Fallout Equestria: Songs of Hope

Chapter Six: Out of the Ashes

“What?! Gone…what…where…when?!”

My emotions were already all over the place from Ponyville and now I return to learn Blossom, still weak and covered with unhealed wounds, was now gone. As I was attempting to process what I was just told, there was a sharp tug on my shoulder. Lily’s face practically screamed her distress, her fearful eyes wide and red with tears. She was looking up at me, trying to tell me something, but the words wouldn’t come out. She was frantic and her legs were wobbling quite a bit, covered with splotches of wet mud. She must have been searching for Blossom for a while now.

Resting a wing gently on her shoulder, I tried to muster all the confidence that I could. “We will find her, I promise. Tell me everything you remember before she disappeared.”

She was still distressed, but was able to focus as she relayed what she remembered. “Uh…Uhm…I was checking in on her shortly after you left. She was still very upset and told me to go away.” Her expression seemed to get sadder as she went on. “I’ve been with her for a few years now, but I’ve never seen her like this. I didn’t know what to do to help her, so I went outside to try and clear my head. A few minutes later, I went to check in on her again. Her bed was empty, the window next to it was open, and she was gone.” She stopped, sniffling and rubbing away some tears from her eyes.

I encouraged her to continue. “Go on. What happened next?”

Mustering up her voice, she went on. “I panicked and ran to the window, hoping to see where she went, but there was no sign of her. I ran outside to look for her, but there was nothing. I couldn’t find her anywhere. Even flying above the house, there was no sign of her. I called out to her as loud as I could…She’s just a little filly, Wanderer. She can’t survive all on her own.” Walking over to me, she just dropped her head into my chest, and seemed utterly defeated.

Putting a hoof under her chin, I raised her head up. “And she won’t have to. We will find her, I promise. I won’t let anything happen to her. I swear this to you. We will bring her back, safe and sound.”

A brief glimmer of hope resurged in her eyes. Nodding her head, she smiled a little bit and asked what we were gonna do next.

Gesturing for her to follow, I went over the area. “Luckily the ground is still wet from the rain. Which means there is probably a trail left behind we can follow. Let’s start at the window.” Heading to the window, I made a quick guesstimate of how far a bandaged filly would get from the window to the ground and was able to spot a few small hoofprints rather quickly. Following the general direction of the trail, they appeared to curve off towards the southeast. Gesturing for Lily to follow, we took off in pursuit, moving as fast as we could while following the hoofprints. With still no sign of Blossom, even after minutes of searching, I began to worry. The raiders and slavers were planning to attack today, and we still had no idea where they might be holding up. A brief scene of Blossom being held captured by them flashed through my mind and I picked up the pace. Out of my peripheral vision I could see we were now closing in on the outskirts of the town, but I paid it no mind. My sole focus was on the trail and finding Blossom. So much, that I was completely caught off guard by somepony jumping on me and bringing me down. Right as I was about to buck them off, I heard Lily’s voice right next to my ear.

“Are you out of your damn mind? You were about to run right into the forest!” There was surprise and…fear…in her voice. I was just about to tell her it was just another forest, but caught myself as I looked up.

This was no ordinary forest.

From the outside, it appeared twisted and wrong. The trees stood tall and dark, with long, sharp branches jutting out from everywhere about halfway up. The leaves were an unnatural combination of black and brown, and were so dense that it was impossible to see the treetops. Beneath the branches, a dense fog was formed and just pouring out of the forest. Looking closer, there were large vines and brambles that were absolutely everywhere, giving just barely enough room for a single pony to fit through. I was getting some very uncomfortable vibes of malice, death and…longing? It was like the forest was trying to lure me in, but telling me that to do so may cost my life. It was hard to explain it, but I don’t think it mattered how I felt about it. Because that’s where Blossom’s trail led and my concern for her far outweighed the ominous feeling. What could have possessed her to go into this place?

I wasn’t alone in that sentiment as Lily got off of me and began backing away from the forest edge. “Blossom…” She just kept backing away until I snapped her out of it.

“What’s wrong? Is there something wrong with this place?”

