Sun and Shield

Day Twenty-Two

Silence had reigned over the bunker for the last day. It was not the silence of death or sleep, but of fear and anticipation. Whatever was out there had not yet lost interest, not even after what had to be a full day. It had even let a few more bolts of magic at the door and ventilated the space a little more. The boxes, and the contents inside, prevented any clear view the beast might have to the interior where the mares where hunkered down.

The initial plan had been to wait for the unicorn to leave so they could leave and come back. That had devolved into just getting their things and leaving after a while. Then staying put had become the law of the land with how randomly the beast seemed to let loose with its magic. They couldn’t just leave with none of their food or supplies, and getting taken out by a random bolt of magic fired blindly while they were packing.

Rose and Tempest had maybe gotten four hours of sleep between them. When one of them had managed to close their eyes, the other had made sure to stay awake and alert. Then, rarely, when they had both dozed off, a shot from the creature outside had woken them up.

Another growl was punctuated by something slamming into the door to the little fort with monumental force. The steel bar across the door held, the door did not yield and expose the mares to the danger of the monster.

“Go away…” Tempest whispered as quietly as possible in a plea to the beast beyond the threshold. The plea was answered and the sound of hooves heading away from the door came through the many new holes that perforated the structure. “We need to hurry and get out of here!” Tempest hissed and started off towards where they kept everything.

Rose went over to the bag of oats and tied it closed with a rope. She would tie that around her waist and it’d drag behind her in the tunnels. It wasn’t a perfect solution and it would have to rely on the burlap sack not breaking and spilling their food everywhere.

Tempest had the medic saddlebags on the little desk and was sorting through them and adding papers and other things, maps probably. Rose walked up behind her and was prepared to ask where exactly they were going when she was cut off.

THUD

The noise came from the roof of the stone structure. A cloud of dust came loose from the ceiling and peppered the two mares. They both stared up in wide eyed horror, breath caught in their chests and eyes wide and waiting. Heavy uneven hoofsteps wandered across the top of the structure towards the hatch on top.

“Hide!” Tempest whispered.

Tempest rushed to hide behind the boxes that made up her bed while Rose tucked behind a crate beside the tunnel entrance against the wall. They could see each other from where they were hiding, and both of them saw the same uneasy fear in one another.

It couldn’t be one of the princesses, surely they would’ve crushed the structure by now. It was a sturdy little pillbox, but it was also old as all get out. These things had been around for about as long as the city of Canterlot. The massive hoof of a corrupted alicorn would’ve gone through the roof by now.

The hatch at the top of the ladder was pulled open. The decrepit hinges let out a long squeak that filled the entire room as it was opened in an agonizingly slow manner. It eventually hit the roof with a soft thud, a signal that it was completely open now. There was a tense beat of silence, followed by the sound of a low rumbling growl.

The bulbous white head of one of the monsters lowered into the hole and looked around. Its shaggy blonde mane hung around its baby blue eyes. Both mares ducked behind their respective boxes so they didn’t see how it lowered itself down, but they heard it land. They heard its hooves on the stone and the low timbre of its growl.

Rose peaked over the top of the crate she was hiding behind. The monster was in the middle of their space now, practically dominating it. When it stood, its horn scraped the top of the room. There were scraps of gold armor hanging around its neck and Rose could’ve sworn she saw some scraps of red fur between its teeth. Her heart stopped when the realization hit.

“Picket…” Rose whispered to herself and ducked back down. Her heart rate rose and a hoof went to the mangled ear on her head. It had to be him. He looked like a lot of other unicorns in Canterlot, but something deep down told her that was her old friend in the room with them. Had he heard her voice? Had he recognized it? Or had he seen her up there earlier?

Rose looked to Tempest, who was clutching what looked to be a piece of wood from one of the crates. It was long and sharp, but was it sharp enough to do any damage to the unicorn now trapped with them in here? Tempest looked right back at her and then her eyes darted towards the tunnel. One of them could get in there easily, and it wasn’t Tempest. There was no way that Rose was going to leave the unicorn behind. Not now. She needed her.

Every moment they were paying attention to one another was one where they weren’t paying attention to the monster Rose was sure was Picket. All it took was one of those moments for Picket to see something, maybe one of their ears. A lance of energy pierced one of the boxes and went right in front of Tempest’s muzzle, close enough to cause the mare to jump back from the sheer heat of the blast.

“We can’t let him howl!” Tempest shouted as she jumped over the box in a smooth motion. The shard of wood she held shifted to her mouth and she disappeared from Rose’s line of sight.

