich unicorns may be stingy assholes, but sometimes they can make something good. I remember this one place... had really good pretzels... and the work uniforms weren't too shabby neither'." He laughed.
Autumn looked to her hooves. "I just hope my parents are okay. My mom went to Canterlot for a baking convention."
"You a baker?"
"You could say that." Autumn shrugged. "Well I guess I was."
Mech took a long drink of his apple whisky. "Yep. Life sucks."
"Huh?"
"Whelp, ponies are coming back from the dead, we're doing nothing about the wars going on in the country right next door, Depression is at an all-time high, so I guess I am feeling fan-tas-tic, if I do say so myself." He laughed a little. "You think I'm lying, too! But I'm not!"
Autumn frowned at the old stallion. "How can you be happy?"
"Don't mind him- Autumn is it?" Whirlwind said, trotting over to her and sitting next to her on the couch. "He gets like this after he takes his LUV."
"LUV?"
"Yeah, from his doctor back in Cloudsdayle. He's been on them for a little over a year now, twice weekly." Whirlwind glared at him. "But you really shouldn't drink after you take them, dad."
"Oh, I have a little to drink at the end of the world, sue me, I am shaking!" Mech got up and went upstairs. "I'mma only gonna be a minute, okay? I'm..." Mech yawned. "I'mma gonna lie down. Goodnight..."
Whirlwind rolled his eyes. "Sure..."
Autumn leaned over. "So... What's LUV?"
"Oh, it's a medication the changelings made. It needs to be better regulated, though. Who the hell even knows what's in them things." He sighed. "I'm guessin' once this rolls over half of Equestria will be hooked on the stuff." He rolled back his shoulders and looked over to Cherry, who was still fast asleep. "Poor kid."
"Yeah." Autumn said, leaning back, her hair bun falling down and resting at her shoulders.
"So what's with that fancy- dancy get up?"
Autumn tilted her head. "Huh? Well, it's not like I'm wearing a dress. It's just a jacket." She shivered a little. "It is pretty cold. I should really thank...," she frowned a little, "... well, I guess I can't really."
"Doesn't really answer why your wearing that, but okay."
"Oh, I was at a party. When it happened."
"I see." Whirlwind glanced over at Cherry again. "I wonder what she's dreaming about."
"Could you wake her up a minute?" Zian said, coming out of the kitchen. "I made something to eat, she hasn't eaten all day."
"I doubt I could eat anything ever again after what I've seen." Autumn said, sighing a little to herself.
"Oh, hush now. You should eat something, it’s not healthy to skip meals." Zian gently smiled and trotted over to Cherry, gently tapping her on the side. "Cherry, I made something to eat, are you hungry?"
Cherry swiftly smacked Zian away. "I could hear you..." She yawned, then cringed in surprise. "Oh, I'm sorry, Miss Zian! Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, see? No Cuts, no bumps, no butternuts." Zian said softly.
Cherry smelt the air. "Wow! That smells so good!"
Zian offered a small smile. "It's cooked Vegetables. I hope you don't mind."
"Daddy won't mind!" Cherry smiled.
"Oh, um..." Zian left the room.
Cherry looked over to Autumn in confusion. "Miss. Autumn, why is Miss Zian upset? Did I make her sad?"
"Hey... I know we talked about this, but..." Whirlwind couldn't stop himself. "Do you know what 'dying' means?"
Cherry paused then smiled. "Oh, yeah, I know! He's where mommy is, but that's okay!" She shrugged it off.
"Your mom?"
"Oh, yeah! Her name's Sour Cherry! She looked like me, but liked sour candy... wait, but I like sour candy! So I guess she was a lot like me!" Cherry smiled and looked over at Zian balancing out two bowls of cooked vegetables and set them on the coffee table. "Oh, that smells super yummy! Thanks Miss Zian!"
"Your welcome." Zian smiled as Cherry ate. "Autumn, that bowl is yours. I'll go get yours, Whirlwind... hey, where did Mech go?"
"He's upstairs taking a nap. I'll go wake him up and get him to eat something." Whirlwind said, getting a bowl from the kitchen and fluttering upstairs.
Zian sat by Autumn, giving her a soft smile. "Surely you must be hungry?"
"Um... I mean, it does look and smell good... but..."
"No buts."
"But..."
"No buuuts~!" Zian shushed, smiling. "Come on, why don't you just take one little bite, huh?"
"Well..." Autumn blushed furiously and took a bite of a potato, then the world blurred as she hastily devoured the entire bowl, her eyes wide in pleasure, juice from the bowl dripping down her chin. setting the bowl back down, she blushed. "Do you have a napkin?"
Zian laughed a little as she wiped a cloth napkin on Autumn's chin. "I told you you were hungry, Muffins."
Autumn shied away. "I can clean myself, you know."
Zian giggled a little. "Oh, sorry, I've been living in the woods for, like, a year."
'Should just be common sense,' Autumn thought, but instead just smiled a little. "Uh... woods you say. Doing what?"
"I'm a student. Well, an independent student. I have my own shack in the Everfree forest not too far from here." Zian smiled. "I guess you could say I wanted to get more in touch with my roots."
Cherry looked over at them. "You should go to sleep."
They both looked over at her, but Autumn was the one that spoke up. "It already feels like I'm asleep. Hell this..."
Cherry glared at her, "...swear word..."
"... Dang this might be a bad nightmare."
"I'm pretty sure I'm awake." Zian said.
Cherry nodded. "You really should go to sleep."
Zian shrugged. "Well, I guess we should rest up until tomorrow."
"I don't know; I think I'll stay up a little." Autumn said.
"Well... I guess we could sleep in shifts incase those monsters outside find out we're in here. That would be terrible." Cherry offered. "I can stay up a little with you and wake up one of the others when you get sleepy!"
"We're probably going to be doing a lot of moving tomorrow, you guys can get your stuff together..." Zian frowned a little. "Are you sure you don't want to take a nap first."
Autumn rolled her eyes. "Fine, but I doubt I can get to sleep. You didn't even see the worst of it, it was terrible out there at the park!"
"I can take first watch." Whirlwind said, making his way downstairs with an empty bowl. "My dad's asleep in our room."
"I think we have a spare room you can sleep in, Miss. Autumn." Cherry said, getting up.
"Oh, is this some kind of hotel, too?" Autumn said, looking around. "I never really went here before..."
Autumn thought the room was nice, especially compared to her closet-sized room in the bakery. The drapes were long and surprisingly airy, taking a moment she opened the drapes and peeked out the tall window. She wasn't exactly sure what she was expecting, maybe hoping she'd realize she was asleep the whole time.
The outside was much darker, they had been using candles since the moon went down, they figured that the magic power grid, at least for their area, might have been down with the current events. Judging by how the street lights were dead and the outside was a barren void, Autumn assumed that perhaps the ponies at the power plot must have decided to screw doing their jobs and huddle waiting for death.
'Or maybe they're already dead...' Autumn felt like slapping herself at how morbid she'd been thinking that night. And so she did, and she frowned at the pins and needles pain in both her face and her fore hoof afterwards, then sighed. Well, at the very least that meant she wasn't dreaming. She wondered if that was a good thing or not.
She went back to the window and, out of the corner of her eye, something stuck out. She looked over, and there it was, just barely there yet such an important focal point. It was the moon, illuminated a bright strawberry red.
Autumn had seen harvest moons, sure, but nothing quite like that. Harvest moons were orange, not red. Was it a coincidence? A sign? Maybe a warning? Maybe it was a sign from Luna. Autumn sat on her thoughts while staring at the moon, the distant sounds of the night soaking into the room.
"Maybe I should go to sleep," she thought, trotting to the bed. She laid down on top of the blanket, waiting.
Mild light washed the room from the slightly opened drapes, just enough that she could blow out her candle and still just barely see the rest of the room. Working her way under the throw, she relaxes and embraces the dark into a calming slumber.
"Please, remain calm!"
Autumn found herself in a large space of a room, a swirling purple void. looking around her, she saw several different ponies looking just as confused as her, or furious yelling questions into the void.
Looking where most of them were looking, she saw her, the alicorn princess of Equestria, Princess Luna.
"Why is this happening?!" Yelled a confused older earth pony.
"Please, I know every pony is very confused and upset." Luna said. "I merely wanted to urge every pony to head towards the nearest sealed city, they are safe and the dead seem to not be able to break the seal..."
"You want us to abandon our homes?!" yelled out a pegasus.
"Is Appaloosa safe?" said a mare around Autumn's age.
"Yes, only momentarily if you live in a small village. Stay somewhere sheltered at the moment, tomorrow we will be sending our search parties to take you to protected cities. And, yes, Appaloosa has grown large enough to be considered a major city, so I have sent several guards there to raise an alicorn level threat shield, it should be safe now."
The mare sighed in relief.
Luna smiled. "We are working out solutions, I cannot stay long, and I will be leaving soon to speak with another quarter of Equestrian citizens. I just wanted every pony to know that we have the situation under control, and once this is over, we will all be able to go back to work and our homes."
"What about the power plants?!" Said a mare about the age of Autumn's mother, several others chanting in agreed uproar. "The power in Stratusburg has been out for hours!"
"The power plants in Cloudsdayle, Newhorseleans, and LasPegasus, are temporarily down, however we have ponies who will be working on it after the threat level has been lowered. Just remain calm in the meantime and relax." Luna insisted. "Powerful magic is responsible for this. But we will prevail and live another day! We will survive!"
The dream void seemed to fade away, giving way to an inky black.
Cherry smiled and brought Whirlwind upstairs to help her pack her saddlebag. Whirlwind looked around at the pastel green walls with purple black cherries about the boarders. "Cute room," Whirlwind said.
"My grand mare helped paint it!" Cherry smiled, getting out a small saddlebag. "We used to use this to go camping, so it has a lot of extra space!"
"That should be helpful." Whirlwind looked around at her things, piles of small folded pieces of paper on shelves. "I didn't know you knew origami..."
“Huh? Oh, yeah! Mr. Ori showed me how. He stayed at the inn a while ago…"
“Really now.” Whirlwind glanced outside. “Dang that moon is unsettling.”
“Swearword!” Cherry huffed.
“Huh? What ‘dang’?”
“You get away with it this time, but next time you won’t get off so easily!” Cherry giggled. “You should be going to bed after Miss. Autumn gets up for her turn, Mr. Whirly!”
“‘Whirly’? You can call me Whirlwind, you know.”