The look of incredulity she gave me had to be the most expressful I’ve ever seen from her. And she’s gone through a lot of emotions from all the shits that happened over the last few days. “Are you shitting me right now? This is Everfree Forest!” I could only shrug and I guess my confusion didn’t help to calm her down. “Its Everfree Forest! There is absolutely no way you haven’t heard anything about this wretched place. Even raiders and slavers aren’t crazy enough to go near here. Any pony that has gone in, never came back out.” As she looked back towards the forest, I noticed now that I have never seen her this afraid before. The only reason she probably hasn’t run off yet was because her sister was in those woods. Time was against us and from the sounds of it, the longer Blossom was in those woods, the more danger she was in. I needed to try and convince Lily to come with me to help, and quick.

Moving right in front of her, I put myself right between her and the forest. Looking deep into her eyes, I tried to appear as confident as I could be. “Lily, I can see this place frightens you. And while I may not know why, I do know that Blossom is in there all alone and probably just as terrified as you are.” At the mention of her name, Lily’s attention shot to me. “I promised you that I wouldn’t let anything happen to her… or to you. And I am true to my word. We will find her, and all three of us will leave out of these woods alive and well.” I raised my hoof in front of her, causing her to look down at it.

“Do you trust me?”

Looking back up, it was clear her mind was in a battle between giving into her fear and her feelings for her sister. It was a short battle though and as she put her hoof in mine, her eyes were filled with gratitude, and a brief flash of something else, but she was already nuzzling her head into my neck.

“Oh Wanderer…Thank you. I don’t know where I would be now if it wasn’t for you.” Picking her head back up, she gave me a quick kiss on the cheek which caught me by surprise. Shortly realizing what she did, she quickly turned away from me, face flushed completely red.

“C’mon. Let’s go find my sister.” She started heading into the forest, but stopped short before turning back to me, her face flushed with nervousness. “Um, would you mind taking the lead…?” Giving her a quick nod, I took the lead, and we took our first steps into the mists of Everfree Forest.

…

It felt like hours had passed since we first entered the forest. There was no way to tell what time of day it was. Fortunately, we were still able to follow the trail and tried to call out to Blossom occasionally along the way. The fog was still heavy, but not as much as it was before. I could see up to at least two yards away. However, the eerie silence was what got to me the most. There was no wind, no critters, not even a rustle of leaves. The only sounds came from our hoofsteps and our breathing. There were some times we even lost the trail before eventually stumbling back onto it. With no other trace of Blossom, the only thing we could do was continue our trek. Looking back to see how Lily was faring, it was plain she was still nervous. Her eyes kept darting back and forth around us, looking for any possible traces of her sister, as well as from nervousness about what lie in these woods. No pony knew what exactly was in here, after all.

Eventually, the fog lessened into a mist and the trees were starting to thin out. Looking back, I could only look on in astonishment. Both the trees and the brush were almost completely covered by snaking, thorny vines. There was a slight movement among them, and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It appeared that the vines were slowing moving, as if to cut off our way out. Unable to tear my eyes away for a moment, I reached my hoof out to tap Lily’s shoulder, who was facing the other direction.

No response.

After tapping a little harder, I forced myself to break away and turned to see her staring ahead, her eyes wide. Tears were running down her cheeks, and she was smiling. Following her gaze, I was absolutely speechless. There were two ponies just a few hoofs away from us, bloodied and heavily wounded. Although that wasn’t why I was speechless.

It was because those two ponies were Jesse and Darlene.

We all just stood still, silently looking at each other. There was no way they were alive. We burned their bodies until there was naught left but ash. The silence was finally broken by Lily as she reached a hoof out towards them.

“Ma…Pa…Is that really you?”

There was no response. They just stood there, with warm expressions. But I could tell that it was a false warmth. I knew for certain they were dead and that there was no way they were here now. Something was wrong. Taking a few steps, I put myself between them and Lily.

“Who…what are you? I know you’re not Jesse and Darlene…”

Lily was now trying to move around me, but I stopped her. “Wanderer, what do you mean? They’re standing right there!”

Still holding her back, I kept my gaze upon them and asked again, this time more demanding. “Tell us what you are now! I will not fall for your trickery…Answer me!!”

They both smiled and they began to change. Their bodies started to become translucent, mixing in with the fog. Within a matter of seconds, there wasn’t any trace they were ever there. Lily walked right past me, her hoof reaching out to where the illusions were, as if they would come back if she could just touch them. I started to reach out to Lily myself to bring her back, but stopped just short of touching her.