Rose steadied herself for a moment and then followed the other survivor. She opted to go around the box she was behind as over wasn’t really an option with her limitations. Tempest had already, somehow, gotten the pillow she had been using stuffed into the monster’s mouth to prevent it from signaling others. Now Picket was trying to get the fluffy thing out of his mouth while his horn fired off discharges into the stone ceiling above them.

There was a split-second to find a way to take advantage of this, and the spindly legs the beast had looked like the obvious target. With a very stiff and awkward gait, Rose ran at Picket’s leg and put her good shoulder right into his knee. It did not have the effect she wanted, either due to the fact that she couldn’t put as much power into it as she had once been able to or the naturally light bodies of pegasi. An earth pony would’ve had much more success with that particular maneuver.

Picket spat the pillow out finally and swung his leg forwards right into Rose’s stomach. The impaired pegasus not only had the wind knocked clean from her body but was also launched into the air, where she hit the stone ceiling and then tumbled back down to the ground.

Pain once again consumed Rose’s entire life. It flooded through every nerve and made her vision swim and blur. It was like the day she used the radio all over again. She could feel whatever little healing had been done to the wingless socket on her back become undone in an instant. The front left leg, now so maligned from that injury, refused to move. It wasn’t even locked in place, it was just limp against the ground and would not listen to the commands she gave it.

Rose looked up to see Tempest land a kick square into Picket’s jaw. The monster that had once been a guard stumbled away but recovered quickly. He leveled his sharpened horn at the mare that defied him and let loose two blasts in her direction. One missed, but the other hit close enough that Tempest had to roll to the side to avoid getting singed. That roll was when Picket lunged at her. Tempest tried to dive out of the way, but she was just too slow in that instance.

Teeth sank into the fuschia flank of the unicorn. The long sharp fangs dug in so deep that they had to be scraping bone. Once the top fangs were secured, Picket clamped his bottom jaw around the other side of her slender form. Tempest screamed in a mix of pain and horror as she was lifted into the air and it looked like Picket was going to attempt to swallow her whole.

Rose tried to get to her hooves but something still wasn’t working. Her body just wasn’t listening to her. The limp unresponsiveness that plagued her one leg seemed to spread to the others and it was making her entire body feel like it was on pins and needles. She couldn’t even feel the pain anymore, it had been snuffed by the static that was stretching across her body. All she could do was whimper helplessly.

Tempest was still in a fight for her life as Picket’s jaws tightened around her flanks. She still had the long jagged piece of wood between her teeth and she took it between her hooves. With a primal cry of fury she slammed it down into one of the monster’s beady blue eyes and made sure to plunge it as deep as she could.

Whatever sound Picket had been about to make died as Tempest slammed her hooves onto the end of the makeshift dagger and sent it into his brain. The monster collapsed to one side and the unturned unicorn tumbled from his mouth, blood covering her flanks and two big puncture wounds obscuring her cutie marks.

Tempest did something that Rose couldn’t do and got to her hooves. It was a slow and agonizing process, but she did it. The mare with the higher body count swore and spat on Picket’s body, then gave his head a swift kick for good measure. Blood poured from the open wounds on her flanks as she limped over to where Rose was laying.

“C’mon, get up. We have to move.” As she got closer, tears became visible rolling down her cheeks and the bags beneath the once electric orbs became more pronounced. “Rose, c’mon.” Tempest offered the prone pony a hoof.

It was like her entire body had been stunned after Picket had kicked her. She had never felt something like that, and she was sure she never wanted to again. It had to be due to her missing wing. Being so close to her spine, she was sure that it being ripped clean out had messed with something important, and that last hit had knocked that something loose. In a very painful attempt, Rose rolled her shoulder and felt her shoulder blade hit that familiar catch somewhere in her back. The pained and maimed mare took a deep breath and forced it past. Something in her back popped and blinding pain made her vision go completely white. It was so sudden and severe of a pain that Rose didn’t even scream, her mouth just hung open and she wheezed.

The tips of her hooves still had that tingly feeling and it wouldn’t go away. They were at least listening to her now. With tears in her eyes and with great effort, Rose picked herself up. Like a newborn foal, she wobbled on unsure legs and took a step forward. The problem child of her four legs buckled but the others compensated before she could hit the ground. She was able to move again.