“I know! But I like Mr. Mech’s name for ya’ better.” Cherry tilted her head. “Is Mr. Mech really your daddy?”
“Well, of course he is!” Whirlwind said with a smile. “Couldn’t you see the striking resemblance? Well, I suppose I am a little more on the washes my mane side of the style spectrum…”
“Is your mom back in Cloudsdayle?” she said, curiously packing away a bright red umbrella and a pink raincoat.
“Oh, well… I guess. In a way.”
“Why didn’t she come with you? Is she sick?”
“Well… I lost my mom a little while back. But it’s okay, sometimes that kinda thing just happens, you know?”
Cherry frowned a little. “Did I make you sad? I’m sorry!”
“Just a little. But it’s okay. It’s a good kind of sad.”
She paused a bit, sitting by him on the floor. “How did she die?”
Whirlwind laughed a little. “I probably shouldn’t be discussing death with a four-year-old foal…”
She huffed in rage. “Hey, I’m fine, thank you very much! I turn six in spring, but I get to go to school a whole year early! I’m practically an adult!” She turned her face in frustration, gently punching him in the side.
He shrugged. “Well, good enough for me. To tell you the truth, she just kind of… faded away. After she got sick she just kinda… shut herself off from every pony. She probably could have lived longer if dad or I actually did something… but I guess it was her choice. I knew she still loved me… even if her decisions were a little bad at times.”
“Oh.” Cherry wiped the slightest mist of tears from her face. “I never really knew my mom. Daddy never told me how she… you know.” She patted his back and smiled. “I guess that means we’re the same!”
“In some morbid way, I guess I can’t disagree.”
Cherry got up and stretched, then something important flashed in her memories, something she almost forgot about. “Oh! Come with me, I almost forgot something very, very, super-duper important!”
“Huh?” Whirlwind followed her out to the master bedroom at the end of the hall, where she had already dashed in and made a dash for the closet, lighting her way with her little lantern she used to catch moths with in the summer.
“It’s in here!” Cherry smiled, finding a shoe box labeled ‘pictures’. Opening the lid, she found only a couple old pictures she could barely see in the low light, but she knew enough. “Hey, look Mr. Whirly!”
Whirlwind trotted over to look at the picture Cherry floated out with a smile. In it was a young stallion that looked like a younger version of Flambe, but… happier, less old and exhausted, and next to him was a pink mare with a dark red mane and a short stubby horn. “Well, It’s a good thing you didn’t forget this! You almost forgot to pack the most important thing!”
“Huh? What do you mean, pictures?”
Whirlwind smiled. “Your family.”
What they saw that morning was not exactly what they were expecting. Of course, they were not exactly sure what they were expecting, but it most definitely wasn’t that. Opening the window, looking over the street, they expected to see the mural of macabre from the day before, but to their shock it was a lot, well, cleaner.
It most certainly wasn’t how it was the day before, scorch marks from the explosives and the blood stained into the cobblestone roads were proof enough that something fowl and disturbing happened the day before, but everything else- the zombies, the stray body parts, the guts and gore, seemed to just be hauled off somewhere like a custodian just cleaned up the town while every pony slept.
Regardless of how strange the outside world looked that morning, they trudged off onto their first day towards Canterlot, and things seemed to be looking good, but just in case something did happen, Mech made sure to arm every pony with something from the museum, and Cherry agreed, so long as they all agreed to return them when they were done. And so every pony started their trek to Canterlot, taking the main road through the Everfree Forest, armed with several deadly weapons and an optimistic attitude. Things finally seemed to be looking up, and the world seemed a little less grey and blood splattered.
But optimism is a privilege. And privileges and just as easily be ripped right from under your hoofs in a blink of an eye.
Chapter 4: Of Claws and Flowers
“Shouldn’t be much longer now. What are you in the mood for a side, beans or… beans?” said a griffon, roasting a corn piece over a small portable fire pit on a stick. Her friend, a light purple earth pony mare, rolled her eyes while looking over their pantry of three cans of beans, a bag of corn, and a few husks of corn with a jug of water resting on a shelf against the train car wall. “Yeah, yeah I know. We’ll have to go out to town.” Her friend shriveled in disgust. “I’ll go; you can just stay here. I know you don’t like crowds of the big city. Let me see how our garden is doing.”
Stretching her wings out, she flew down from their second story fire pit and looked at their poor excuse for a garden. The only thing that seemed to be growing worth anything were the green beans and a small potted parsley plant. Picking off a few sprigs of parsley and a vine of beans, she flew back up. “Behold our gardening prowess bared fruit!”
Her friend looked over, excited at first at the prospect of fruit, then frowned in disappointment, trotting up the makeshift stairs to watch the fire. “Hey, I would love for the chance to get some meat around here, you know, Morning Glory.” The griffon grumbled, turning the stick.
“Hey!”
They turned their heads to the sky, where they saw a small bat pony mare in silver armor and a monogram saddle bag flutter over quickly. “Greetings!” The griffon said.
“What are you two doing out here? Corpses are literally coming back to life and tearing pony’s limb from limb!” the bat pony said.
“Hi, my name is Grella.” The griffon said, shaking the lunar guard’s hoof. “That mare over there is Morning Glory. This is our home, for the time being. What’s your name?”
“Huh? Oh, right, manners… frick…” The bat guard cleared her throat and gave a salute. “I’m Night Guard Silver Star, from Canterlot stationed at the nearby survivor shelter of Stone Hooved Valley, I was put on duty of informing and bringing the citizens of the Everfree to the encampment as part of the recent evacuation plan presented by the great Princess…”
“Woah, take a breath there, solider,” Grella said, smiling. “We already know about that whole zombie business. I took some out with my Griffonstone riffle earlier today in fact.”
Silver Star cringed a little. “Gah… Griffonstone Rifle you say?”
“Don’t worry, I have a permit. Perfectly legal.” Grella scooted over. “Take a seat, Silver soldier.”
“I don’t really have time to sit down…”
“Because obviously so many ponies live in the spooky haunted Everfree forest.” Grella laughed.
Silver star sighed ant trotted over. She supposed it was a little chilly, so why not. “Well, why are you two here then?”
“You could say we don’t really have anywhere else to go.” Grella said. “Here, well, there it’s a lot more peaceful, even if the weather can be a little… unpredictable.” She picked up the stick of corn and smiled. “It’s all set and ready to eat!”
“So you two are... homeless?”
“No. We have a home, it’s right here, see?” Grella knocked on the solid metal train car. “We used to be homeless.”
“Oh… where did you get this trailer?”
“Well, It’s not a trailer, per say. It’s a Train car I bought off of a scrap yard. I flew it out here in this little clearing and we fixed it up over the summer.” Grella set the corn cobs on a tray and got up. “Hey, Glory, how’s the cooking going?”
Morning glory shrugged, opening a can of beans and emptying it into a pan.
“She doesn’t talk much, does she?” Silver Star said.
“Never said a word since I met her back in Manehattan. She’s a nice mare, though, as long as you don’t eat her beans.” She shrugged. “So, you want us to go with you to that place, don’t you?”
Silver Star straightened herself out and attempted to look more official than she actually was. “Yes.”
“Tell me about this place.”
“Well… we could use some more help with the survivors, but it has its own farm, and the hotels that popped up there have been utilized for housing.”
“Free housing?”
“Well… yes. We’re not monsters, we wouldn’t charge evacuees room and board in this kind of national emergency. It’s not too big, but it should have enough room for a good amount of ponies, and if we do run out of room we can export them towards the cities.” Silver Star held her head up. “You would be safe there, and once the situation passes we can help return you here, if you want.”
“Free food, board, and safety to sit on my tail and cower in fear? How about this. I’ll convince Morning Glory to pack our stuff and go out to the camp, but I’ll stay on watch here for a little while. If I see any ponies, griffons, changelings, or what have you, I’ll take them with me.”
“I don’t know if I can…” Silver star thought it over. “… well, beside my better judgement, I’ll allow it. But if I don’t see you at the gates in two days, I am going to be back.”
“Fair enough.” Grella said, taking a skewer of corn.
Silver Star nodded and glared at her. “Don’t make me regret this. I wasn’t here.”
“Oki doki, Soldier!” Grella winked and saluted as Silver Star flew off into the night.
Sitting down at the fire pit, Grella pecked at the roasted corn and looked over at Morning Glory, who gave her an uncertain glare while pouring half the pan of baked beans into a bowl, huddled up in her long jacket and scowling. “Well, it’s free!” Grella offered. Morning Glory rolled her eyes, drinking the baked beans like it was soup broth. “Yeah, I know you don’t like crowds, but hey, we can finally take a bath… hopefully.” Grella poured herself the other half of the beans. “We can pack everything tonight, okay? Everything besides what’s bolted down.” She rubbed her chin a little. “So, pack light.”
Autumn, for one, was mildly annoyed from one small thing in particular that made her head throb with a headache; she didn’t have any coffee that morning. Sure, it was something menial in hindsight, but to Autumn not having her sweet, disgusting coffee was practically the death sentence of her morning routine. Every hoof step since she left that morning made her head hurt even more, her face flushed for whatever reason.
At this point, she didn’t really care that they had been trotting down the forest path for what seemed to be hours and seeing what looked like the same trees over and over again. She longed to have at least a sample-sized cup’s worth of the bitter substance, and she didn’t even like the taste coffee. It was more of just something to get her awake and started in the morning. And oh man did she need a kick start that morning.
Cherry skipped ahead of Autumn, leaving her alone groaning in the back. Whirlwind flew down and sighed, “We’re lost.”
“How can we be lost?” Zian said. “It’s a straight line from here to Canterlot.”
Mech rolled his eyes. “Did you really think that we could get to Canterlot in one day on hoof? We left early to make it out of the forest by dusk, from there it’s a straight trot to Ponyville and then we can get a ride to Canterlot.”
“Do you really think they’re running to trains in the apocalypse?” Whirlwind said, rolling his eyes.
Autumn glared at him. “It’s not the apocalypse. It’s a tragedy, sure, but not the end of the world.”
Zian surveyed the sky. “It’s gonna rain.”
They all gazed up and trembled as the sky turned a dark grey over them. Mech smiled. “Oh, yes, that means that the weather team is going back to work! See, Whirly, don’t be such a pessimist.”
Zian shook her head. “Sorry, but weather doesn’t work the same here. It works on its own, with its own kind of magic.” She frowned a little, getting out an umbrella. “If it wanted to, it could snow right now.”