I knew they were just illusions, but Lily had to come to terms with their deaths on her own. However, any chance for that was not going to happen anytime soon. There was a voice in the air that made us both snap to attention. It was Blossom!

“Blossom! Were here, sweetie! Where are you?!” Lily was darting around, turning in different directions, trying to locate where her voice was coming from. “Blossom, please answer me!”

Trying to pinpoint where the sound was coming from was proving to be difficult. Even as I strained my ears towards each direction, it all sounded the same. Lily stopped moving and took off. “Blossom, I’m coming!”

“Damnit Lily, wait!” It was too late, and I had to sprint to catch up to her before she disappeared into the fog completely. It wasn’t long before the fog began to dissipate, and we arrived in a clearing. Above us stretched an irradiated, cloudy night sky.

In the center of the clearing was a large pond, with some mist spots hovering over the surface. Right across from us, by the lakeside was Blossom. She was scanning around the pond, searching for something. Lily had halted some distance away, looking out towards the pond. And for once, she stopped me from moving any further.

Pointing out towards the pond, her hoof was shaking as she asked. “Wanderer…what is that?

Following the direction of her hoof, I now noticed a large object moving from the center of the pond. As it silently breached the surface, I saw a monstrous creature with a scaly hide and a long snout, with sharpened teeth protruding form its mouth. And it was heading straight to where Blossom was.

Rushing towards Blossom, I called out to her. Stopping in her tracks, she turned towards me and waved. She had no idea what was behind her. A monstrous, long snout was seen poking out of the water, jaws smoothly unhinging. The fangs alone were the size of a filly, and sharpened to a fine point. Blossom was only a few hoofs away from me as the creature lunged forward to snap down on her.

“NOOO! BLOSSOM!!” Lily was screaming at the top of her lungs.

An image of Blossom being hung from a tree, left to bleed out, resurfaced in my mind and I used every ounce of strength I had to push off from the ground, spread my wings and lunge towards her.

Snap!

It’s jaws slammed shut, with a sickening crunch. For a few seconds, there was darkness for a while, until I realized I had shut my eyes. Upon slowly opening them, I discovered that I was by the pondside, with Blossom safely in my hoofs, tightly holding onto me. I had landed on the other side of the monster, just hoofs away from its jaws. Sighing with relief that I made it in time, the moment was very short lived as the monster gave off a loud bellow, propelling me to take to the sky. A second later, the space I was just standing in was filled with the snapping of its large jaw. After flying high enough, I turned to look down at the beast. The thing was absolutely enormous. It was the size of a train cart and was long enough to take up two blocks, at least. As it turned back to look at us, it stared for a few minutes before looking towards Lily. Without hesitation, she also spread her wings and took to the sky to join us. It must’ve realized that we were out of its reach, as it let out one final roar before diving into the deep, murky center of the pond. Fearful that it might be come back, we hovered in the air for a while.

The whole time, Blossom just clung on tightly. I could feel my chest getting wet from her tears and she was apologizing. “I’m so sorry…I just wanted my mom and dad. I saw them and they waved at me, telling me to come home…I didn’t know…” The rest I couldn’t make out, but I didn’t need to. The poor kid must be absolutely heartbroken. Looking to Lily, I could see she wanted to cry as well, but I don’t think she had any more to spare for now. These last few days had been a nightmare for them, and I don’t think they could take any more right now.

…

About five minutes had passed now. With no sign of the creature resurfacing, we felt it was time to leave this place. After landing a safe distance from the pond, Blossom let go and just looked around. She looked lost and confused. Lily ran up and hugged her, but she didn’t seem to really notice. Her eyes were focused on our surroundings, as if waiting for something. She must still be hoping that her parents would appear from the fog. Though thanks to that, I was able to notice the fog was starting to get dense again and we needed to get out of there. After locating our tracks, I motioned to Lily. Nodding her head in a solemn, silent manner, she nudged Blossom and we headed back. Before we entered the tree line, I took one look back to make sure that monster wasn’t behind us.

I froze.

