Chapter 9: Applesprig

Pain that's all she could feel was immense pain, then screaming, screaming of ponies being slaughtered by the dark creatures and their ghoulish allies. How did it get to this, how did these fiends rally a force so quickly, how was Equestria not prepared, everything spun so fast as she rolled on her back, “we weren't ready-” she mumbled “-we’re not ready!”

-hours earlier-

The smoke could be seen for miles, even from Manehattan it could be seen, but nopony knew what it was, nopony knew the cause of it, only until it's too late would they realize the town was attacked by monsters. Monsters, just the thought made Luna scowl, she’d been flying for hours, only stopping to use the bathroom, but when she finally arrived her heart stopped. Half the town was completely engulfed in flames, with the other half still evacuating the town, in the distance the faint sound of musket fire and roaring beasts was heard. Diving down Luna landed behind the main defense line of ponies and to her surprise it was a multitude of Equestrian troops and Lunar militia, a unicorn wearing plate and chain armor with a red plume helmet rushed up to her.

“Your highness what’re you doing here, this place is dangerous!” he yelled so the princess could hear over the roaring of both the monsters, fires and screaming ponies.

“I came here to help-” she replied, looking for the high ranking officer “-where’s the captain!?” she asked, requesting to see him or her, she needs answers and she needs a report on where these things came from.

“Dead your highness-” the pony replied “- he was struck down in the first initial attack, we were in garrison when we saw the smoke from San Palomino. I’m currently acting captain of this platoon, I'm Lieutenant Daggerpoint of the twenty second line company.”

Luna nodded and began to assess the current situation, from what Daggerpoint reported they arrived when the attack commenced resulting in several casualties including the captains. Right now they're trying to hold their own, while the militia tries desperately to evacuate the town, but she knows in the pit of her stomach they don't have much time. If the evacuation is to be smooth then the militia needs to fight to, either that or get reinforcement from a neighboring town which would take too long, and right now time is against them. Suddenly to her surprise the dark creatures began to retreat, ponies cheered as the beasts ran, yet something didn't feel right, creatures like these wouldn't just fall back.

“Daggerpoint!” she turned to address the acting captain, who in turn bowed.

“Yes your highness, what do you need?” He was ecstatic to see these monsters turn and flee, yet when Luna called for him something deep down told him otherwise.

“I want the rest of this town fortified, we need to be ready in case they come back! Which they will! Secondly we’ll need better defense tactics, spears upfront, muskets behind!” Daggerpoint nodded and bellowed out orders to fortify what's left of the town and ordered both musket and spear ponies to fortify at Luna’s request.

Leaving Daggerpoint to his troops, Luna began to search for the leader of the militia before she would take to the air and survey the town's surroundings. Sighing, she eventually found her in the town hall, directing her troops to help with the evacuation. The mare did a double take upon seeing her arrive. “Well I'll be a mare in the rutting season!” her response through Luna off, but welcomed it knowing her ponies haven't seen her in a thousand years.

The mare bowed as Luna went up to her “your highness, it is an honor to finally meet you. We’ve been praying for your return and are ecstatic you’ll help us in this endeavor. To what may I assist your grace!?”

Though of course it's been a thousand years since Luna's return at that time she always wanted her ponies to see her as a friend at times. After a while however, she did accept being called your highness, or your grace, to let ponies know that she’s still princess of the night, when night fell of course. That is until she met him, her soon to be coltfriend. She was knocked out of her daze, when the mare called for her again and asked if she needed assistance.

Luna shook her head “I've come here to help in any way I can miss?” the mare facedhooved forgetting to introduce herself to her grace.

Embarrassed, she replied “my name is Northern Spruce, I'm Sheer Razorwings second in command, Sheer being the commander of the Lunar militia in Sunfalls.” Luna nodded understanding who the leader of the militia was now. Spruce to Luna's surprise is a unicorn with a dark green coat and light brown mane, her cutie mark resembles a pine tree with a compass on its trunk.

After introductions were made Spruce helped direct Luna “I know you might be curious as to how I got my cutie mark, but another time. Right now we need your help, the evacuation is going as fast as it can, but we still need a place to send them. San Palomino is a good evacuation zone, but it's too far out, another place is Moonlight. Moonlight isn't that far from here, but the ponies refuse to help. I sent letter after letter requesting their aid, but again they refused, but now that you’re here maybe you can convince them!”. Luna nodded agreeing to Spruce's request, going into the town hall she quickly wrote down a letter to give sanctions to the ponies of Applesprig and finished it with her signature. If the ponies of moonlight did not honor the request, they’ll have to answer to her. Levitating the letter, sealed with her mark, she hoofed it over to Spruce who immediately gave it to a bat pony she called over, the thestral looked at her as if she saw a ghost, only to give a quick bow and fly off towards Moonlight.