Mech stared up at the sky with a glare. “I don’t like this place.”
A light rain fell on them as they trudged down the same path, though a thick fog started to roll in as the wind caught up. Straining her eyes, Cherry stopped in place while looking through the fog. “Hey, I think something’s up there!” She backed up, joining Autumn at the back of the group.
“Just let it pass.” Zain said. “It doesn’t seem to notice us.”
“What if there are more?” Whirlwind said.
“Then we can make a run for it.”
Autumn backed away as the others stared at the creature passing the street, Cherry noticing and following her. Glurk. Autumn heard a noise in the bushes behind her, and despite having her own mind screaming at her that is was probably something out to eat her flesh, Autumn investigated, not seeing Cherry creep up to the bush with her. Gurk. Autumn got out a small wood bat she was appointed to carry at the museum, holding it in her mouth from the grip.
Autumn and Cherry froze at the sight of the zombie in the bush. It was only the upper torso of what looked like a unicorn, caked in so much blood and mud you could barely tell what color it was originally. It reached out to them with a meaty arm, wincing as it cried a gargled cry. “Hem… meh…”
Autumn stared at it as thoughts raced through her mind. ‘Kill it!’ Screamed a voice in the back of her head. ‘It’s one of the monsters that killed Simple Stitch! It probably killed Rose, too!’ The voice trembled a little as she still stood there, frozen. ‘They don’t think! They don’t feel! Why should you feel sorry for it? Come on, it would be so easy just to crush it… I wonder if it still has bits of Simple Stitch’s throat in its mouth…’ Autumn heatedly shook the bad thoughts from her head, yet still wasn’t sure what to do, and just backed away slowly.
“Miss Autumn?” Cherry trembled. “Is it trying to say something?”
Autumn looked at the creature. It was stuck in the bush, but looked like it had dragged itself for a while, leaving a blood trail behind it slowly washing away from the rain. Its eyes stared at her, big unblinking glowing pools of white. “Kih… a… meh…” It gurgled. It collapsed down, still reaching out a hoof. “…Paha… le… zeh…”
Autumn looked at Cherry and was about ready to just grab her and run, when Cherry trotted a little closer to it, but still a safe distance. “Are you okay?”
“Kih… meh…”
“Are you in pain?” Cherry said. “I… I’m sorry…”
“Cherry, stop, get away from it!” Autumn said.
“But it’s good!” Cherry yelled. The rest of the group looked over to them, and Whirlwind quickly flew over and snatched up Cherry before she got too close.
“Stop!” She protested. “I Can help them! They’re not a monster, I can help them!”
“Are you guys in trouble?” From out of the forest, a Griffon flew out in a hurry. “I could hear a kid screaming. Are you alright?”
The group jumped at the appearance of the stranger. “We’re fine.” Zian said.
“You guys shouldn’t be out here, it’s dangerous.” She motioned. “Follow me, I have a place by the road over here. My name is Grella.” She turned towards the forest. “We should hurry. All your noise is going to draw then out here. Besides, night’s coming soon. Do you really want to be wandering around in the dark and fog in the Everfree Forest at night?”
“Well she does have a point.” Zian said.
Meanwhile, Cherry was still having a tantrum in Whirlwind’s arms. “Let me down, Mr. Meany! We’re not friends anymore! And I don’t wanna go! I wanna go back home!”
“Stop yelling!” Whirlwind said.
“Put me down!”
“No, you’ll just go running to that zombie and get yourself killed!” Whirlwind snapped back at her, following the others into the forest.
“Just put the kid down,” Grella said once they reached the train car, “I’ll keep an eye on her. Besides, if you both keep screaming like that, you’ll be endangering everyone.”
“Fine.” Whirlwind set Cherry on the ground, where she sat a minute then started crying.
“Your so mean, Mr. Whirly! I’m not talking to you anymore!” Cherry sobbed. “I want to go home! I don’t want to go anymore!”
“You guys can go inside,” Grella said, turning to the rest of them, “just knock on the door and say, ‘Cupcakes’ to the mare inside.” She looked at Cherry. “Hey there, shorty. My name is Grella. Do you want to go inside?”
Cherry looked up from her fit on the ground, her eyes widened in wonder. “Wow! You’re a Griffon!”
“Yeah, I sure am!”
Cherry wiped the tears from her eyes. “Sorry for making a fit… but that pony wasn’t a zombie!”
“Really.” Grella said. “Are you sure?”
“I mean, they were ugly… but they were hurt!”
Grella smiled and patted her back. “Yeah, I believe you. Say, it’s cold out here. Wouldn’t you rather go inside and warm up?”
Cherry looked at the old train car in delight. “Wow! I love trains! Daddy and I took a train once when we went to Canterlot! It was fun! Does your train go fast?” She was nearly buzzing with excitement.
Grella laughed a little. “No, it doesn’t move. It’s my home. Now let’s go inside, I’m sure that you don’t want to stay out here, do you?”
“No… okay.”
Autumn sat by the window in an old bag chair, twiddling her hooves as Morning Glory found some old fold out chairs. “So… at least I’m glad not to be the only earth pony in this little group of ours.”
Morning Glory shrugged, putting out the last chair for Whirlwind.
“She’s not very talkative.” Grella said, coming back inside with Cherry at her side. “Don’t mind her. She’s shy.”
Zian stirred in her chair. “So… what are you doing out here?”
“Well, we were getting ready to go to Stone Hoof Valley, but I’m guessing we’re all going that way, right?” Grella said with a smirk.
“Actually we’re going to Canterlot!” Cherry said happily.
“Canterlot? That’s so far away though…”, Grella laid back on the floor, “…the old fort Stone Hoof is just about an hour’s trot off the border of Everfree. It’ll be safer.”
Whirlwind shrugged. “Why not? I mean, if it’s safe…”
“I still want to go to Canterlot,” Autumn said with a frown. “My parents are there for a baking convention. I want to know they’re alright. Maybe… we could get a way to go to Ponyville at least from this Stone Hoof place?” She felt a chill run through her, but it was probably just a draft.
“Maybe… but security seems to be keen on making sure everyone is safe in the closest place possible.” Grella said, shrugging. “but hey, who knows, we might get to go somewhere once the situation gets a little more handled.”
“Cloudsdayle is circling Ponyville right now,” Mech said, “so I guess Whirlwind and I can go with you that far, at least.”
Whirlwind glared a little. “Maybe I want to go to Canterlot?”
“Why would you wanna do that? We don’t have family that far, not like you have any mares lining up the street waiting for you in Canterlot.” Mech shrugged, getting out an extra bottle of hard apple cider he snatched from the museum.
“Maybe I just wanted to do things on my own!”
“So, we’ll just go to Stone hooves for now, then we can travel to Ponyville together, Mech can go to Cloudsdayle, Whirlwind and I go to Canterlot, What about the rest of you?” Autumn said, trying to come up with a conceivable plan.
Zian shrugged. “My family lives in Ponyville, I suppose I could stay with them. Cherry, are you sure you want to go to Canterlot?”
“Well…”, Cherry thought about it a bit, “…I don’t really have anywhere else to go… I could go with Miss Autumn to Canterlot!”
Grella sighed. “We can work something out. Honestly, I’d be too bored in that crowded shelter. I’d rather go where things can get done. Morning Glory and I don’t really have anywhere else to go, we’re really just staying at the fort for free food.”
Morning glory shrugged and nodded, eating a cold can of beans.
Sitting around in silence, abruptly the roof sounded like it was being pelted with rocks falling from the sky, which really wasn’t too far off. “It’s called hail.” Zian said, seeing their confused and horrified faces, apart from Grella and Glory. “Pegasus weather control doesn’t really need it, and it rarely happens outside of the non-pony controlled lands.”
“So, this is hail.” Mech said, looking outside, Cherry rushing over.
“Woah, it’s like snow!” Cherry smiled.
“Kind of. But it’s very dangerous to go out when hail is this big.” Zian said in a cautious tone. “They’re chunks of ice falling from the sky, heavy rain freezing mid fall.” She yawned. “I’m used to it, we get that kind of weather in the fall around here, sometimes even in the spring and summer, too. Like I said, the weather works a little differently.”
“Yeah, Miss Redundant.” Grella laughed. “From what I remember, the Griffon kingdom acts kind of similar. I mean, we control it a little, but it mainly does its own thing.”
“But… how do you get clouds without pegasi?” Cherry said in shock. “What about rainbows?!”
“Well… it’s kinda hard to explain. Equestria is… different from the rest of the world. In truth, it’s scary how controlled ponies are.” Grella scratched the back of her neck. “I mean really, they raise and lower the sun and moon, they control their own water cycle, it’s like… would it do that naturally anywhere else? Well, aside from the sun and moon.” She sighed. “Some Griffons doubt they even control that, but for those of us old enough to remember the day the sky froze dip those thoughts in ice water.”
“I never really thought about that…” Whirlwind pondered.
Autumn trotted over to an empty extra bed. “Is this one free?”
“Oh, yeah. Those came with the car. There are only four, so someone here might need to share.” Grella said with a smile, “Although… I don’t think there would be room enough for everyone.”
“Ugh, why do you keep saying every ’one’?” Mech grumbled. “I mean, sure I can understand ya’ being a Griffon and all, but it’s just… strange.”
“Um…” Zian flustered.
“Well, Whirlwind and I can sleep on the floor if you want.” Mech offered. Whirlwind opened his mouth to protest, but Mech promptly got him to stop in his tracks. “Are you really going to ask the nice mares to sleep on the floor? It’s common courtesy, Whirlwind, didn’t I raise you better?”
Cherry frowned a little and squeaked at the sound of thunder. “C-can I sleep with you, Miss Autumn?”
“Yeah, I think there’s enough room. Do you have your blanket?”
Cherry frowned. “I think it got a little wet…”
“That’s fine… just hang it up.” Zian said with a little disappointment, climbing onto the top bed.
Whirlwind and Grella were still talking when Autumn rolled up against the wall, still in her nice warm jacket, pulling up the blanket they had neatly on the bed, Cherry climbing up and curling up to sleep. Slowly, Autumn let the night consume her and she drifted to a soothing slumber.
“Remain calm, every pony!”
Rose repulsed at the thought of being calm, Starburst still encased in her magic as she set her on the bathroom floor. They had narrowly escaped the fast monsters that came from almost out of nowhere. “Starburst? How are you feeling?”