Standing by the lakeshore, I could make out the silhouette of a pony through the fog. There was no other pony that was here with us and for a moment I thought it was another illusion of their parents, but this pony was different. Because I had no recollection of ever seeing this pony before. It had horns on it’s head. And it was staring directly at me. However, almost as soon as it appeared, it also disappeared, turning towards the pond and fading into the fog. I was about to call out to it, but was interrupted by a tug on shoulder. It was Lily.

“Is everything alright?”

Shaking my head, I gave Lily a reassuring grin. Whatever it was, it was gone now. “Yeah…yeah, everything is good. Just wanted to make sure we weren’t being followed by that beast.”

Taking the lead, I located the trail and walked back into the forest.

…

A few hours had passed and the silence in the air was about as heavy as the fog. Every pony was quiet the whole way. I mean, what was there to say or talk about? What comforting words or actions could I possibly use to help them, after all that’s happened to them? Fortunately, it seemed we were about to leave the forest as a faint glow could be made out ahead and the fog began to clear up. Relief began to wash over me as we could get our of here and put this whole ordeal behind us.

Then I heard it…

The screams.

And it wasn’t coming from Lily or Blossom. They were coming from up ahead, outside the forest. And they were getting closer.

Looking back to the girls, I motioned for them to get down and they dropped down without hesitation. Carefully moving forward, I arrived just behind some bushes and slowly poked my head out. The scene that lay before me was one of horror and flames.

Ponyville was ablaze, its flames and plumes of smoke blocking out any remnants of the sky above. Earth ponies and unicorns alike were running around in attempts to escape the suffocating smoke that seemed to come from every direction. Yet, that wasn’t the only thing they were running from. Within mere moments, shots were heard, and I turned to see two of the town guard behind some boxes and barrels, firing toward the center of town where I couldn’t see. It wasn’t long before some well-placed shots were returned, dropping both guards dead. Shortly after they fell, dozens of armored ponies were running around, laughing with a deranged glee that bordered along the psychotic. They were Raiders. Mixed in among them were other ponies with leather armor, chasing after any poor residents that were nearby. The armor was the exact same as the two I had a run in with earlier today.

There was a frightened gasp behind me and I turned to see Lily, eyes widened and mouth agape. She only uttered a single word, but it was enough to confirm how bad this was.

“Slavers.”

Her gaze was fixed ahead, unable to look away. As more screams could be heard, I turned back towards the carnage. As more raiders and slavers came into view, it looked hopeless for the town’s folk. At least a dozen more raiders came into view, but one of them caught my immediate attention.

There was a small, black unicorn centered amongst them, walking with an air of command and fear, giving me the impression that they were the one in charge. They wore leather armor, but attached to each leg were single, long, curved blades that were about as half as long as their actual legs. They just seemed to watch calmly as the raiders and slavers either captured or killed any pony that crossed their path. They halted and said a few words to the ones closest to them. Shortly after, those raiders and slavers turned around, heading back the way they came from. The leader was now walking closer towards the edge of town and gazing out into the woods, as if searching for something. I froze as they stopped, staring right in the same direction of where we were hiding. Not sure if they could see me or not, I didn’t dare move. As he continued to stare in our direction, I was able to get a better look at them as well. He was a young stallion. There was an eyepatch covering his right eye and I could see there was a huge scar along that same half of his face. His remaining eye was a piercing amber. The fire behind him gleamed and danced off the blades around his legs, showing an impossible sharpness. Fortunately, I don’t think he saw me and turned his attention back towards the town.

There were still about a dozen raiders and slavers left, rounding up the remaining town’s folk. They were blocked in from all sides and one even tried to run into a building that wasn’t burning just yet. Any hope that poor soul may have had was gone fast, as a few slavers caught up to them right as they were about to get inside. Kicking and screaming, they were dragged out and beaten into submission. At the same time this was happening, other slavers were doing similar things to any other pony that attempted to flee. In an alleyway, there were two raiders doing the opposite and dragging a unicorn mare by her hind legs into another home. She was gagged, clawing at the dirt in attempts to escape.

