Day Twenty-Four

The unicorns were now filling the streets outside of the hotel and were even spilling into nearby buildings, that meant the lobby of the hotel was flooded with the beasts. They were all still filing out of the south gate of the city and into the mountain pass that would take them into Equestria at large.

That didn’t help Rose and Tempest, in fact it made their jobs infinitely harder. They couldn’t get back into the tunnels, and they couldn’t get to the train station. Even getting into the stairwell was a risk because they didn’t know where the unicorns were. It was safer to stay put.

Unlike last time in the bunker, they would have no escape though. If one of those things were to break down the door from the stairwell and get into here, they would have nowhere to go. If it howled, then they were dead. They had food, including the food stocked in the minibar, but that wouldn’t last them forever.

“It was dumb coming up here.” Tempest growled as she paced back and forth in the main room. She had a bad limp now and that made her gait much less intimidating, but she still had that predatorial stalk down.

“It looks like wherever we went we would’ve been trapped…” Rose peaked out of the window again. The shades were drawn on every window in the room, an abundance of caution for the alicorns that could still be lurking. “Maybe they think there’s nopony left in the city.” They had spent the last day trying to figure out exactly why this mass evacuation was happening now. “There haven’t been any howls for a really long time.” The monsters were done hunting. They weren’t even looking for ponies now.

“That could work to our advantage at least…” Tempest let out a sigh and sat down. One of her hooves went to a flank and she rubbed it gingerly. “I hate saying it…but stay put, stay quiet.” That was the mantra since they sent out the signal to the Crystal Empire and it was beginning to get tedious for both of them. While running and fighting was exhausting, it was something to do. It was something proactive. Staying here and waiting for the monsters to do something, to give them an opening, was maddening.

Rose briefly looked up to the sky, right at the sun. Her stomach turned and her heart ached for it. The star needed to set, it was yearning to light the other side of the planet. It was a wrong that needed to be righted as soon as possible. If Rose was not the one to right it, then she would be the one to avenge it.

What had happened here was a crime, not one codified in any official document but one against the sanctity of the heavens. While Celestia and Luna had not caused the disaster, at least Rose didn’t think they did, they had been the conduit for the sickness to reach the sun. They had aided and abetted, they were complicit. They were supposed to be divine and untouchable.

Rose felt deceived. Things needed to change after this, not just for her. For everypony who had been falsely led to believe in the superiority of Celestia and Luna. If Twilight and Cadance had been turned too, then Friendship and Love would be concepts just as sullied and they would have to be cleansed as well. Maybe that was why the other guards had been so opposed to her, because their hearts had been tainted with the sickness. They had not seen her as a comrade because even friendship was gone.

Rose wasn’t changed by it though. No, she was a true believer. She was somepony whose faith never wavered and whose heart remained pure. Even in her moments of doubt, in the darkest spot of her life, she still had the light and the fire of the sun burning in her chest. Who could say the same? Not anypony who had been down in the dungeon with her, that was for sure.

“My boss is called The Storm King, by the way.” Tempest cut through the fervor that clouded Rose’s mind. It caused the pegasus to turn around to find the unicorn lounging on a gaudy purple sofa in the middle of the room. “I don’t know his real name, but that’s what he calls himself.”

Right, Tempest’s boss. The creature who would help Rose carry out her plan. It was important to learn more about him and what he had at his disposal. Ponies weren’t a very martial race but, as evidenced by the unicorns below, they could put up a fight.

“Is he a pony?” That was Rose’s first question. Was he somepony like herself and Tempest, a disillusioned soul who was looking for some form of redemption through conquest? Was he something else that just hated Equestria for its friendship and prosperity?

“He’s a…I think he calls himself a ‘yeti’.” Tempest closed her eyes and rested her head against the arm. “He looks like a big monkey crossed with a wolf. He’s a simple creature, he just wants to conquer Equestria. He wants the magic of the princesses to help rule the world.”

“Hmm…” Rose furrowed her brow. That wouldn’t do in the long run. Ponies still deserved to be free, but that was a problem to be sorted out later. All she needed was whatever power he had to drain the magic from the alicorns, then she was sure she could convince Tempest to turn on her boss. First, she needed to know something. “What do you get out of all of this?”