“Simple Stitch…” Was all Starburst said, repeating the words like a mantra as tears rolled down her face. She almost didn’t notice the blood running down her own face, being knocked down by the zombies but having just enough time for Tea Rose to snatch her up and hurry to safety. Her leg had a huge chunk bitten out of it, and if it wasn’t for Professor Sunny Flare’s cauterizing spell she would have bleed out less than an hour prior. They still didn’t like the look of the infection. Starburst didn’t care if she couldn’t feel her body, she was blinded by the image of Simple Stitch screaming in terror.
Rose frowned. “Did you hurt your face? Let me look.” Rose pushed Starburst’s bangs out of her face and nearly puked. “Um… Professor Sunny Flare?”
The old yellow unicorn came by and looked. “Oh dear, this doesn’t look to good. Let me look through the med kit, we could… we could at least try to numb the pain a little, dress it up, then once we can get professionals to take a look at it…”
“Who are you kidding, no one’s coming for us!” Said an old stallion in a top hat.
“Please, stop scaring every pony, dear. We don’t need that right now.” Said an elderly mare with a high-class hair bun.
Sunny Flare glared at the old man. “Just give me a minute. She’s our only wounded, I don’t want blood on my hoofs.”
Rose sighed and sat back against a brick wall as they continued to argue. “Sorry about that back there.” Rose looked up and saw Dragonsblood with a smile. “They can be so inconsiderate.”
“What do you mean?” Rose said, sniffling.
“My father, your mother.” Dragonsblood sat down next to her. “It isn’t fair.”
Rose almost laughed. “You still hung up on that? At this point I doubt that’s still going to happen.”
“But what if it does?” Dragonsblood sighed.
“It’s okay, I guess. I mean… you’re not the worst.” Rose smiled a little. “Definitely not the worst I’ve had.”
“I’m sorry. Why do you do… that anyway?”
Rose sighed. “Tiptoeing around the subject? Good… because I don’t really want to talk about it.”
“This whole system is messed up.”
Rose smirked and whispered. “You wanna run away with me and not get married when this is all over?”
“I would gladly.” He paused. “I mean, It’s not that you’re not an attractive mare or anything… it’s just…”
“You liked my friend Autumn, didn’t you?” Rose smiled.
Dragonsblood cringed back. “What? No, of course not.”
Rose frowned. “Then you really shouldn’t have flirted with her. She’s… sensitive. I think she was starting to like you, too. I mean, she ran away when she heard the big marriage announcement. And really, it is just rude.”
“What, I was just making friendly banter. I made a business deal, and I mean she is very… well, interesting.”
“Interesting?” Rose raised an eye to that. “Do you just like her because she’s an average earth pony? The gimmick of a cute vulnerable little earth pony from a small town in the country? And you don’t know Autumn, she doesn’t exactly get flirted with every day, she took you seriously!”
He sighed, glaring at the tile ceiling. “Okay, okay, I get it, I’m sorry. I’ll tell her I’m sorry the next time I see her, okay?” He waited for a rebuttal, but instead got nothing as Rose stared at the floor.
“She’s dead, isn’t she?” Rose said softly. “I don’t see her here…”
“Maybe she got somewhere safe?” he suggested.
Rose laughed a little. “Yeah, maybe. Maybe…”
Hours passed in the dirty old bathroom, Starburst eventually fell asleep, and Rose went over to make sure she didn’t die threw the night. She looked up at Primrose, who in the meantime, was chatting it up with the other dignitaries. She counted them in her mind to pass time, undoing her mane and combing it with her magic.
‘Seven pretty unicorns sitting in a bathroom.’ Well, more like bloody tired unicorns, but nonetheless. Starburst stirred a little in her sleep. “She doesn’t seem to have any brain damage. Her eye was really bad, though.” Professor Sunny Flare said. “And I could suppress the nerve damage to her leg, well in best cases she won’t be able to use it without extreme physical therapy. And in worse case… well, if the infection is as bad as I think… I know ponies I can refer her to for a prosthetic, I’ll even help pay for it. It’s not like that much matters anymore, but the least I can do is help in some way.”
Rose glanced over to the ageing mare that had to be a little older than her own mother. “Why are you telling me this?”
“You two seem close. I normally talk to the family, but…” she sighed, rubbing her temple with her hoof, “by Celestia, the things I’ve seen all my years in medicine, this... well, you think I would be used to this by now.”
Rose groaned, slipping off her dress and using it as a blanket. Primrose snarled at this, but continued her conversation. “So, I thought my son of mine was going to continue with his Viola lessons, but then there he goes to Ponyville to be, guess what, a tomato farmer!” Some of the dignitaries withered in disgust. “But then, apparently, his skills were good enough to impress the Princess for him to help be a provider for the Canterlotian Royal Farmers Market, they use his produce in all the best restaurants in Canterlot, you know.”
“Why you thought a stallion named Berry Medley would be a musician still eludes me, dear.” Said Rose’s father, an older unicorn stallion with a white coat and a short blue tail and mane and a spiraling long beard.
“I was going to name him Berry Melody, but I thought the other colts at school would make fun of him.” Primrose grunted softly.
“Yeah, like you were doing Cashmere and favors, Prim.” He laughed. “Or our other son, Sugar Pine. Really, Sugar Pine?”
Primrose blushed. “It… it was a trend at the time. Things were… you know what, does anypony else have anything to say else to keep our minds off things?”
There was a silence, as everypony just sat on the floor and waited.
Chapter 5: As the Stars Burst
Chapter 5: As the Stars Burst
Autumn gazed up at the tall brick walls of the Fortress known as 'Stone Hoofed Valley'. There was just a gate the size of probably two ponies standing on top of each other, but what she really found curious was that the entire city seemed to be on a deep foundation made of metal that furiously dug its way into the ground, and considering the time the fort was made, from what Grella told her, it would make sense.
The Hallowed Shades was completely destroyed by Diamond dogs who hollowed out the ground under the city's base, causing hundreds of bat ponies to brutally be crushed to death in their own homes, with only a hoof full of survivors. Out of fear, the princesses prepared for anything, and for ten long years Equestria was fearful of being attacked by things they couldn't even see. The fortresses were made, but most of them were converted to house refugee bat ponies after the signs of war subsided.
From the top of the wall, a grey bat pony in purple and white armor flew down to them. "Grella, I almost thought you wouldn't come!"
"Had a hail storm last night, it was too dangerous." Grella said. "Found these guys trotting up the road, brought them this way."
Silver Star smiled. "I'll get the gate, it'll be safer." The inside of the walls would have looked better if not for the constant tinge of death and despair in the air. Silver Star flew down once the gate closed behind them. "Just as a precaution, we'll sent you to the medical area while we find an open room. It's this way, this big building up here, with the blue sign, that's where we have the people wounded resting while we try our best using the medical personnel sent from ponyville, as well as volunteers." She gently clapped her hands together. "You know... we could use more volunteers, if you want to help." She pointed up with her wing. "There is the local restaurant and bar, and over there is the housing, which has both locals and refugees." She moved to the small center as she trotted to the medical building. "Over there is where you can get supplies, such as excess food, clothes, blankets, etc." She glanced at the central building with what looked like a lightning rod on top. "And that is where the guards, such as me, are stationed, as well as the spire where we get our electricity from along with messages from my fellow guards stationed across Equestria in this crisis."
Autumn nearly gagged at the blood stains by the medical building. "So... a lot of ponies been through here?"
"Not nearly as many as we thought there would be. There are only ponies here from the everfree and cities without shield spires just outside of the Everfree." Silver tapped her chin. "That would be... probably fifty, but barely any of their injuries were anything to write home about besides a hoof full. And that's not even counting the prior inhabitants..."
"Bat Ponies, right?" Autumn said softly.
Silver star frowned. "That was the assumption, but it turns out most of the bat ponies that lived here left to a different settlement a while back, from what the ponies at the bar upstairs told me. To be honest that was a bit of a let down, I always like meeting other bat ponies that grew up in different settlements..." She stopped at the doors, peeking them open and talking to somepony behind the door, them she turned back towards them. "Okay, you are all good to go."
Once everypony trotted inside, Silver Star sighed. 'I'm glad they made it here safe...' Turning to go back on her rounds, a pegasus flew down towards her.
"Captain said that I get tonight. He wouldn't want you getting exhausted taking all the night shifts, Silver," he said, adjusting his helmet, "and you know how he gets when you start to doze off near dawn."
"Oh..." Silver brushed back her wings in embarrassment. "Well, okay... but I'm going to work tomorrow night!" She flew off to her quarters. 'I guess I have the night off then...'
After a quick cool shower in the mare's communal guard bathroom, she went back to her room. Her room was small, but sufficient, with a small closet, mostly taken up with her bulky armor that she polished every other night, a cot covered with her favorite quilt, and a desk scattered with books and papers. She thought about Captain Frostbite looking at her room sent chills down her spine, and she actually would be worried if it wasn't for the current events keeping him busy. Either way, she figured she would have to clean up her room eventually.
After brushing out her damp hair, she knew what she was going to do on her day off. Putting on her sweater and getting her purse, she sighed and left her room, locking up.
"You're going back to talk to Clover, aren't you?"
Silver Star flinched and straightened into a respectful stance. "Captain Frostbite, sir!"
The old bat pony known as Frostbite was a force to be recognized, towering over Silver with Lunar armor worthy of a warrior like him. "At ease, Guard Silver Star. I was just wondering if you were going to talk to that Clover character at the Late Bite again."
"I... I was going to go to the Late Bite to relax, sir!" She sputtered, only partially easing herself.
"So, you saw the folds in her delivery too..." Captain Frostbite glared. "Carry on, but be careful. Understand? And, Silver, relax for pony's sake. I didn't give you the night off so you could be tense."
"Sir, yes sir!"
The Late Bite was dark with dark blue walls, a long wood bar the highlight. It was small, but that didn't stop the troops of depressing looking patrons, although the ponies playing an intense card game seemed happy enough. Silver scanned the room and her eyes rested on the bartender. "Oh, hey there. On break?"
"I got the night off." Silver smirked. "What do you got?"
"Well... depends. Are you hungry, thirsty, maybe just want to wade out the certain death outside?"
"I'll start off with something light for now, I do have to go back on duty tomorrow."
"Well, I guess we have something light for you. What do you want? Water?"
"Applejuice sounds pretty good." She paused. "Actually, I have something to ask you."