A sickening feeling hit me as I knew what they were going to do. Tensing up, I was about ready to leave all sense behind and fly over there, but just as I was about to, multiple shots rang out from further down the alley and the raiders dropped dead. Not sparing a second, the terrified mare got up and took off towards the direction the shots came from. Rushing from the alley were three more town guards, one unicorn with a sledgehammer and two earth ponies with pistols. Catching the raiders by surprise, they unloaded all their rounds, managing to take out a couple more before swiftly dropping their pistols and switching to combat knifes. The unicorn guard was still floating their sledgehammer. All three began charging at the leader.

As they bore down on him, his body began to tremble, forcing him to back away, turning his head to look behind him for any means of escape. I started to feel hope as they were now almost upon him, and then this would all be over. Watching his final moments, my excitement turned to confusion as he instantly stopped trembling and any trace of fear he had was gone. Instead, a wicked grin quickly creeped across his face and my stomach lurched as I realized. He was faking it to lure them in. And the guards had no idea as they were just a few hoofsteps away from him now. He turned back to face them, their horn vibrating with raw, yellow energy.

As the unicorn guard brought down the sledgehammer with all their might at the leader’s head, all they caught was earth as the leader smoothly sidestepped their attack. The second guard was stopped in their tracks and now floating upwards. The third guard however was right on top of them and bringing down the knife to slash the leader down. With an impossible burst of speed, the leader leaped forward with one leg out. As they landed, the third guard stopped in their tracks, confused. As they turned back to face the leader, he saw the blood dripping from their blade, took one step and then collapsed. As blood poured from their neck, the first guard shouted in rage. Bringing up their sledgehammer, they started swinging it at the leader with great precision.

But this meant nothing to them as they continuously dodged every swing in a calm manner. After a while, they sighed as if bored.

“You are not worthy of my time.” He then lunged past the guard, slicing off one of their legs.

As the guard stumbled onto their side, the leader was already on top of them and slammed their hoof down on the guards neck. A loud snap could be heard and then only one guard remained. He was still being levitated, wildly swinging their legs in the air. The leader perked up their ears and turned back to the second guard, walking calmly and stopping just below him.

“Oh right…I almost forgot about you. Are you perhaps worthy of my time?” He sat down and waited for the guard to respond.

“Fuck you! I’ll kill all you filthy fuckin raiders, every last…” Before he could finish, his head snapped as it was forcefully twisted to the side.

Sighing again, the leader released his magic and let the body dropped. “Such a foul mouth. You are just like my subordinates.” Looking around what remained of the burning town, he turned to the nearest group of slavers, who just sat back and watched the whole time.

“Let’s wrap this up. It won’t do to keep him waiting. And tell my subordinates if they kill any more prizes, I will personally carve the cost we lose out of their hides. Please?” The slavers looked at each other and then nodded, heading out in different directions. All that remained was the leader and about three or four raiders.

We needed to leave. There was nothing we could do, and that unicorn was too powerful. As I turned to tell the girls, there was a rustle from the bushes behind us as a raider stepped out. Our eyes met and I recognized it was Lilith, one of the raiders from the ruins.

“You!” Without any warning, she tackled me, and we rolled out of the forest, right into town. Eventually I was able to throw her off, but she was able to recover quickly. Staring each other down, I broke my gaze away to notice the leader was right behind her and rested a hoof on her shoulder. Surprised by the sudden hoof on her shoulder, she turned and looked about ready to attack him, but as soon as she saw who it was, she quickly calmed down and lowered her head, backing away in submission.

Turning to address me, his voice was unnaturally calm and polite, which given him being a raider just made his presence very unsettling. His gaze felt like he could pierce through to your very soul. “My, my, what have we here? A zebra that has wings. So, you’re the one that’s been rumored about amongst my raiders. I guess Bruiser wasn’t full of it after all.” Walking closer to me, yet keeping a safe distance, he appeared to be studying me, a hint of fascination in his eye.

“Seeing a zebra is rare enough these days and can fetch a hefty price, depending on the buyer. But you…you’re not natural.”

I snorted back sarcastically. “Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m an abomination, what of it?”

Cracking a smile, he had now come full circle and faced me with interest. “To all the other ponies, yes. However, they don’t see the value in your kind. I could care less about the past and their war with zebras. That was before my time and not my problem. In my experience, zebras are often stronger, faster and have an incredible knack for martial arts. Add wings to that…hoo…now that’s something else.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the four raiders, all earth ponies, circling around me. In front of me, next to their leader was a grey stallion wielding a spiked club. To my right was Lilith, crouched down and just waiting to pounce on me again and to my left was a yellow stallion with a rope. Finally, to my rear was a muscular white stallion with a long wooden plank.