Luna looked at Spruce inquisitive “that's just Nightwing, she's a good mare who’s a major fan of you. Anyway-” Spruce cleared her throat “-the twenty seconds medical officer is here , her name is Bloodheart, she's good at what she does, but several ponies have stated their still survivors out past the defense line. She’s tried getting the lieutenant to help, but each attack dwindles our numbers, since you're here you might be able to help her!”. The sole reason Luna came here was to defend the town from whatever threat came to it, now seeing the town in shambles and half destroyed with the threat of a recurring attack, it would be better off to help ponies evacuate.

Luna agreed to help taking what direction she can to help “where do you need me!?” she asked, Spruce pointed to two large warehouses across from where they stood.

“Bloodheart will be in the second warehouse, the one closest to the defense line!” Spruce informed her, Luna giving a nod, now seeing the warehouse she was pointing at.

Trotting across towards the warehouse the princess caught a glimpse of the casualties given in the first attack, even though she could've seen it in the air, she was too busy watching the town get destroyed. Trotting over to the bodies to get a better look, she soon regretted doing so upon seeing the slain. Ponies young and old, foals to the elderly, lay dead next to each other, Lunas ears twitched upon hearing the crying of a mare. Looking back her heart broke upon sight after seeing two ponies in medical robes carrying out a dead filly, the mare her mother most likely had to be held back from tackling the staff. The two ponies arrived and laid the foal next to another, both ponies didn’t acknowledge Luna as they arrived or left, their grief too strong to even care. The crying mare arrived seconds after the two ponies left, she too didn't acknowledge Luna as she sobbed for the loss of her daughter. Luna, on the verge of tears, rubbed the mare's back with her wing, looking up at the infirmary, a question soon popped in her mind, a question she needed an answer for ‘how bad is it?’. Unknown to her it would be a question she too would regret.

Arriving at the infirmary made her wish grief wasn't painful to feel, every bed in the infirmary was full, with minorly wounded to gravely injured ponies. Looking to her left she eyed the many ponies still waiting for medical attention, again with wounds that were either minor to the more severe. One she glimpsed was a unicorn stallion holding his lower barrel, fresh blood dripping out, while his friend kept telling him to ‘keep it, hold it together’. She thought his friend was telling him not to go mad, until she saw a glimpse of his intestines poking out, the stallion was upright waiting for medical attention and holding his guts in place. Yet she saw he wasn't going to make it, she didn't like to be negative, Luna was always hopeful, well tried to be, but upon seeing his eyes droop, the color of his coat becoming paler, she knew then and their death was about to claim him. Unceremoniously it did, in a second the stallion fell to his side, blood pooled out as his guts no longer being held by his hoof spilled to the floor. Her attention was drawn to the sound of a pegasus stallion begging in pain, as a unicorn mare seemed to be operating on his shoulder, going over Luna wondering if this is the mare she needed.

“Please, please stop, it hurts!” the stallion begged as the mare tried to pull some sort of object out of his shoulder, this in turn caused the mare to scoff at the crying pony.

“Quit being such a pussy, it's almost out” she said trying to pull whatever she was trying to pull out of his shoulder, with no anesthesia. Of course she couldn't use anesthesia, mostly in part their all out, all except for morphine, but that's reserved for more serious injuries.

Luna got closer to her and got a better look at the color of her coat, she's a brown mare with a white mane, her cutie mark resembled a heart dripping with blood. On her she wore standard medical fatigues for the equestrian army, which was a white lab coat with the flag of crossed spears on it, below it read twenty second line company. Reaching her she cleared her throat, but she didn't reply, again she cleared her throat, this time she got an impolite response.