"Is this about the other day?" Clover said, pouring a small glass of apple juice. "I told you and that big guy that the other ponies living here left to that settlement."
Silver Star took a drink of her apple juice. "Have you met a bat pony named Cotten?"
"Cotten?" Clover paused. "Sounds familiar... what's their cutie mark?"
"A pink cloud," Silver Star said, "she was living here about a year ago?"
"You mean Candy?" Clover said. "I knew a bat pony named Candy with a pink cloud cutiemark. I can't imagine any other ponies like her. Why, you know her?"
"She's my cousin, can't you tell the similarities?" Silver wafted her hair about. "Well, it's been awhile since I've seen her. I lived in Canterlot. She had a kinda grey coat, like me, and a pink and white mane."
"Yeah, Candy, that sounds like her." Clover said. "Candy left a few months ago. Hopefully. Because if she didn't she's been missing for three months. If you really want to know where she went, you might want to talk to her boss. I don't know if you want to though. She is pretty poisonous."
"Her boss?"
"That... place up the path." Clover paused. "But, I am pretty sure she went with the group to the settlement." She wiped down the counter. "My younger brother went there, too."
Silver Star finnished her glass of apple juice. "You keep talking about a settlement. Could you give me any further details while you get mea glass of hard cider, please?"
"Finally moving up, eh?" Clover laughed under her breath, Getting out a bottle of Hard apple cider. "Well, a mare came down here saying she was from a settlement of bat ponies up north, in the Everfree. We didn't believe her at first, she being a unicorn and all, but her escorts were bat ponies and said that it was the real deal. So... a lot of ponies left. This town was going down the dumps anyway, if it wasn't for my business here I would have up and left, too." She gave Silver the glass. "But I'm not so sure anymore. I would think my brother would try to get in contact with me, they have a spire... apparently."
"The Everfree?" Silver Star's eyes lit up. "Maybe... I could be of some help? I've been scheduled to take rounds through the Everfree anyway. Maybe... I could look for this town and see if everything is okay?
Clover sighed, but smiled at the thought. "If you want to try, go on ahead. Now... do you want anything else?"
"Well..." Silver paused. "... I guess it is my day off."
"Looks like you're all clear to go, Miss Darling."
Autumn stirred on the doctor's table uneasily before jumping down. "You sure?"
The doctor, a mare in a clean scrub shirt, smiled. "Why, is something bothering you? Stomach ache? Lightheaded? I could subscribe some vitamins..."
"No, well... it's nothing really."
"Anything I could help with? I think there are some former psychologists in the clinic."
"It's nothing. Really." Autumn slipped her jacket back on. "Do you actually have something else I could put on Over this? It's really chilly here..."
"Um... Oh, one moment." The doctor trotted over to a supplies box that seemed like it was donated from Canterlot, or at least she assumed it was, then floated over a big blue hooded sweatshirt. "This should be your size. Must be from the Manehattan line, certainly not in style, but I suppose it's more for function."
Autumn slipped it on. It was a little baggy, but close enough. It fit almost perfectly over the jacket under her, the side pockets a little irrational considering she couldn't reach them. But it was warm with a soft lining on the inside. "Thankyou." Autumn was about to go when the doctor stopped her.
"Miss Darling... please just... well, stop by when you're ready to talk about things. You know, in times like these, most ponies around here could use somepony to talk too. Maybe we could help you with something? When you're ready of course."
"I think I'll be fine. But... I'll consider it." Autumn trotted out of the examination room with a little relief, then decided to go wait for the others in the main hall, yawning as her stride slowed to a softer walk. It had most definitely been a long past few days, and she wasn't exactly sure if she was just having a messed up nightmare or not.
"WEll. I thought it would be a while until I see your face around here." said a raspy voice fueled with rage.
Autumn hesitated to look around, realising she stumbled into the recreation hall of the medical clinic, but realized that the voice came from right in front of her, from a face she surely never thought she'd see again. Well, at least she thought it might be her. "Starburst?"
Star burst was standing by a table, telekinetically shuffling a deck of cards. "What brings your ass to this shit hole? Personally, I thought you were eaten alive back when you were crying about how Dragonsblood and Rose were engaged to be ass-buddies for the rest of their lives." Starburst laughed as she started a game of solitaire. "But don't worry, your secret is safe with me. I was wasted off my mind anyway. Good thing, too, or I would have really been screaming when my eye was gouged like a pudding cup. Now my depth perception is shot, but at least I have this pretty eye patch."
"Oh, Autumn, I could barely recognize you. So that was where you ran off to?"
Autumn felt like hiding in her hoodie when she saw Dragonsblood peeking from one of the tables. "Dra- oh, uh, hi! nice to see that you're... doing well."
"Likewise. Sorry if Starburst startled you, but at least it's a sign she might be recovering well." he glared at Starburst, who threw a card at him. "And Rose and I most certainly will not be... 'ass' buddies, as you put it."
Autumn's eyes lit up. "Rose is okay?!"
"Oh, yes. She's working volunteer at the bar right now I think. She must be up to her hoofs in business, you could wait here, she should be back anytime now." Dragonsblood smiled.
Autumn pondered it, then shook her head. "I should probably get myself situated first. I'll be back though, I need to talk to Rose."
"What, did you just get here?" Dragonsblood said. "I'm staying here at the moment as a small time volunteer, that mostly just sums up to me grabbing this and that for the real doctors though."
"Aren't you a guard?"
"Yeah... I guess." Dragonsblood rolled his eyes. "I'd much rather be here though."
"Brutal," Starburst said. "Now I get to have this Prince of Drag watching me and reminding me to take my pain pills every so often. living the dream, Muffin Butt, living the dream. Oh, and did you see the other kick in the crotch?" Starburst lit her horn with magic and went over to Autumn. Autumn muffled a gasp seeing the contraption helping her walk. "Leg got a big chunk taken out. If it wasn't for Rose I would have been alot worse off, but it was infected by the time I got here. They had to saw it off while I was under."
Dragonsblood glared at her. "Starburst."
Starburst ignored him and laughed. "I lost my best friend, too, I might add. You know, it's so funny how you were the one who lost nothing. Do you feel better about yourself now?"
"Starburst, that's enough, you're acting like a foal." Dragonsblood said.
"And even after I lost everything, you know what? I still don't sit around and cry all day and bitch about how everything sucks..." Starburst laughed a little, then went back to her game. "That's why I don't much care for you, Muffins."
"Oh?" Autumn's words esscaped her mouth like vomit. "Are you sure you don't just hate me because I'm, what was it? A shit eating mud horse? Yeah, what a glorious seventh birthday that was."
Starburst frowned. "You think I'm that narrow minded? No. I don't like you because you're a brat who whines and cries when any little bad thing happens in her happy little life."
Autumn almost managed to bite back her words. "Well, at least I'm not a bitch to everypony she sees!"
Starburst was so silent in that moment Autumn could hear her own heartbeat. Even Dragonsblood was a little surprised by that, and backing away from being in the center of the death battle sure to come. But, to everypony's surprise, Starburst suddenly just giggled a little and smiled. "Well, that's a start, Muffins."
Autumn looked at her in full on surprise. "You... you're not going to... beat my ass or something?"
"Autumn, please, with all the pain relievers they have me hooked up on I'd be lucky to be able to kill a fly. Oh, and I never really found you for the kinky type. Talk about surprising!" Starburst laughed, wiping her muzzle with her hoof and stacked her cards together. "If I was feeling any less shity, however, you would be on the pavement crying." She reshuffled her deck. "How's about when you come back to bump flanks with Rose or whatever it is you ponies do, hell if you can make another friend by the end of the day why don't you bring them with and we can play a good old game of cards?"
Autumn teetered off to the main hall in a confused hurry, until she eventually ran into Zian and Whirlwind waiting by the doors. Zian smiled. "We were just going to go check out our assigned rooms. It seems like we have to double up though, not enough beds for everypony, you know?" She gave Autumn a small key card with a key attached to it. "This is your key. Try not to loose it, they only have so many can't make copies, you know?"
Whirlwind leaned exhaustively against the wall. "Yeah, the others left already, but we were waiting for you. Run into somepony you know?"
"Yeah, some..." Autumn paused a moment. '...friends? No, to personal. Acquaintances? Wow, even that is stretching it.' "... ponies."
Zian smiled. "I like your new jacket."
"Really? It's not that special. Warm enough I guess."
"Oh, Autumn, not that it should be weird or anything, but your staying in my room." Zian smiled. "I mean, if that's not okay I could see if they could switch it for you..."
"Oh, well... I don't really see a problem with it. I guess." Trotting outside, freezing rain hit Autumn like a waterfall. "Really?!" She screeched, lifting her hood.
"This way," Zian said, hastily trotting in front of Autumn.
The old apartment building seemed like it used to be the soldier's quarters, but bigger. 'These were probably made for bat ponies,' Autumn thought to herself, climbing up the stairs at whirlwind flew by.
"This is our stop." Zian said cheerfully.
"Oh, Whirlwind, I guess if you're not busy later my... acquaintance wanted to play a game of cards at the medical clinic tonight if you wanted to join." Autumn said happily before trotting in the room.
"What game?"
"Beats me. Whatever she wants I guess."
"What the hell, why not."
Autumn trotted in the room, peeling off her drenched hoodie and the coat underneath. "That rain was just so sudden, wasn't it? Like... crazy, right?"
"Autumn." Zian closed the door behind her. "Are you okay?"
Autumn paused. "Huh?"
Zian put her hoof gently on Autumn's shoulder. "Yesterday, with that whole thing with Cherry... and that zombie..." Zian smiled gently. "You've been acting strange ever since that happened. Are you feeling okay?"
Autumn sat on the floor. "It's nothing."
"No it isn't. Something is obviously bothering you."
Autumn Glanced up at Zian. "Why do you care so much? I'm just a stranger to you. We only met a couple days ago after all."
"Well..." Zian glanced away. "Maybe I wanted to get to know you as... more than... just a stranger..."
Autumn sighed. "I... I don't know, Zian..."
"I mean it."
"No way." Autumn glanced away. "I mean... lately I don't know what to think anymore! Ponies coming back from the dead... Starburst actually being nice to me, now that's something I never expected. And I mean... ponies... actually wanting to be friends with me...?"
"Why wouldn't somepony want to be friends with a mare like you?" Zian said, helping Autumn up and going to the kitchen.