“But as you can see, I have a quota to fill, and your presence alone will increase the reward by at least a hundredfold. Nothing personal, kid, just business.”

He turned and nodded to the raiders. “Don’t damage him too much. We need him in good condition for the auction.”

Slowly, they closed in on me. I wanted to just fly out, then I remembered how quickly that one guard was caught by the leader’s magic. But even if I was able to beat all these raiders, how was I going to escape him?

“Your mine now, zebra!” Hearing Lilith yell and charge at me from the side, I figured that question would have to wait.

Fortunately for me, these raiders seemed pretty straightforward and as Lilith tried to tackle me again, I was ready and waited till the last moment to move back and twist my body around. As she landed in front of me, I was already turned around and had my back hooves raised. The anger in her eyes quickly turned to confusion as I used all my strength to buck her right in the neck. There was the sound of cracking bones as she fell. Struggling to breathe, she twitched a little bit and then went cold. The other three raiders stopped moving and seemed to be carefully considering their plan of attack. Moving together, they were starting to close in and any ideas for escape were pretty much gone.

The distance between us was now a few wings’ length away. The stallion behind me was the first to break the silence.

“Now!”

Him and another raider swung at the same time. Using my wings to propel myself backwards, I managed to backflip over the first raider. However, I didn’t time it right and one of my hooves got clipped by the second raider’s club, making me tumble as I landed. Seeing a chance to escape, I tried to make a dash for the woods, but felt a sharp tug on my other hind leg and looked to see that the third raider had managed to loop the rope tight around it. Attempting to remove it quickly, the first raider noticed, and I felt a sharp pain as he slammed into my chest, knocking me down. After sliding a few hooves away, I saw the second raider already about to swing the club down on me. Rolling away as best as I could, I inadvertently rolled under the first raider, making him trip over me and tumble into the second raider.

However, I got pulled back again and knew I couldn’t do anything while I still had this rope on my leg. The first raider was the first to recover and now really angry. Charging again at me, I was able to move to move to the side and use the rope to trip him once again. After a nasty tumble, he got up and was now screaming angrily at the third raider.

“Dammit Fizzy, you had better get him under control, or I swear the next time it happens, I’m going shove this plank so far up your ass, you’ll be the next to go on my wall!”

Fizzy must’ve taken that to heart because he was now pulling hard on the rope, forcing me to be dragged. The second raider was starting to come to by now and I managed to get up and charge over to him. The first raider was coming up from behind, ready to swing down with the plank. The second raider got up just in time to face me, but I had a different plan in mind. Right as I got up next to him, the first raider was right behind me and swinging hard. As I ducked, I could feel the force alone from the swing and then blood as he took the other raiders head clean off. We both stopped to see the headless raider move around a bit before falling over. Looking back up to the first raider, he was red with rage and as the rope pulled tight, I knew that there was no avoiding this one. Looking back to the forest, I could see Lily standing there in shock and I was sorry that I couldn’t keep my promise. Closing my eyes, I prepared for the worst.

“HOLD!”

I opened my eyes to see both raiders freeze immediately and turned to see their leader walking up towards us. He had a genuine look of annoyance as he stared down the large raider that was right above me. “How can you be so utterly incompetent? It was four of you against one of him and he managed to kill two of you, with his leg roped down!” With a flash of his horn, he sent the huge raider flying into some crates across the way, smashing them to bits. The other raider was already running away by the time he turned towards him. Snorting in irritation, he turned back to me, floating me into air.

“I bet you think you’re real clever. I’ll admit, you have my respect for taking out two of my subordinates like that. But I’m on a tight schedule and I. Hate. Wasting. Time.” He shrugged his head and sent me crashing through the wall of a burning house. The impact alone knocked the wind out of me, rendering me unable to get up. I heard a loud creaking sound above me I looked up to see a cabinet leaning forward. Forcing myself to move, I was able to move a few hooves away as it came crashing down.