“This isn't going to work-” she grumbled “-listen I'm busy, if you want to make yourself useful hoof me the needle nose pliers, if not get out of my way” Luna hoofed her the pliers the mare needed after she set down a now bloody pair of forceps. Ahead in an oblong bowl tray were several bloody arrow heads, putting two and two together, Luna figured the stallion was shot by multiple arrows and was now in the process of getting the last one out. The sound of rent flesh made Luna sick to her stomach, as the mare finally pulled out the last arrow, bits of flesh and bone were stuck to it, realizing the last arrow lodged itself into the stallion's shoulder bone. After suturing up the wounds the mare placed a gauze pad over the injuries, once she was done she turned to her guest.

For a moment the two stared at each other, Luna having an uncomfortable look to her while the unicorn mare had a nonchalant look to her “well, took you long enough-” she began to walk to the nearest sink, all the while talked along the way “-let me get the pleasantries out the way, names Bloodheart, yes i know your a princess, no I'm not going to bow, yes I know I made a oath to her royal ass, but I don't give a flying feather, I know your her sister and you know what I don't care. I have too many ponies either grievously injured, dying, or dead and too few ponies to help, many of the others in white coats are volunteers from the town with little to no medical experience.-” Luna let her rant as she continued it, understanding the position she was currently in.”-on top of it all it gets even better, we ran out of anesthesia and all we have is morphine, but no here's the best part. We still have ponies beyond the defense line injured and we can't spare anypony to get them, or scrounge up any medical items from homes or businesses. Now there are talks of a third attack, if we don't get this evacuation moving soon, there's going to be a lot of dead ponies littering the streets and all the while, your bucking sister sits on her throne, while ponies kiss her hooves and look down upon the western coast.-” she pointed a hoof at Luna “-so tell me your highness, why in tarteruses name are you here, if it's to enjoy the scenery, then find some other meal ticket!”

Luna just stood calmly, she was just chewed out by one of her subjects and listened to this mare talk down about her sister. If the royal guard were here, she’d be in the dungeons in a heartbeat. Yet she wasn't mad, no she was calm, in fact she was somewhat glad, why, because Bloodheart was flung into a fight for survival and Canterlot did nothing. In all sense Canterlot and Celestia abandoned these ponies to death and what's worse, Braeburn, Applejack's cousin and an equestrian citizen was too left abandoned by his own nation. This all sickened Luna, but it ends now, now it was time to get these ponies out of here and get this evacuation going, if Canterlot, the nobility and sister didn't like it, they'd have to answer to her!

Clearing her throat and catching the unicorn's attention, Luna spoke “Bloodheart, I'm not here to enjoy the scenery, I'm here to help, I was in ponyville when two mares saw the smoke and fire. One of the mares is named Applejack and her cousin Braeburn currently aided this town in planting its apple trees and I'm not leaving until he and everypony is evacuated.”

Bloodheart breathed a sigh, a sigh somepony would give when they realized somepony was going to do something foolish, drying her hooves off, she turned to Luna. “I admire your duty of wanting to help, but if anypony is behind the defense line they’re most likely dead!”

Luna shook her head, she believed there could be survivors “i don't believe that-” she said confidently “-i know hope is slim, but we have to hope! I feel it in my heart, there has to be survivors, if not then at least give the families of the lost some closure!”

Bloodheart sighed and closed her eyes in thought, opening them she made a stern decision “you have an hour before these creatures return. We’ve been noticing these things restart their attack after an hour-” Luna nodded, she turned to leave, but stopped when Bloodheart stopped her “-however if you hear the town hall bell go off, you get your blue ass back here, these things are stronger than they look!”. She watched Luna gallop out of the warehouse and take flight to her first destination, all the while having a look of worry on her face ‘I hope to Celestia we get out alive’.

Flying over the defense line , she waved to Daggerpoint signaling she's going out to find survivors, he waved back signaling he understood. She could properly see Applesprig, looking back at the defense line were mostly stores, two warehouses, the town hall, a few houses and saloon. Whereas what she could see in the charred remains of the battlefield were just homes, at the end towards the forest rested what was left of a few barn’s and in between the first and barn were the apple orchards, or what was left of them. Seeing the destruction would take her hours to search, so to shorten it, in the air she sent a blue pulse of magic in hopes to detect any life signs from survivors. Sighing in relief her life detection spell detected roughly five to seven survivors and a few of them were close to her and the defense line, one of them she was near currently resided in the barn to her left, with a faint life sign. Landing and lighting her horn up she quickly followed the life sign to the barn's built in storage shed and what she saw shocked her.