"Why not? Why would is more like it." Autumn sat down on one of the beds. "I mean... I am just some dull boring nobody baker from small town nowhere... that never even leaves her house or interacts with anypony...," her face flushed as she wiped a hoof over her eyes, "...just whines and cries because nothing is the way she wished it was... and never actually does anything... is just so selfish and mean and just a stupid, dirty ea..."
"Hey," Zian moved Autumn's hoof out of her eyes. "There is nothing wrong with being an earth pony." She smiled and used a napkin to dry of Autumn's face. "And you are not stupid. A little awkward, yes, but not stupid. You're not that Autumn you told me about." Zian set down a warm cup of tea on the bed stand. "You are only what you make yourself, and putting yourself down like that isn't helping anything. You are Autumn Darling, dammit. And even though I'm just a stranger to you." Zian smiled. "I think this Autumn Darling is going to be pretty daum great."
Autumn stared at her, then smiled and hugged Zian tight as tears ran down her face. "That is probably the nicest thing anypony ever said to me..."
Zian was taken a bit back by autumn's abruptness, but gently hugged her back. "Actually..." Zian stepped back I think that you should have this tea I made, then head straight to the bath. Because, no offence of anything, but you smell terrible."
Autumn sniffed herself. "Oh... I guess sleeping in a dusty old train car and rain don't mix well."
"Not to mention wearing the same clothes all the time. You need to clean them after such extreme conditions, you know."
"Hey, I don't wear clothes that often, don't get sassy!"
"You should put your hair up again though. It looked adorable in a bun..."
Autumn took a sip of her tea. "Hey, we'll talk about that later."
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Chapter 6: Moving Right Allong (unedited warning)
"What is happening?!"
Luna sighed."Ponies, please remain calm." She had been working late into the night shift yet again for the third night in a row. It was simpilar before, she would give a quick update several times over to large groups of sleeping ponies. But it wasn't the mass quanities of ponies that were exhasting her, it was the fact that she was getting ahold of fewer and fewer ponies in the night. "I can assure you we here at Canerlot are on the case, and if anypony has any related information, please contact your local guards..."
"Why don't I ever see any Griffons here?!" shouted a tall mare from the back. "Like my husband? Or my hippogryth children? Are they not Equestrians?"
"Well, um, you see...I can only enter the dreams of 'ponies', specifically, and it seems as though the problem is mainly targeted to ponies..."
"It was those changelings, infecting our cities! I knew this was going to happen!"
"Now, relax, Changelings are not the sorce of the problem..." Actually, Luna hadn't thought about that, merely because she assumed changeling magic wouldn't quite work that way, but think about it at the moment she figured she wouldn't write that off as a possiblity. Afterall, with the Changelings sudden form change only a few dozen years prior she didn't quite have the opertunity to examine their new abilities... but they were Equestrian Allies, what would be their motivation? "... I will reconvine with everypony next week, and I assure you I will find some answers. I am just as concerned as everypony else about this crisis attacking the land of Equestria."
"Where are you going?" said several furuius ponies before Luna vanished from the dreamscape, wakeing in her room as usual.
She knew that probably wasn't the best desision, but the past few nights had been exhasting. Getting up and stretching out, she brushed out her flowing mane and got dressed in her usual royal attire, then headed to the archives.
Luna knocked on the door. "Celestia? You haven't slept in three days... are you okay?" Upon the third time knocking the door slid open, only to reveal nothing but a castle keeper dusting.
"The Princess moved her studies to the dungeon, Princess Luna." She said. "Her students thought it would be better... for whatever they are doing I did not wiah to interfer with their work..."
Luna teleported herself to the lowest levels of the castle, careful to poof in a distance so she didn't give any of the guards a heartattack. Trotting through the old dungeon, she got a sense of unease seeing the eyes of the lowest of pety criminals,the ones just harmful enough for Canterlot sociaty but not dangerous enough for the ultimate punnishment of Tartaras. It was times like these she was thankful for the sound proof cells.
Eventually, she made it to the center of the Canterlot Dungeons. "Celestia? I heard that you would be down here."
Celestia rushed over. "You shouldn't be here, Luna.We're doing tests."
Luna tilted her head to look past Celestia's wings. "Tests?"
"We were just making sure it wasn't a virus... so far no pony else has been hurt down here, so that's good. What's also good is it seems like some of the subjects are starveing, so... at least they don't seem to have a longlifespan without food, and they don't even go near animals."
"Test subjects?" Luna frowned. "Celestia, are you..."
"Luna, this is the only way we can know about them. The better we understand this magic, the better we can produce a reversal spell and fix this whole situation." Celestia patted Luna on the back. "Now, I do believe somepony needs to raise the sun soon."
"Celestia...", Luna frowned with a sigh, "What would the citizens think if they knew you were testing on the infected corpses of their love ones?"
Celestia glared. "That's irrelivent. What I and my beloved students need to focas on at the moment is studying these creatures, seeing how they behave and how long the magic lasts, then develpe a proper reversal spell. Then, we can search out the culprit and send them to the fitting punishment..."
Luna stared at her a moment. "Is there anything else?"
Celestia was annoyed by that. "Else?"
"You saw something the day it started. I want to know... no, I need to know. And I want you to give me a strait answer. No more hideing here and not telling me anything, sister."
Celestia sighed. "I... I saw an old student of mine. I'm not sure what it means..."
"An old student? Who... Twilight? Sunburst?" Luna pondered it a second. "Sunset Shimmer?"
Celestia shook her head. "No, none of them. I dismissed it, because... well, it would be impossible. Because the student I saw... she's been dead for over five hundred years."
Starburst must have played fifty games of solitare before she bothered to talk to anypony. She grimiced at the idea of having to have that slut muffin doing things for her, but it wasn't like she could just make Dragonsblood leave, but Rose thought it would be nice for her to have somepony to do things for her while she was recooperateing, and that just made Starburst wonder more why Rose wouldn't just stay at the clinic with her instead of going to do her 'job', as if money even mattered anymore. "Dragon butt!"
Dragonsblood rolled his eyes and trotted over. "What is it, Star?"
"I'm bored."
He sighed. "Well, there are books, some magazines... maybe I could get some paper..."
Starburst smiled. "Dance!"
"What?"
"Entertain me." Starburst clapped her hooves together. "Come on, shake that plot! Want me to get some magic?"
"Umm... no." Dragonsblood said. "I'll see if the staff made dinner yet. You hungry?"
"Nope." Starburst quivered.
"Star."
"What?"
"You haven't eaten anything all day except for those carrots."
She glanced away. "Do you know how awkward the bathrooms are?!"
The door to the recreation room opened and a younger teen unicorn filly trotted in with a tray of food with two plates. "Mrs Starburst, here's your meal! There's one for you, too!" She smiled as she set them down on the table. "My mother made them tonight!"
"Thankyou, Chalk Dust." Dragonsblood said. "As punctual as ever, and it looks great as well."
Chalk Dust's face lit up "Thankyou!"
Starburst stirred the food with a spoon. "Cabbage and potatos again?" She reluctantly took a bite. "Yup."
"Hey, it's not all the same, see? She made some delishous toast with it." Dragonsblood said optimistically.
"Garbage." Starlight said, takeing another bite. "I'm done."
"Starburst, if you don't eat more your pain reliever will give you a stomach ache again." Dragonsblood said.
Starburst rolled her eyes and took a bite of toast, wiped her mouth off, then magically pushed her plate away. "I'm full. Can't eat another bite."
He glared at her, but she was immune to his empty threats by now. "Don't starve yourself."
"I'm not, I'm just not hungry."
"Stop acting like a foal."
"Well, stop acting like my mother!"
He sighed. "Are you going to stop being difficult so I can stop treating you like a foal?"
She smiled. "Nope!"
Chalkdust stepped in. "If you don't like it, maybe I could see if I could make something else?"
"She'll just crush your culinary dreams, Chalk." Dragonsblood said.
"I would love something. Anything other than mashed potatos and cabbage." Starburst said, slumping onto the table.
"Okay, but if Chalkdust makes it, you have to eat every bite..." Dragonblood said as Chalkdust happily trotted off back to the kitchen.
Starburst sat up and rolled her eyes. "Do you really think I would be that rude?" She paused at the sound of hooves down the hall. "Oh, your marefriend's here."
"Oh, please, Rose shouldn't be off work for another hour..."
"I mean Muffin ass." Starburst smiled.
"Oh, come on now. Besides, I am engaged to Rose."
"You may be, but that doesn't mean either of you like it. Infact, that is plain to see." Starburst looked over at the ponies in the hallway. "Then again, it looks like she managed to actually find some poor mare."
Autumn trotted up to them. "Hi... I'm back."
Dragonsblood turned and waved. "Wellcome back. Your a bit early though. Who's that mare next to you?"
Autumn looked around and nearly bursted out laughing. "What, you mean Whirlwind?"
Whirlwind rolled his eyes. "Ha ha, funny funny. Is it so wrong if I like to take care of myself?"
"Well...", Starburst snickered a bit, "...you can't argue your grace, or that long flowing mane..."
Whirlwind sat down. "Didn't we come here to play a card game? I was promised a cardgame."
Starburst magically shuffled her beloved deck of card then set it down. "No. I'm gonna eat first. And, Rose won't be back anytime soon either, unless that slave driver Prim lets her go early."
"Oh." Autumn stood awkwardly.
"So. How did you meet?" Dragonsblood said, eating his food.
"Huh? Oh, well..." Autumn paused. "After Everypony locked me out of the bathroom leaveing me for death with ravenous zombie ponies, I ran away and this kind Unicorn guy let me in his house, then ran off and got himself exploded protecting his daughter. After the trauma died down, I realised there was actually a group of ponies already there. One thing led to another, yadda yadda yadda, here I am."
"Well, I was pretty in and out of conciuosness. Not like I could go, 'Hey, muffin ass, come on in! Room enough for everypony!', but hey, what's important is that we can look back on that and laugh..." Starburst gave a hollow laugh, and the air grew thick, and she took a drink of water while reshuffling her cards.
Whirlwind glanced over at the cards. "Woah, are those from Las Pegasus?"
Starburst paused, then kept shuffling. "Yeah. This is my mom's deck, she used to work in one of the buildings in Las Pegasus, always keep them with me for when I get bored."
Autumn tilted her head, puzzled. "Where did you even keep them? I doubt you went back..."