“Aaaghhh!” I could feel it fall right on the other half of my body, pinning me down. Intense pain was coursing throughout my body, along with the rising heat from the surrounding flames. Trying to fight through the pain, I looked around for anything. Everything was either burning or too far away. Everything outside the home was blocked by a wall of smoke.

I had no strength left and it wasn’t long before he walked through the huge hole, using his magic to part the smoke around him. Walking slowly towards me, he levitated the dresser off of me with ease and cast it aside. He gave me a quick look over and seemed to be…concerned?

“Damnit, look what you made me do. Now I will have to pay to fix you up. But you know what, that’s ok. Because you are no longer going to be going up for auction.” Something floated up from behind him and it appeared to be a metal collar. It had some strange device attached to it and he floated it up right in front of my face. “You are going to be my own personal slave. You should be grateful. Despite leading a bunch of raiders and slavers myself, I never really cared for a slave of my own. Until you came along, that is. I’m gonna break and mold you until you become the perfect slave. Beholden only to me, Ashen Scar.”

As he unlatched the collar, an angry voice shouted behind him.

“No you won’t!!!”

Turning in surprise, he was suddenly smacked hard on the side of the head with a wooden plank, forcing him to stagger sideways. Standing there was a very angry and singed white pegasus.

“Lily!”

Turning to me, she dropped the plank and was soon by my side, trying to help me stand up. I could barely feel my body, and my legs buckled. She tried to put me onto her back, but we both stopped as we heard Ashen Scar shout. “That really hurt, damnit!” As his horn glowed again, I felt Lily being levitated away, causing me to fall down. I could only watch in horror as he floated her right to his face.

“A pegasus now? What are you doing down below the clouds? Never mind, I’ll find out later. You definitely caught me by surprise there.” As blood trickled down from his head, he calmy wiped it away and studied it, as if he had never seen his own blood before. Grinning, he looked back up to Lily. “Now let’s see how you like it.”

He sent her hurtling into a wall, but then immediately flung her into another one. Bringing her back in front of him, he started to laugh. She was hurt and fighting to free herself from his magic, but there was nothing she could do. He finally threw her into a beam with such speed and ferocity that I could hear cracking of bones from the impact. As he released his magic, she crumpled to the floor. I could see from here that one of her wings was bent in an odd way. She tried to get up, but was forced down once again by his magic.

“Damn. It’s been so long since I laid eyes upon any pegasi, that I forgot how fragile you were. And the last thing I need is the Enclave on my ass, so I will have to fix this before selling you back to them.” At the mention, of the Enclave, Lily’s entire body froze, and her eyes went wide with fear.

I had to do something. Giving everything I had, I tried to force myself back up, but my body would not respond. Shutting my eyes, I cursed to myself for being so weak, I begged in my thoughts for something, anything to come save us.

“Rise…”

There was a voice. Opening my eyes, I looked around. There was no sign of where the voice had come from. All that was around me were the rising flames and smoke. And then it came again.

“Rise…Like a flame...”

It was a broken voice, coming from inside my head. Not knowing what else to do, I tried one last time to get up. I had to save Lily. I promised to never leave her side and to be her family. As those thoughts filled my head, I felt my body move and heat up. A burning sensation swept throughout my entire body, but it didn’t feel painful. In fact, it felt…welcoming, as if natural. Around us, the flames stopped rising and started to die down. Noticing this, Ashen Scar stopped in his tracks and looked around in confusion, before resting his eyes upon me. For the first time, he looked…frightened. Stepping back away from us, he stammered.

“What...what are you…how are you?” Tripping over some burned debris, he fell back right towards the entrance.

I no longer felt any pain as I stepped towards him. Stopping a few hooves away from him, I stared him down. His mouth was moving, but no sound came out. From above, a loud cracking sound made us both look up. A small part of the ceiling just above us was caving in fast. Ashen released his magic off of Lily, but he wasn’t fast enough. Burning timber rained down, right on top of him. As the last piece fell, I felt my body begin to cool down and the pain from before returning. Before I could collapse, I felt something warm and soft lean up against me. It was Lily.

She looked up to me and moved around to squeeze me tight. I was immediately groaning from the pain of the hug, but she didn’t care. She just squeezed harder.