Laying on her right rested a mare with serious second and third degree burns on a quarter of her body, but her hind legs got the worst of it with irreparable fourth degree burns. Luna couldn't believe what she saw, this mare, barely recognizable, with burns covering her body, with nearly half of her hind legs burnt to the bone, still fought to stay alive. Rushing up to her she kneeled down and calmly spoke to her hoping she was conscious in any way.

“Hey miss, can you hear me, is your hearing affected?” Luna listed as the mare moaned in a raspy voice, this in turn signaled to Luna that her fluids were seriously depleted. She had to get her out, fortunately she heard the mare speak.

“p-please, help m-me (cough)-” she tried to move her hind legs, in hopes to get up, but pain shot all over her body. Alert fear began to show in her voice “-m-my legs, my body I- I can't move t-them!” Luna urged her not to look at her legs, but she did anyway and screamed in grief seeing her legs were nothing but bones. She started crying, but Luna stopped her, the mare's tears would barely come out but she had to conserve what little water she had left.

Luna turned her head to her “listen to me-” she began “-I'm going to get you out of here, but you need to stop crying, you're wasting water and you need it! Now I'm going to try and lift you, it may hurt a bit!” the mare nodded and felt Luna's levitation spell take hold, but when Luna started lifting her, she screamed in pain. Luna knew there was to be pain, but she didn't expect a lot of it, curiously she just noticed a sheet of corrugated metal lift with the mare. Lowering her, she investigated the phenomena, looking at her side, she uncovered a horrifying sight, the mare's flesh was cooked and sticking to the metal, in other words it was melted.

“Horseapples!” Luna swore, trying to find something to help with the mare's predicament, she grimaced, finding something that’ll help, if not hurt like tartarus.

“W-what, what's wrong!?” she was worried, she didn't know what Luna swore, until she felt a tugging pain in her side, feeling the burned flesh, she realized now why Luna got the needed tool. She whimpered, laying eyes on the farm item.

It was a barbaric tool, but it was long and thin enough to get the mare off the metal, and fortunately the handle was burnt off, so she didn't need to remove the metal blade. "okay-” Luna replied, grabbing an unburned piece of wood and putting it in the mares mouth “-bite down on this, cause this is going to hurt” the mare nodded and gagged herself with the wood chunk. Luna taking the scythe blade lined up with the mare's flesh, doing a quick exhale she readied herself ‘okay one, two, three’ with the sickening sound of flesh and muscle peeling away. Luna began to slice through the mare's flesh in order to free her, pained squeals cried out from the mare, the sensation of being skinned alive to get free made her want to plead and beckon to Luna to find another alternative. The pain got worse as Luna got lower, eventually reaching to her mid barrel, her world started to get fuzzy, she weakly whimpered, as she threatened to pass out.

“You’re doing good!” Luna encouraged, though she herself knew the mare was on the verge of fainting. Again she started, Luna had to take a breather herself upon seeing so much blood, but now that breather was over and she began to finish freeing the mare. It was painful and tough, but Luna managed to get through, from the mare's upper barrel to upper flank, a large chunk of flesh was peeled away, leaving only mussels and blood. Quickly Luna administered a nerve numbing spell to calm the mare, once calm, she levitated the mare and left the barn, spreading her wings she took flight.

Bloodheart galloped towards Luna, once she heard Luna was back with a survivor she didn't want to believe it, but upon hearing the surviving mare has burns all over her body, surprised her. Immediately a stretcher was brought and the mare was levitated on it, she was administered an I.V drip, plasma, with morphine on standby after Luna informed she gave the victim a nerve numbing spell. Turning Luna went out again, she had roughly thirty minutes to find more survivors, not wasting time she took flight.

Not three minutes in she heard crying in a small half burnt house, landing, she barged in past some fallen debris and found two foals both around Sweetie belles age, in front of them were a pair of hooves under debris. Upon seeing her the two foals huddled fearful of the alicorn's arrival, quickly she calmed them down.

“Sssshhhh, it's okay, I'm not going to hurt you, my name's Princess Luna. I'm here to help.” The two foals looked at her, still fearful, but calmed down realizing she wasn't going to hurt them, bravely one spoke up.

“M-miss, our mama hasn't woken up, we don't know what to do?” the filly replied. The two saw Luna nod and levitate the rubble off their mother, both were filled with joy upon seeing their mothers face, but were unaware of Luna's grim one. Luna looked down, she heard the excited squeals of the two foals seeing their mother again, but when she herself uncovered her, she didn't see her move, or breath. A grim realization came to her, how was she going to explain their mother isn't coming back, she held back tears, the whole thought of it weighing down on the princess. She felt a pat on her fetlock.