"Muffin butt, are you deaf? Or blind at that? My outfit had a jacket. It was zipped up and I had these in the zipped up pocket." Starburst smiled. "Stitch made it for me..."
"That was what she was good at."
"It got a little ruined when they had to take it off of me when the gaurds came, but Rose saved it for me anyway." Starburst smiled at the deck of cards. "It's in my room, not that it matters. I was hopeing I might be able to find somepony to help me sew it together." She set it down. "Let me guess, your going to ponyville, right?"
Autumn and Whirlwind looked at eachother, then Whirlwind spoke up. "Yeah."
"Good. I'll go with you, my shit-faced uncle makes custom prostetics for some medical company. I'm getting sick of this thing." Starburst took a long drink of water.
"Well, we don't know how we're going to get there yet." Autumn said.
"And who said you were going anywhere, Starburst?" Dragonsblood said.
"I did. Just now." Starburst smiled wider. "And I think I can make arrangements."
Darkness. Nothing but pitch black misery, sofficateing void. Is it death? Blindness? Sleep? It is increaseingly not clear. In that abyss, a feeling is also unsettlingly hyped. Numbness. Cold, dark numbness. There is no body. There is no thought. Just nothing.
Then all at once, the void is blasted with a thick white light, eyes wide open, limbs finding a new strength and overwhelmed in sensation. Then, a arura of sounds waft through the air...
"...successful..."
"...revived..."
'Revived...?' Eyes wide open, the whiteness dulls to blurred color as a sweet melodic voice wafts the new space.
"Wellcome back."
Zian smiled as she woke up, stretching on her small cot bed. She was honestly amazed that she could sleep so well, she didn't even hear Autumn come back after her cardgame last night, which surprised her. She sighed a moment while lying in bed, her sleepy mind drifting from one hazy thing to another, her hooves gently rubbing the tired from her face, then slipping back down herside as she hazily rolled around.
She tried to just go back to sleep, but couldn't. Her sides burned, and she tried to rub them against eachother to stop the small itch. Then she realized what her body was trying to tell her to do. She paused a minute, then shot her head up, looking around the room. She sighed with relif seeing that Autumn wasn't home, and assumed she went to stay the night at her aquaintence's place, maybe she got drunk last night and couldn't remember her way home.
She frowned. She knew it was selfish to think that Autumn would just fall into her lap and accept her advances, and she wasn't even sure why she was trying, after all she barely even knew the mare. Zian rolled her eyes and decided she better go look for her incase she got lost in the street or something, she didn't like the look of most of the ponies in this city anyway, especially the stallions. Not that she had anything against stallions, but still the ones in town seemed increaseingly unsettling with an extra aura of perviness.
Autumn yawned, her fur slick and wet, the room instensely saturated with the smell of musk. She itched her mane, and rolled over. Where was she? She thought. It smelt thick and humid, but some how nice. She retraced her thoughts as she laid back down on the bed that smelt surpriseingly well.
After Rose didn't show up, she and Whirlwind decided to go out to do something else out of boredom. They went to this weird bar... feelings drowned out... Autumn couldn't really remember what happened.
That is until Whirlwind spoke up. "Um... yeah, why don't we just don't talk about this."
"Huh? Sorry, things are a little hazy..."
"Yeah... things got pretty intense last night... I mean, you were venting your emotional baggage, I was ranting my mind off about junk, and then everything... well, let's not talk about it and move on with our lives." Whirlwind said, gathering his things.
"How did we get here anyway?"
"I think Starburst brought us here after whats-her-face didn't show up, and yeah, then this happened, yadda yadda yadda it's morning now, want to get some coffee?"
Autumn got up and found her hoodie on the floor, then shook it on. "I would love that."
"Oh, well... good." Whirlwind said. "And once you get back, you should deffinately brush your hair... but then again I guess some ponies would find that cute."
"Whirlwind." Autumn said. "What about getting some coffee and just going back to haveing conflicted feelings about everything that happens. "
"Sounds good to me."
Author's Note
I couldn't go to the place I normally do to edit, I'm sorry, I'll edit this chapter and re-realease it as soon as I can , but I felt like I needed to release it on time at least. :/
Also, Sorry if some parts feel a bit rushed. Also for the short chapter. I promise the next chapter will be full of plenty of plot, and as for the anniversary chapter, I still need to work on that. Also, this story may feature some light sexual content, but I didn't want this to be considered full-out porn. If you want to see my full out mlp clop and other random nsfw ect's, you can follow my nsfw blog here: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/toastgirlafterdark
Chapter 7: Paradise (unedited)
"I would like to take a temperary absense, sir."
Frostbite looked up from his coffee at Silver Star, who nervously stood in frount of his table in the guard messhall. "Why?"
"Personal reasons. I have reasons to belive there may be a commune of batponies in the Everfree forest. I would like to have permission to persue them and assure their safety... sir," Silver Star said, not wavering from her stature.
"Well, that is your job, isn't it?" Frostbite said. "And where exactly did you aquire this information?"
"The batpony at the bar, Clover, sir."
Frostbite smirked. "So, that's why I saw you sneaking back into the barracks after curfew, Silver."
Silver paused, "I..."
"Oh, go ahead, have some fun or whatever. Just understand what matters is your job, espeacially with everythng that's been happening as of late. And when you find this... 'commune' as you put it, direct them in this direction. There is no way they have a working sheild spire. Just be prepared for the worst, even if they have a working spire, they most likely are low on supplies and have no guards. This is the only known spire township in the Everfree Forest." Frostbite sighed. "Keep flying, if you go on the ground that could be death, just remember that. Are you sure you don't want backup?"
"I think it would be better if I go alone. I'll wear my armor and bring my sword, don't worry, Captain. I'll make sure those batponies are safe and sound." Silver said, trotting off.
Silver hasteily trotted off to her room. Ever since she woke up, regardless of how long she actually had been sleeping, she planned out what she would need to scout out the Everfree forest for... whatever could be out there. She had the essentials ready, a saddlebag full of food, three bottles of water, a rain jacket, some matches, and her short sword. Then she put on her armor, the Silver status guard armor. She even had a helmet with a wavy dusty pink mohawk to match her mane.
Cracking her neck and walking out of the barracks, she was ready.Wings wide spread, she flew off into night high into the clouds. flying a little away from the walls of Stone Hoofed, she sighed to herself. "Okay Silver, your really doing this, aren't you? Come on, just take another little gust forward. I mean, it's only the Everfree forest, it's no big deal... a little big though..."
Autumn sighed as she trotted up the stairs of the housing building. Coffee with Whirlwind was very awkwardly silent, and she was freezeing. At least she got whatever spontanous urges that came about the night prior out of her system, she thought as she took the final stretch of stairs. She didn't know what hit her, but then again maybe this happened all the time. It's not like she goes drinking all the time.
With the door to her and Zian's room in sight, she got out her key with her mouth and accidentily got a smell of herself, and that alone nearly made her topple over. 'So much for that bath last night...' she thought, the only thing on her mind a simple cold shower to wash away last night.
Opening the door, she was surprised to see Grella and Mech waiting for her inside, Cherry on the floor doing some kind of arts and crafts. "What are you guys doing here?" Autumn studdered, closeing the door behind her.
"Zian asked us to wait here in case you came back." Mech said, drinking a cup of coffee.
"Oh." Autumn trotted around. "She was pretty worried, huh?"
"Yeah." Grella said, putting a claw on Autumn's back, then leaning in a scruffing her mane. "But I can see that some little pony was very busy last night, so I'm sure she'll understand..." She laughed as Autumn dunked out of her grasp.
"Huh?" Autumn shuttered.
"Oh, come on, it's pretty obvious." Grella smirked. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"It... No! I mean... maybe..." Autumn sighed and sat back in a chair. "I mean... I was emotional, and a little drunk, he was emotional and drunk, one thing led to another..." She shook her head. "Oh, it's silly, it's not like it meant anything..."
"Oh, pony feathers..."
"Huh? What, I'm not lying..."
Grella laughed and brushed a claw on her mane. "Nope, pony feathers. In your mane."
"Oh..." Autumn threw her hood up over her head.
"Hey, no reason to be embarassed, you are a full grown mare. And besides, it's not like you'll see this mysterious pegasus Stallion again..."
Mech leaned over an dlooked at the feather Grella plucked out of Autumn's mane. "That's one of Whirlwinds feathers."
Autumn blushed and hid herself even further into her jacket. "H-how would you know if it's Whirlwind's?"
"Are you serious? How many medium blue stallion pegasi around here do you know here that have feathers as clean as these?" Mech said. "It's a nervous habit of his. Ever since Galestorm got sick he's been nervous about catching some kind of disease, even after he knows she didn't get sick that way."
"Galestorm?" Autumn pondered.
"Whirly's mom!" Cherry said, catching onto the conversation, not looking up from her work.
"Oh..." Autumn glanced away and sighed. "Sorry your wife is sick, hopefuly she's okay..."
"Oh, no. She died." Mech said with a sigh.
"Oh."
"It's alright. She's in a better place now." Mech took a drink of coffee. "So... you and Whirlwind, eh? I can see it."
"Huh? No... it was nothing..."
Mech frowned. "I don't know. I mean, you can feel however you want, but Whirlwind tends to take things pretty seriously. Just... well, try not to hurt his feelings."
"I didn't even think I liked stallions... or mares..." Autumn sank back. "I mean, I'm still not sure."
"No one's ever sure about anything!" Grella laughed.
"It's true. being confused is pretty much a nessesity for life." Mech said.
"Well... I don't know, aren't things supposed to be..."
"Nope!" Grella said.
"But I didn't even finish my-"
"That's because life is complicated, it sucks I know, but... well how to put it..." Grella got up. "How about I teach you a few things about life?"
Starburst quietly watched the door to the medical center open, Rose peaking through the door. "Your late."
Rose blushed. "Um... actually, I'm early? See, the... sun is riseing?"
Starburst offered a deadpan glare. "Somepony came here for you last night. We were waiting all night for you. We even went down to your work, but we couldn't find you anywhere."
"Somepony for me? Oh, I doubt that." Rose laughed it off nervously as Starburst glared. "Fine. Does this mysterious pony have a name?"
"Yes, it's Muffinass, and she was looking forward to seeing you again." She frowned. "Why did Primmrose have you work so late? Aren't you engaged or whatever?"
"She talked it over with Dragonsblood's father, it won't be valid until the situation passes. So, she has me working to try to..."
"Just stop." She felt herself fume with anger. "This is wrong."