She had denied Tempest’s offer of help. She had needed to get up herself, to prove that she still had the same level of fight left in her. Tempest looked at her and nodded approvingly at the show of individual strength, then she staggered off to finish packing.

While Rose made sure she could walk and move with just the usual caveats, Tempest busied herself with bandaging her flanks and packing the saddlebags. After a few minutes, Rose dragged herself up the ladder and shut the hatch on the roof. The last thing they needed was another monster dropping in on them while they got ready.

“We need to go, it’s not safe here anymore.” Tempest mumbled and intercepted Rose as the latter descended from the ladder. The unicorn had the sack of oats dragging behind her and she affixed the other end of the rope attached to it around Rose’s barrel.

“Where is…?” Rose asked between heaving breaths.

“I don’t know…” The statement of defeat was followed with a sigh. “Train station is out of the question.” She looked back to her own flanks and tried to flex one of her back legs, only to wince and stop the motion almost immediately. “We just need to hold up somewhere for a little while until we get to feeling better.”

They would never be one-hundred percent again. That was not an attainable state anymore. Rose wasn’t even sure she was at ten-percent right now and getting to fifty felt impossible. Whatever level of readiness they could reach had to be enough, or else they were both going to die in this cursed city. Rose knew that the light of the sun that was always shining would keep blessing her, though. It was the only reason she was standing. It was the only way she was walking. It was the only reason she was still alive in spite of everything.

As long as the light was shining, and as long as the fire in her chest still had a single ember left alight, then she would keep going. Only death could stop her now, and even then her grave would have a hard time holding her down. Back in the castle when she had demanded a sign from her god, she had been foolish not to see that the fact that she was alive was the sign that she needed. Now she saw the plain truth, that she was upright because something much more powerful than herself decreed it. She was needed for a righteous purpose now.

Getting into the tunnel was a trial for both of them, and moving through it was even worse. Rose still had to keep her bad leg pinned to her side as the other three dragged her through the smuggler’s route. Meanwhile it seemed like Tempest was using her rear legs as little as she possibly could and when she had to grunts of effort came from her mouth.

One good thing about the tunnels was that the sun couldn’t reach this far. The darkness and the cool air were a welcome reprieve from the little oven they had been living in. The cool stone against fur was soothing, and the darkness let Rose rest her eyes as she crawled. It was weirdly pleasant, as long as she ignored the exhaustion and pain that permeated every second of her own existence.

“Where are we going?” Rose finally had to ask the question. The longer they crawled through the tunnels, the more curious she became.

“Big hotel, I don’t know the name…” Tempest answered with a grunt. “The tunnel comes out in the basement. The train station is just around the corner from it, so I figured it’s the best place to hold up until we feel good enough to move again.” That ‘we’ was telling. Tempest wasn’t feeling any better than Rose did now.

“Is it the Rocky Top Hotel?” It was the only hotel that Rose could think of so close to the train station. While all hotels in Canterlot were some level of fancy, the Rocky Top was definitely on the lower end of expensive. It still had a penthouse suite that occupied the entire top floor like most hotels did.

“I think so.”

It was an hour-long slog through the dark tunnels beneath the city before they came to their destination. The exit was hidden behind a maze of water pipes with just enough room for the two mares to disembark. It was tight, but they came out into the cool air of a dimly lit basement. There were no windows, only bare bulbs hanging from the ceiling by dangling wires.

The bag of oats had to be picked up and held before it was dragged out due to the thin layer of water that covered the floor. The last thing either of them wanted was their dwindling food supply to be ruined by something as stupid as a busted pipe.

“Can’t stay here either…” Tempest sighed and kicked at the water with a hoof. “Okay…let me think.”

“We could…always try to go upstairs?” Rose offered carefully. The thought of getting into one of the rooms and getting to sleep in a real hotel quality bed was too good for her to pass up. “It would give us a better view of everything…” There was no real benefit to go higher up and away from their exit other than a chance at comfort. The only way back down would be a lot of stairs or an elevator, both not ideal.

“Hmm…” Tempest seemed to think about it for a moment. She would see the obvious flaws in this plan just as Rose had, the only hope was that she could also see the benefits. “We can go up there for a bit, just to get a view of the station.” And just like Rose, the temptation of some minor comfort was enough to pull her away from the idea of total safety, at least for a bit.

They stashed their belongings, the meager things that they were, amongst the pipes to keep them off of the damp ground. Once they were sure they wouldn’t fall, the two ponies headed towards the stairs that led out of the basement. The pain of trotting up the stone stairs got to them both and they had to stop and just wait about halfway up the two dozen or so steps to just give their aching legs a rest for a moment.