“Miss what's wrong?” this time it was the colt, a look of worry on his face. Luna sighed, the moment of truth.

Kneeling, she didn't know how to break it to them, so she went for it “it's your mother-” she said, both brother and sister now worried, the two saw tears in the alicorn's eyes. “-she, she isn't coming back.”. It took awhile for the two to understand what she meant by ‘not coming back’, but when they saw their mother again and unmoving, it hit them. The two embraced Luna, crying in sheer agony. In an attempt to calm them, Luna wrapped her wings in an embrace, it seemed to work, but only for a bit, but now came the hard part, next of kin. Not wanting to worry about it now, she urged the two foals to come with her to safety, reluctantly they agreed and hopped on Luna's back.

Landing outside the makeshift infirmary, the two foals hopped off Luna's back, a nurse rushing over to check them, Luna stopped him. “The foals lost their mother, make sure they find their next of kin!” the nurse nodded and took the two foals inside.

Spreading her wings, Luna was suddenly stopped by Daggerpoint, his face edged with worry “your highness, pegasi scouts report movement in Gallopers forest, you don't have much time left!”

Luna nodded “then I'll be quick!” she took off.

Fortune favored the princess, her earlier scan showed a reading close to the defense line, in fact the house she was heading towards on on the edge of the line, meaning whoever was in there must be injured quite badly. Landing she broke down some debris blocking her and entered, half the house was badly damaged, but it was still destroyed.

“ANYPONY HERE!” Luna called, hoping sompony could answer.

“IN HERE!” a voice called out, and to Luna it sounded like a stallion, but that voice sounded familiar.

Trekking carefully to the survivor, Luna arrived to see, to her fortune and surprise, Braeburn. Luna could recognize him even in the dark, his leather vest and red delicious apple cutie mark was a dead giveaway, but what isn't normal is the three foot long wooden shrapnel shard sticking out his left hind leg.

Braeburn just stared at her, he expected somepony from the town, not princess Luna “y-your highness, what are you doing here!?” the mare rushed over, a look of unease on her face.

“We don't have long-” she said looking over his wound “-another attack is about to start!” She heard him wince as she lifted his hind leg up, she could tell he was blushing as she caught sight of his stallionhood and bits, but she wasn't doing to be seductive. She sighed relieved, his foal makers were intact, but the shrapnel shard on the other hoof was a problem, for one it pierced right through his leg and his wincing he did earlier told her it pierced his other leg, but not as deep. What worried her though was arterial bleeding, the last thing any of them wanted was a severed artery and she dared not move the shard, for one if it splintered out, then she just might hit an artery. -BONG-BONG-BONG- Both ponies blood ran cold, the attack had begun, she heard shouting coming from the defense line, Daggerpoint was organizing his troops, they had to get out.

“Should i chance it?” she asked herself, trying to think of the best way to get Braeburn out.

The stallion sat up in pain “p-please chance it”

Levitating him Luna burst out of the building and took flight, right as she did she caught a glimpse of the dark creatures force, her blood ran cold at what she saw. Woodland creatures led by the bipedal monsters charged the defenses, in the distance she saw their leader, a tall bipedal creature inches taller than the others and in full armor wielding a battleaxe, oversaw the battle currently at hoof. Though she noticed he stayed behind with a considerable force with him, including what appeared to be a magic user told by his staff. Flying behind the line Luna landed at the infirmary, Bloodheart rushing over to the injured Braeburn, but Luna stopped her.

“Get everypony to the evacuation wagons, the attack has begun and is larger than last!” Bloodheart nodded and went to get as many of her patients and medical staff she could.

Luna on the other hoof knew she needed to get into the fight, but needed to get the evacuation underway, teleporting to the town hall she rushed over to Northern Spruce who seemed to have finished talking with Nightwing. “We need to start the evacuation, the twenty second and I will hold them off as long as we can!”

Spruce nodded “well we’re in luck, your grace, Nightwing returned with news, Moonlight accepted your request, we’ll start the evac now!” As the princess left to join the fight Spruce turned to the evac line “ALRIGHT EVERYPONY LETS GO, LETS GO. INJURED AND FOALS FIRST, HUSSLE HUSSLE LETS MOVE, WE’RE LEAVING!”