"It's for the good of Equestria, Star!"
"Equestria would be a much happiler place without places like that, and without mothers that would do something like that to their own daughter," she glared even harder. "Do you think this is okay? Rose... do you really like comeing here every week and letting them do this to you?"
"The rates of the country are getting smaller and small-"
"Stop it! She's been telling you all this bullshit ever since I can remember!" Starburst looked in Tea Rose's eyes. "Can you say your happy? Can you look me in the eyes and tell me you want to put your own daughter through this when the time comes?"
Rose frowned uncomfortably. "No... I can't..."
"Then do what is 'good for Equestria', Rosey." Starburst smiled. "Runaway with me. In a few days, I could get us a cart to Ponyville. They won't find you. I wouldn't let them find you. You could make your own decsitions, Rose. Like you always talked about doing." She waited, but the expression of thought and concern on Rose's face didn't wane. "Just a few days. We'll go to Ponyville together... or I'm sorry, but you'll have to stay here alone. Dragonbutt is coming with me, he wouldn't let the staff let me go otherwise." She frowned a little. "Autumn... is coming with us too..."
Rose's face lit up. "Autumn's alive?"
"You didn't get my hint earlier?" Starburst grimmly laughed to herself. "I knew that would convince you."
"I... I'll consider it. Just, please, let me just go to my room and sleep off this headache." Rose said, trotting past Starburst.
Frostbite nervously paced the room, a small council of watch ponies gathered around a spire. "Any word from Night Guard SilverStar?"
"No, sir," one of them said, "nopony has seen any trace of her."
"Unsettling," he sighed, "what of outside reports? Any news from Canterlot, Dawn Guard Pebbles?"
The small white pegasus mare, Pebbles, raised her head respectively. "We have gotten quite a bit of information on Princess Celestia's findings. The full report has been recorded by secrectary Bluebelle. They may be helpful in protecting the barrier and better equiping search teams for any missing survivors, Captain."
"Excelent." Frost bite bit back. "Now, back on the issue of the day."
"Well, there are a group of carriges taking off today, Captain, to transport extra ponies to Ponyville. Four carriges in total, mostly." Pebbles said.
"What time do they depart?"
"This morning, time non specific."
"Behold, the great and powerful flying machine!" Starburst announced after Autumn gathered everypony there, waveing her frount hooves at the large carrige, it's wheels and bottom covered in misty clouds and colors light and airy like the sky. "I know, you love it. Far suppirior to those dirty carts those other ponies are useing, a I right?"
Whirlwind stared in awe, a smile forming across is face. "Oh. My. Celestia! Where in Equestria did you get this?!"
"Oh, a mare has her ways. I convinced them that we would need something light that can magically ballance the weight of EVERYpony, especially after Autumn... surprised me when she said how many of you were coming allong." Starburst smiled, opening the carrige door. "Buttt... we might still need two flyers to carry all of us effortlessly..."
"Me, me, me!" Whirlwind said, nearly skipping to the carrige's harness. "Oh, it's so perfect! That's real Cloudsdayle luxury!"
Grella laughed, flying to the other harness. "Oh, you ponies and your 'compfort' and 'luxury'. What matters is if it's FAST."
Zian was a bit surprised, and glanced to Mech. "Aren't you going to vollenter?"
"Oh.... no..." Mech said, yawning. "Might just lay down once we get inside. I' just took my medicine... that stuff always makes me a bit... drowsy. Might not be in best flying condition."
"Oh, well, okay..." Zian said.
Starburst stood there, smileing, the carrige door wide open. After several minutes of everypony just standing there, Dragonsblood spoke up. "I think she wants all of you to go inside..."
"Oh." Autumn blushed, trotting up the three steps to the inner core of the carrige. It didn't take her long to be hugged by a mysterious pink blur.
"Autumn! Oh my gosh, your really okay! Oh, I'm so sorry I invites you to that stupid party!"
Autumn opened her eyes and saw Rose smiling down, hugging her with full force. "Rose?"
Rose let go of her and smiled. "Yep, it's me! Come over here, sit by me! I want to hear everything that happened!"
Still a little dizzy, Autumn went to the very back and huddled herself in the corner, putting her saddlebag under her seat. "What happened to your mane... and tail?"
Rose nervously shriviled. Her mane, once long and straight, was cut a little shorter and tied off into a braid. Her mane and tail themselfs were lightened from their original silky redness to a lighter off pink, but not quite the pearly pastel pink of her coat. Rose giggled a little as she sat next to Autumn and ponies started coming in. "Oh, Primrose always had me dye my hair ever since I was a filly! Since we cant exactly go to the salon every other day now to use the cheap temperary stuff we always used, and I got to let it come back to it's natural color! And as for the style, well... I guess I wanted to start off freash in Ponyville."
Cherry trotted in and looked nervously around. Glanceing at the corner, she noticed Autumn and quickly gallouped over, sitting between her and Rose. "Wow!" She giggled, looking at Rose. "Your horn is so big! I bet yuo know alot of magic! Are you a wizerd?"
Rose blushed at the sudden apearence of a small child. "Well, no... Autumn, did you go out and have a filly in all the time you were gone?"
"Huh? No!" Autumn said. "She's... well it's a long story."
"Oh..." Rose smiled. "No, my magic isn't really stronger than any pony elses. I just know basic levatation and all that."
"Well..." Cherry sat back with her bag in her lap. "Do you know any other magic?"
"Well um..." She glanced away. "Nothing I can show in here anyway. I'll show you a few tricks in Ponyville, how about that... you...?"
"Oh!" She smiled. "My name is Cherry! I used to live in Hoofing Hills, my daddy ran the museum!"
Rose's eyes widened. "We have a museum?"
"Who's your friend there, Autumn?" Zian said, sitting across from her.
"Oh, well... this is my fillyhood friend, Tea Rose." Autumn said.
Zian smiled. "Please to meet you."
"Charmed, I'm sure."
Starburst closed the carrige door, firmly locking it so it wouldn't open mid-flight. "Okay, get compfy. It's gonna be at least a days flight." She laid down on a bench, folding in her wheels and sticking them under her, then strapping in. Autumn didn't even notice the seatbelts, but she doubted there were enough straps for everypony.
Outside, after struggling to adjest the harness for her size but finnally manageing it, Grella was ready to go when a bat pony guard rushed over. "Excuse me, but if it isn't to much to ask, one of my gaurds had left five days ago into the everfree forest in search of a commune of bat ponies. if you see her along the way, her name is Silver Star and should be wearing shiney silver armor."
"Oh, that little guard pony is in the Everfree forest? I'll be on the look out."
"Good. Tell her to abandon her mission and return here as soon as possible." He sighed. "Just follow the lead cart, They've made travels to Ponyville before and know the fastest, safest route."
Grella sighed. "Alright. I'll do that."
"You better be off then."
And with that, Grella and Whirlwind took off after the carriges already in flight, towards ponyville and an uncertain future.
The crackle of burning embers filled the air as Silver Star woke, her bed slammed to the wall as the floor rumbled. She looked around the little bedroom that she had grown aqqainted with as hers all her short life, part of the ceiling fell to the floor and a fire was creeping in from under her bedroom door. Dizzy and disoriented, Silver grabbed her blanket and her favorite night time stuffed animal and flew through the hole in the ceiling. She would go to the fire department, the police, somepony around here had to be able to help her house, she thought.
She was wrong.
With a full veiw of the town, she looked over the town scape in horror. The entire town had sunken through the ground, buildings crashing onto the floor and smashing like glass. There was nopony there to help. Everypony was probably dying before her eyes. The Hallowed Shades was dying.
Silver woke up with shallow breath. She couldn't remember where she had been, but she did realize one thing right away. "Where's my armor?!"
"Shhh, relax."
Silver bursted out of her bed and flew so hard her head hit the ceiling and she crashed right back down. She looked around and her eyes eventually focused on a nurse pony. "Where am I? Where did you put my armor?"
"Oh!" The nurse pony sniveled. "I'm Nurse Patch, and this is Paradise Estate."
Silver gave her a funny look. "Paradise Estate is just an old mare's tale, where am I really?"
"Our community is called Paradise Estate, miss. It is based off of the ledgend and the teachings of Lady Paradise. You flew into our sheild and hurt yourself, so try to stay calm." Patch said in a hushed, soothing voice. "Your armor is right there, but you may have no need for it out here. Lady Paradise keeps us safe, we have little need for guards."
"Who is this 'Lady Paradise' your going on about?"
Patch stumbled a bit. "Oh! Lady Paradise founded our safe haven long ago, however if you wish to speak with her she unfortunately is long dead. Her Decendent, our leader Lady Paradise, is always here for ponies in need, however!"
"Where is this unrecognized town located?"
Patch frowned a bit. "We make our settlement here in the Everfree, the families here have lived here for generations. Unfortunately a plague brought on by some wicked creature is harming us, but Lady Paradise assured us that we are safe."
Silver Star stood up. "Your a bat pony... have you seen a bat pony named Cotten Candy? She's pink, and may have some here recently with a unicorn and a group of other bat ponies..."
"Miss Cotten? Why yes! Lady Paradise has saved her from that wicked place, she helps with tending to the farms! The harvest festival is coming up soon, so we are making ourselves ready to bring in the winter! She should be busy right now, but once your dressed I could take you to her."
"Dressed?"
Patch flew over to a small closet in the hospital room. "It is disrespectful not to wear traditional clothing in the presence of Lady Paradise. Even if you do not wish to stay, an appropriate outfit is customary." She gave Silver a long yellow shirt with some kind of faulse pancho over the collar. "It might seem silly at first, but this is just what it is we do here. I imagine you wouldn't wish to be rude."
Although still having a hard time processing it, she did notice even Patch was wearing something simmilar, but a bit more uniform. Just playing along for the moment, Silver slipped the shirt on and poked her wings out of it. "My name is Lunar Guardspony Silver Star. I have been sent by the ponies of Fort Stone Hooved to ensure that the ponies here are safe and to do an overall inspection."
"Sounds wonderful, but I can sure say that everypony here is happy, Lady Paradise cares for all of us!" Patch smiled, fluttering to the door. "Infact, I'm sure that Lady Paradise would just love to meet you first to disscuss some things. Would you please follow me?"
Author's Note
Oh, yay, another unedited chapter. Sorry, I haven't had the chance to go to the library and edit, so please try to bare with me until I can get it done.