“I get revenge on the ponies who rejected me.” Tempest retorted bitterly. “I get to show to everypony that their unity and friendship mean nothing. I get to expose a lie.” A fuschia hoof went to her broken horn. “And I get this back…he promised that with the magic of the alicorns he would heal my horn.” Rose couldn’t imagine a lifetime of such a disfigurement. A week without a wing was enough to make her bitter, but decades of doing it? That might drive her to such desperation too.

She was above that though. Rose would not do what she was doing for such personal reasons. She was above that. Her calling was holy, it was righteous. Tempest might never see that light, but Rose was sure that the hate in her companion’s heart would melt away when she saw ponies in chains. If anypony survived after this, then they deserved to be free.

“I hope you get to find peace.” Rose went with a neutral but friendly expression. She couldn’t say what she wanted to, that might just push Tempest away. “I understand how hard it is when nopony accepts you. I understand the need to show everypony how wrong they are…” Rose nodded as she spoke and took a seat on the floor next to the sofa. “If there’s anyway I can help you, I will.”

“Thanks, Rose.” Tempest smiled. It was not restrained or a half measure, it was a full smile. “I guess us weirdos have to stick together, huh?” Rose did not see it that way, not yet. She was not the weird one and she hated being called that.

“You’re not weird, and neither am I.” She pushed back on the sentiment immediately and harshly. “Ponies who see us that way for who we are, those are the weird ones. They can’t accept differences and that should be their problem, not ours.” Rose wrapped her wing around her body and looked towards one of the covered windows. “We should’ve been able to live normal lives, not have to live as outcasts.”

“We have to show them, then.”

Day Twenty-Six

Nothing happened. The days went on and nothing happened. Once something had come knocking on the heavy metal door to the stairwell, but when it did not open the monster went back down. That had been tense, but nothing had come of it thankfully.

Yet another blessing.

The last two survivors in all of Canterlot were sitting on the garish purple couch in the penthouse of the Rocky Top hotel eating a few candy bars they had scavenged from the mini fridge. They had the glass door to the balcony open while the drapes were still drawn. A nice mountain breeze blew in from the south and helped air out the musty air of the suite.

The huffing growling of mass of unicorns were still moving out of the city. The crowd was growing smaller by the hour, but it was still going to take days for all of the monsters to leave. They were running out of food in here already. Soon they would have to go down to lower levels to scrounge for meals.

“So you’ve never heard of Abyssinia?” Tempest tossed the wrapper to her candy bar onto the floor and then wiped her chocolate covered hoof onto the upholstery beside her. “I grew up in a tiny village so when I first heard of it I thought maybe our teacher just didn’t cover it.”

“No.”

Rose shook her head and readjusted her position on the couch. The pins and needles she had felt after getting launched into the ceiling of the little bunker still followed her. Sometimes they would get overpowering and she would have to get up and walk around to regain feeling in her extremities. That static-like tingle ran up her spine and caused her wing to unfurl and droop to her side. It took her one good shake to get control back of the rogue limb and tuck it back against her side.

“I was homeschooled.” Rose continued after shooing away the tingling feeling. “My parents taught me what they thought I needed to know. So the three R’s: reading, ‘ritin, and ‘rithmetic.” That earned a chuckle and an eye roll from Tempest. “I was taught about Equestria. Nothing else really mattered.”

“Even then, you never hear about these places in newspapers or general small talk.” Tempest shrugged. “Mount Aris, Panthera, Macawia. All of those places were taken over by a hostile invading army and nopony here has even noticed. Isn’t that odd? Celestia and Luna, two ponies with the power to move the sun and moon could end any conflict in the world. Look at what’s happening now-” Tempest gestured to the window and the sun that was currently baking this half of the planet. “-imagine if that was a threat and not just an accident. Then your god could bring peace to the entire world.”

“Hmm.” Rose had not thought of that before. Celestia did have control over the sun. Why did she never use it? Why was Equestria so isolated? Why did so much bad happen when Equestria had the capacity to stop it? “Disgraceful…”

That was the reason that Equestria was so bullied, why their capital had been invaded, why their rulers had been taken captive, why they had to rely on six ponies from a backwater town to save them from every threat. Celestia was too passive to protect the ponies she claimed she loved. Rose had even seen it with her own eyes and heard it with her own ears. Luna had wanted to be proactive, she wanted to quash this infection in its cradle in Ponyville. Instead look at what happened. The passivity of the strongest pony in the world had caused a disaster.