Rushing to the frontline Luna conjured a sword of magic, while Daggerpoint readied his ponies to fire the first volley, looking on both sides she caught sight of the militia defending their flanks, ‘i hope this is enough’. The first volley was shot, but the enemy kept coming, the creatures using infected bears as frontline bartering rams, ever they kept closer the ponies desperately loaded their weapons, the spears ready to impale the first creature that runs into it. The second volley fired, Luna watched in horror as the creatures were now upon them and in a matter of seconds-CRASH- the barricade defending the town erupted into pieces, ponies, mares and stallions flew after being rammed by a line of bears, the twenty second desperately tried to hold the line. Luna stood back, Daggerpoint insisting she stay behind, her moral giving the ponies strength to fight on, but even with her presence the darkcreatures began to trickle in. A pony screamed as his shoulder was crushed in the jaws of a corrupt bear, he was suddenly flung back into the massive wave of corrupt beings and was instantly swarmed. His screams were drowned out by flesh and bone being ripped from him as blood erupted in a mist from the vicious feeding frenzy, limbs and organs themselves were in a tug of war as the darkcreatures fought over a now mutilated pony.

Just the sight of a pony being torn apart made several of their defenders flee, but Luna with her wings spread ordered them to hold firm, but it was for naught, as their left flank was starting to waver. Several infected bears and creatures began to attack the flanks, though not as much as the right as it was still steady, but the left was hit hard and began to crumble. Rushing over Luna took to the flanks defense and teleported the wounded to the infirmary, but the attack was persisting, behind her the main barricade was faltering, along with the main force.

‘Thiers too many!” She thought, she wanted to use her magic, but at the same time wanted to see the strength of these creatures and sure enough their might was far more superior. Taking to the air, she needed to thin the enemy ranks and using concentrated bursts of magic should help, that is if she didn't hit their own ponies. Pain shot through her head as she began to charge her horn, the dark influence these creatures have and how it affected the land, but how it affected her magic was beyond her. Charging her spell, she looked just in time to see a fireball come at her, changing from offensive to defensive she instead raised a shield around herself.

-BOOM-

The overhead explosion shook the town and ponies to the core, a hard -thud- caught their attention and to their horror princess Luna laid smoking in the middle. Groaning in pain, Luna slowly got up, she was not prepared for the explosive magnitude of that spell, looking back at the line, she had to cover her eyes when another explosion shook the town. ‘We just lost the line’ Luna mentally said to herself and sure enough she was correct, the barricades and defenses were completely gone, all that was left was a crater. To their good fortune though, the explosion also killed a good majority of the dark creatures, roughly sixty percent of their force was wiped out, though of course it was mostly the infected creatures. Now all that remained was the enemy main force and the pony force was too few to match it, not only did the fireball kill the enemy, it also killed ponies. Luna scoffed at the numbers she ran, the current force compared to the dark creatures was still too high, at least forty percent of the enemy force remained, compared to their nine percent. It was a losing battle and she knew it, but they had to hold on as best they could.

Daggerpoint rushed over to Luna, blood dripped from his forehead and he had several broken ribs, even his horn was on the verge of snapping off after getting hit in the head by a crate. None of that mattered to the unicorn, his first priority was making sure the princess was okay and gaining new orders.

“Your highness, are you okay!?” he asked, worried Luna might be severely injured, or have an injury.

Staggering a bit and wincing from a few broken ribs and a scorched wing she nodded “just a bit banged up, but nothing I can't handle-” walking forward, she winced after feeling the dislocated bone in her left hoof. Daggerpoint went to help, but waved it off, as she mentally counted to three then-snap-pop- she relocated the bone in her hoof, causing her to almost pass out and Daggerpoint to lose his stomach. Panting, she looked back, the dark creatures were reforming their ranks and she could clearly see a few archers, she looked back to the unicorn. “-lieutenant, form your ranks, if we have anymore ranged, put them in front, if not spears. We have to see this evacuation through, now move!”

It wasn't enough, out of the dark creatures numbers, only ten members of the twenty second survived and only five of the resistance remained, while the dark creatures seemed to be limitless. Readying for their final stand unicorns readied their muskets, while earth and pegasi ponies readied their musketoons and blunderbuss, in between only a hoof full of spears remained. It was now or never, the roar from the dark creatures leader echoed over the town, the final assault had begun.