“I thought I was going to lose you…”

There was more she wanted to say, but she was cut off from the sound of cracking above us. The whole place was about to come down. Letting go, she quickly moved around to help me walk out. About a few minutes had passed and we were just outside of the town, as we heard a deafening sound and turned to see the building we escaped, collapse in on itself. There was no way Ashen could’ve survived that. As the sounds of raiders and slavers shouting in the distance started to close in, we picked up the pace and managed to make it to the spot where Blossom was still there waiting for us. Instantly, she was upon us and holding both of us tight. We were both still in pain, but we decided to hold it back for her.

“I…I saw you get thrown in the building…I thought you were gone…” She squeezed even harder, which got a loud groan out of me. I didn’t think she could squeeze that hard. She immediately let go and apologized.

Shaking my head, I knew she only meant well. “It’s alright, Blossom. Today has just been very rough…We need to get away from this place…”

Something wet hit my nose. Looking up, I noticed as rain began to trickle down through the tree cover. Turning back to the town, it was now raining heavily as both raiders and slavers could be seen running around the area, probably looking for their leader. The fires around town were starting to die out. Ponyville was a mess. A once great town now reduced to ruins and burned-out shells. Blossom was the first to break us out of trance.

“Can we go home now?...”

Surprised, I looked back to see her staring at the ground. I wanted to ask her what home she meant, but Lily stopped me. Silently, she mouthed the words to me “The house where our stuff is”.

Ah. I guess after all that’s happened, even that little broken down place felt oddly comforting. Deciding not to press further, I used my only good hoof to bring her close and she looked up to me. Her eyes were showed just how lost she was and how much she just needed to be comforted. Something we all felt right now.

“Yeah. Let’s go home.”

By the time we arrived back at the house, we were completely soaked and exhausted. We had been limping the whole way back, praying that no raiders or slavers would catch us. As we stumbled through the house, no words were spoken. Shortly after we entered the doorway, Blossom was already heading towards the bed. Jumping into the bed, she jumped under the covers, and we could see her shaking from here. Lily and I headed to the bed as well and placed ourselves on each side of Blossom. Poking her head out, she was trembling a lot more now and in tears. My heart ached for her. She had been bottling up all her emotions since we escaped the huge monster inside the forest, and it was all coming out just now. Lily was already wrapping her up with her good wing and cooing to her. She broke out into a lullaby.

Once Blossom had calmed down and closed her eyes, Lily continued to hum the lullaby for a little longer. Eventually, Blossom fell asleep and turned to me. It was clear to see that she is just barely holding it all together.

"Lily..." She stops me.

"I thought I was going to lose you...and I...I can't bear to lose anyone else. I lost ma and pa, I almost lost Blossom and then you come into my life. When you said you'd be my family, I was so happy...you, a complete stranger, offered to be there for me and Blossom, when other ponies would have just left us..." She was beginning to tear up now and he wanted nothing more than to comfort her.

"I am just barely holding myself together for Blossom. I don’t know how much more I can take. These past few days have been the worst days in my life, even worse than when I was…" She stopped herself. Whatever she wanted to say, she couldn’t bring herself to utter it. I assumed it was about her days before she met Jesse, Darlene and Blossom. So, I just kept quiet. Eventually they were both asleep and curled up around me. The exhaustion from everything up until now was hitting them. I, however, could not fall asleep yet.

Looking out through one of the broken windows, thoughts began to plague my mind. Thoughts of my forgotten past, our journey to Manehatten, of Lily and Blossom. Would we even make it that far? And how was I going to protect them when I was so helpless against one unicorn?

Eventually, I was able to fall asleep, but I was soon haunted by these same thoughts and questions…

…

Amidst the ruins of Ponyville, the last of the remaining embers had died out. Amongst the ruins, a slight trembling could be seen coming from a collapsed building. As a slight yellow glow could be made coming out from beneath burnt timber, a bladed hoof erupted forth. As a small, black and bloodied body, crawled out from beneath the rubble, a wave of rage emanated forth throughout Ponyville. Basked in a yellow glow, a scarred, dead eye looked around, searching for the source of its new hatred.

Author's Note

Sorry once again for the delay. For those wondering about the recent delay, I made a blog post going over the details.

On a side note, this chapter took quite a bit of rewording as we wrap up his time by Ponyville. And now we something new to his tale. But what is going on with Midnight Sonata? Next chapter, we shall find out...