Their rot has spread to the Royal Guard as well. The reason nopony seemed to care about their duty, the reason there were brazen smuggling operations in the city, the reason Royal Guard medic bags were pawned off. It was corruption from the very top all the way to the bottom. Luna using the smuggling ring was emblematic of that harsh truth.

“Sorry.” Tempest mumbled. “I get a bit heated about this stuff. I didn’t mean to bring up your…y’know. I can’t even imagine what’s going through your head through all of this. I mean the sun never sets so that’s probably a plus for you right?”

“Not really.” Rose was always happy to talk about her faith as long as the pony talking with her was respectful. That was rare, though. “It’s not supposed to be up there for that long. It lives in equilibrium with the moon, just like the light with the dark. You must have both. I know the longer it stays up there the more dangerous it is for the planet.” Rose looked at Tempest and sighed. “I hope that this will end soon.”

“Well we can focus on that when we manage to get out of Canterlot.” Tempest got up from the couch and winced as she flexed her rear legs. “I don’t think running is something I can do, at least not for a while. So however we get out of here will be slow.”

“Yeah, me too.” Rose looked at her hooves, the tingling sensation had invaded the very tips of them yet again. They were cobwebs she had to continually shake loose lest they bind her in place. She knew of her previous limitations, but wondered how these new ones would affect her when the chips were down and action was needed.

A new and unusual sound broke the monotony of the day. It was in the background of the raucous din of growls the monsters put up into the air, but anything not related to the unicorns stuck out like a sore thumb. Both of the mares’ ears swiveled to locate it.

It sounded like rumbling. Not like a stampede, but something much more mechanical. Then they heard the telltale sound of a train’s whistle cut through the thick humid air. Both of the survivors looked at one another and then rushed to the door that led out to the balcony.

They had heard it and so had everything else in Canterlot. Every unicorn that flooded the streets below had their heads turned northwards, with their beady little eyes focused on the train station.

It didn’t sound like the train was rolling into the station quite yet. It was still coming up the side of the mountain. Why was it blowing it’s horn, though? Surely whoever was at the controls knew what was happening and knew it was unicorns that turned. So why would they blow the horn coming through Canterlot of all places?

“The Crystal Empire.” Rose spoke her realization aloud and let a smile creep across her face. She grabbed Tempest with her wing and gave the unicorn a shake. “They’re coming from the Crystal Empire! That has to be it!”

“One train wouldn’t be enough.” Tempest frowned and stuck her head out of the patio door. “Thousands of unicorns here, they’d need a whole army of ponies who couldn’t turn.”

“Well what if they discovered a cure? They could be immune!” Rose was looking for any semblance of hope and she was going to cling to it. “It’s been weeks, Tempest. Somepony has figured this out by now.”

Rose wanted to say more, but loud and powerful wing beats stifled all of her thoughts. Immediately both Tempest and Rose backed away from the windows and scurried behind the couch in the middle of the room. Princess Luna then flew right by the penthouse windows, causing all of the drapes in the room to fly around wildly from the draft created by her enormous leathery wings.

Then Celestia showed up. She was not seen, but she was felt. An enormous body landed squarely on top of the Rocky Top Hotel and caused the entire building to shake. Cracks began to form in the ceiling of the Sun Suite the two mares were in and a light fixture from one of the bedrooms audibly crashed. When they looked up they could see massive indents in the ceiling from where the alicorn was currently perched.

Then the fire started.

Celestia’s tail resting on the building caught the timber that composed the roof alight. With how dry and hot it was, it did not take long for a smoldering wooden beam to erupt into an inferno. Soon the flames were lurching across the ceiling at a rapid pace.

Unlike most buildings in Canterlot, the hotels were not made of polished stone. They were far too large for that so they were constructed of wood like most other buildings across Equestria but decorated to look like their more fancy counterparts. Somehow, Rose wasn’t sure how, the Rocky Top had survived the initial blaze of the first night. It had survived baking in the sun for weeks on end, but it would not survive direct contact with Celestia’s corrupted flame.

Rose and Tempest fled, with not even time to get their belongings or food. They did not even exchange words or talk of a plan as they bolted out of the door and into the little elevator lobby outside. Tempest started to head for one of the elevators, but Rose yanked her away and pointed at the stairwell instead. The mares opened the metal door to the stairwell and swiftly shut it behind them.