The door led straight out into the lobby, which was another place littered with corpses. It wasn't just the smattering from that dotted the halls of the castle, it looked like the throne room all over again. There were bodies on top of bodies, all rotting in the putrid hot air. It wasn’t just stallions and mares either, there were foals too. That sight alone made Rose sick to her stomach and she had to step away to stop herself from throwing up whatever contents remained in her stomach. It was the first time she had seen the grisly sight, and she wished she hadn't seen it at all.

They moved quickly through the lobby, which thankfully seemed to be free of any of the monsters. The glass on the doors and windows were all frosted, but even obscured they offered no sign of the turned unicorns on the street immediately outside. Still, they scampered up to the front desk and quickly got behind it.

A large board filled with little metal hooks that held keys was on the wall behind the front desk. Some of the keys were gone, but a majority were still there, including one that sat at the very top of the board. It had Celestia’s cutie mark emblazoned on it and the words ‘sun suite’ above the hook. Rose pointed at it and directed Tempest to get it. The unicorn snatched the key and tossed it to Rose, who caught it with her wing.

The two mares moved swiftly down a side hall that terminated at a set of elevators. One of the doors was fully closed, but the other one was blocked from doing so by the body of a dead pegasus mare. The doors kept on trying to close, hit her body, then opened back up with a plaintive ‘ding’.

The stairs were not an option either mare wanted, so they moved the dead pony out of the way and they got into the elevator. Once the doors finally closed, Rose hit the button for the top floor and they began to ascend.

They weren’t in any immediate danger, nor did they have to have their heads on a swivel as the little metal box dragged the ever upwards towards the penthouse. It allowed both of them to lean against the walls and do something which looked like relaxing. Relaxing was dangerous though, because it meant the fatigue got a real chance to set in. They weren’t moving, they let their aches and pains rest for a moment, and the adrenaline was able to settle. Rose could feel herself dozing off, the hum of the elevator’s motor and the nondescript music from the speakers provided nice white noise.

The elevator came to a jarring halt and dinged, which woke up both of the ponies from inadvertent slumber. The energy they had rushed into the elevator with had evaporated and the two mares trudged from the box with slumped shoulders and dragging hooves.

They weren’t let out directly into the penthouse, but a small little antechamber that had both exits: the elevators and a door that led into the main stairwell for the building. While Rose didn’t think the unicorns were capable of operating complex machinery, she wasn’t going to discount it yet. However, the stairs were still the most obvious route from which the monsters might come. If they were going to stay up here, they would have to make sure that door wouldn’t open.

Rose took the lead as they approached the door and she put the key in the lock and turned it with her wing. The door swung open and a wave of scented air slammed into them full force. The constant assault of rotted flesh had been so omnipresent that something that smelled good caused both mares to scrunch their noses and blink a few times. It smelled of lilac and it smelled like the room was drenched in whatever they used to scent it. It smelled like a poor pony’s idea of a rich pony’s hotel room. Which fit for the Rocky Top.

The room beyond the door was just as tacky as the smell that emanated from it. Purples whites and golds that poorly mimicked the rooms in the castle decorated the space. Imperfect marble made up the floor with cracks and discolorations all over, while the carpets and drapes looked like they were hand me downs from the castle itself, and a portrait of Celestia hung on one of the walls. There were three doors, two on the wall to the right of the entrance and one on the wall on the left. If Rose were to guess, two of them were bedrooms and one was a grand bathroom of some sort. They were probably all designed by the same interior decorator as the main room.

Rose wandered over to a sliding glass door that sat opposite from the front door and looked outside. They were near the edge of the city now and instead of the city stretching before them, it was Equestria itself. Pillars of smoke dotted the horizon and signaled ponies in distress. It hurt the heart to see.

It was easy to think of Canterlot as the lone pillar of violence when it surrounded you, but there were still others out there. Unicorns were everywhere in Equestria and the plague was spread to all of them by now. Across the countryside, in small villages or even single homes, ponies were still dying.

“Where are they going?” Tempest had appeared beside Rose at some point. Her eyes were not focused on the rolling countryside, but the streets below. They craned their necks to get a better look, but they saw a long serpentine line of unicorns all headed out of the south gate of the city. It wasn’t like the wave of ponies that had surged through the streets the first night either, it was an orderly line. Almost like a march.

The unicorns were slowly but surely evacuating Canterlot.