Bloodheart had moved many of the injured to the carriages as she could, she looked back at the final assault taking place, then to the makeshift infirmary, its roof collapsing as flames consumed it. She watched ponies flee from the building, some on fire, while others were cut down, she evacuated as many as she could, yet she couldn't save all of them. The rocking explosion shook her off her hooves, one of many fireballs flew above and behind the evac zone, but she knew this was just to scare them, since these things can just simply rush around the corner and slaughter them all. Yet the thought dawned why didn't they, these things can easily take them, yet they didn't, it's almost as if they wanted them to escape, but why. Another fireball flew over, nearly hitting one of the carriages, fortunately it wasn't destroyed, but it did sustain heavy damage.

“Bloodheart!-” the mare turned to Northern Spruce rushing over to her frantic “-were being overrun, the first wave hasn't returned and Nightwing reported they won't be coming back. On top of it all Moonlight's hospital is starting to overflow, if we’re to continue this evacuation then ponies need to walk with the caravan!” Bloodheart cursed, Spruce was right, every caravan followed a procedure, even during evacuation and seeing the enemy being literally at the entrance, then they had no choice.

Luna looked back and to her shock began to see ponies walk with the carriages, ‘if that's the case then that means’, her thoughts were interrupted when the creatures broke though their defenses. Luna swore her luck, ponies walking by the carriages is dangerous enough, especially for the guards tasked with escorting them. An infected bear lunged at the princess, slashing it with her magic sword across the neck, she finished it off with a downward slash decapitating it. Blackish red blood coated her coat, as she was attacked by another creature, but this one was clad in armor and was the one who was leading the assault. The fight went on for minutes, her foe, clad in plated iron armor, blocked blow after blow, his armor adorned with curved marks and symbols from the blood of his victims. The creature growled at her as they circled each other, both trying to figure out who would strike first, roaring it charged her, lowering herself ears back she dodged and slashed at him. The Alpha, Luna named, roared in pain as it felt fresh blood on its arm, infuriated, Luna didn't get the chance to dodge when the alpha viciously charged her.

Getting hit by the bar of a battleaxe hurt, especially when it was smacked under her chin and sent her flying back, so when she landed with a hard -thud- she spat blood out of her mouth. Wiping the blood off with her hoof, she slowly stood up, but was soon grabbed by the alpha and with his armored fist cracked her across the muzzle, knocking her back down. First she was punched by a receptionist, now a dark creature, she swore if she gets hit one more time in the muzzle, she’s special ordering a muzzle brace, either that or talk like she’s congested. A weight was suddenly on her, fighting back, Luna desperately tried to get the alpha off her, but he was too strong and with a firm-crack- began beating her. Crack-crack-crack strike after strike Luna felt as if her vision was fading in a red tint, but the feeling of this thing beating her stopped, only for it to be replaced by the blade of the alphas axe lining up with her neck, desperately she tried to move, with her vision clearing, she saw the axe over her head and she knew in one fell swoop she’d be a headless horse. Yet to her surprise it stopped and lowered its axe. She didn't know what was going on, but she didn't have time to think as she was suddenly picked up by the throat and thrown into a burning building. The heat was immense around her, she needed to get out and what remaining strength she had, she began to crawl and after a few minutes she was finally out and feeling the semi cool air was over her, but as she did everything suddenly went black.

-present-

“We aren't ready!” she said again wincing in pain as she accidentally ground her broken wing in the dirt, all she heard screams, screams of ponies at the mercy of these creatures. She looked over to see the alpha walk up to two and a mare and bring its axe down upon them, Luna closed her eyes and looked away, she failed, everypony's dying, how can she fight such hatred.

“LUNA!” she looked up to see a familiar purple figure, ‘no-’ she thought ‘-it couldn't be!?’ spike soon came into view, along with Daggerpoint, the two males quickly tried to get Luna to safety.

“S-s-spike” she uttered only to fall unconscious in their hooves, quickly they moved her to a carriage, climbing aboard with her, the two watched as they pulled away from the town. The town was lost and all that could be heard in the distance were the screams, only to be drowned out by silence and roars of victory, the darkcreatures have won.

Author's Note

I don't own the rights they belong to their respective owners, i only own my OC's in this chapter. Here it is chapter nine, so what do you think? Is Luna going to be alright and is she going to recover from what happened in Applesrig. To note even though it isn't posted yet the events of applesprig will also be seen in the parallel fic 'The Western Lunar Crisis'.