Going down the stairs in any fashion that could be considered quick was a struggle for the pair. Various grunts and hisses of pain accompanied little stumbles and clutches at the railing as they descended the stone steps.

They were blessed in that there were no unicorns inside at the moment, they were all too busy outside waiting for the train to appear. The blessing came with a curse though, the stairwell was quickly filling up with smoke from the rapidly spreading blaze. The heat was also ratcheting up, which was saying something because the sun hadn’t set in weeks. To feel hot at this juncture meant you ran the risk of boiling in the open air.

Rose was lucky enough in that she had a wing to cover her mouth to provide some sort of filter. The smoke still stung her eyes and her throat was desperate for clean air. Tempest had it worst as she was breathing in pure unfiltered smoke as it seeped into the stairwell and tears ran from her irritated eyes freely.

The mares exited the stairwell, thankful that the Rocky Top wasn’t an incredibly tall building, and came to a screeching halt. The wall of unicorns was still surrounding the building and throngs of them were pressed up against the frosted glass of the lobby.

“I left the map for the tunnels up in the room…” Tempest whispered to Rose. “I have no clue where we’re going after this.”

“We’ll figure something out.” Rose put a hoof on Tempest’s back. “First…let’s just get out of here, anywhere is better than here right now…” There was no argument.

Rose and Tempest trotted carefully across the lobby, their steps light as to not let their hooves clack against the marble. Their breaths were light and short and their eyes remained focused on the windows and main doors. It was a tense slow march where the only sound was the blood in their ears and the hearts pounding against their ribs.

They did make it to the basement door without incident. The floor was still wet and covered with about a half inch of water from the busted pipe that was still spraying its contents across the basement. They had taken a few showers since they got into the penthouse, but water still felt nice. Especially after the trek through the burning hotel.

Rose let Tempest take the lead as they climbed through the maze of pipes that concealed the entrance to the tunnel. The unicorn had more experience navigating through the city side of the tunnels by now and could no doubt find a familiar path. Rose just wanted to be out of this place and to maybe find somewhere they could keep an eye on things.

Tempest was about to crawl into the tunnel when a noise came from overhead. It was the noise of something cracking and giving way, and then crashing. The whole building shook in response. Then the same thing happened again, but the process seemed faster this time.

“The building is collapsing!” Rose realized and screamed. That was the sound of one floor pancaking onto the next. It was the sound of death coming for them if they did not hurry and get out of there.

Tempest got in and crawled as fast as she could, then Rose followed. The Pegasus even forced her bad leg to help carry the load and drag her along. That was excruciatingly painful and it made something along her spine pinch to the point it drew tears from her eyes.

As they crawled they heard the sound of the Rocky Top Hotel collapsing in on itself from behind them. When it finally all came to rest, a jet stream of dust shot up the tunnel from behind them and filled the cramped dark space with dense particulate and smoke. The mares coughed and sputtered but soon had to hold their breath due how unbreathable the air became.

Rose finally had to breathe and sucked in very little oxygen but quite a bit of dust. She coughed and wretched as her throat was coated in the grime. They kept going though, they kept going until they came to an exit.

It was some nondescript building, a pastry shop of some kind. It wasn’t Pony Joe’s, that’s all that Rose was sure of. There weren’t even any stale treats in the display counters and the smell of spoiled milk from a nearby cooler filled the hot air.

They were near the north side of the city now. It was easy to tell because the front of the shop was facing a large pillar of smoke that had to be the Rocky Top. They were not near the mass of monsters that were leaving the city, but they could still see some of the beasts a few hundred feet away. Luckily they were not paying attention to the mares.

The unicorns were all too busy paying attention to a train speed through the mountaintop city. Bolts of magic lashed out at the metal carriages and dented the panels and shattered windows. The train did not stop, it did not slow down. There was no army on board, and there was no cure.

Little did the two mares know, there were just two ponies onboard that particular train: an alicorn foal and her trusty steward.

Author's Note

Okay sorry for any formatting or spelling mistakes beyond the normal. I wrote half of this in my phone and hated every minute of it.

Anyway, we’re now at the beginning of the events of And Hell Followed! Woo!