Days of Ruin

Morale****When history witnesses a great change,

The Elements are lost.

While the world is being rearranged,

Ponies must feel the cost.

Until demons of the sky endure the race,

Only then will the world repair.

For one shall suffer death’s embrace,

And recall the Elements to end despair.

****

The wind whistled.

The sand blew.

There was no life left here.

No hope.

It was dark, the sun unable to pierce through the blanket of ash that colored the gloomy sky above. Whatever sunlight that had made it through, it wasn’t enough. The sky displayed the illusion of late evening by broadcasting a dark orange across the land, even though it was supposed to be just past noon.

Formidable black mountains towered over the distant background, warning any intruders of the consequences that lied beyond their peaks. Their shadows were cast over the darkly colored flat lands below, marking Equestria’s graveyard. The land itself was a dull brown, so lifeless that it almost looked gray. There were still spots of black dotted across what used to be plains, a grim reminder of what had happened here.

A barren and empty landscape.

A dead world.

It still made Twilight’s stomach churn, even after being exposed to this scenery for the past five years. The wind blew by her face and across her body, further damaging her dry and cracked skin underneath her coat. She sifted through the soft, grainy soil below her as she scooped up a hoofful and lifted the miniature mound in front of her face.

“This is Equestria.”

A stray tear ran down her cheek at she stared at the pile of soil.

****

“Twilight, come on. The resupply is done. We’ve got to take off before we get ambushed again. I don’t trust these locals here.”

The voice from behind her made her jump in surprise while dropping the pile of sand back into the dirt. She inconspicuously wiped her cheek and eyes with a quick swipe of her hoof and looked over her shoulder to see Rainbow Dash hovering in the air behind her. The biting wind flowed through both of their manes, causing them to sway like a flag on a flagpole.

“Applejack and the others have already boarded. Let’s go,” she said as she blew a strand of orange hair from her eyes.

Rainbow motioned with a hoof to follow her and turned around, heading back towards the airship. She was wearing tattered combat fatigues with a white and light blue camouflage pattern and a Stahlhelm with the same pattern on her head. On the front of her helmet and each of her collars, a single silver bar was visible.

Twilight started to follow but after a couple of steps, she froze to stare at her friend. She looked into the magenta eyes of Rainbow Dash and saw what she always saw. The eyes of a pony that never gives in, no matter what. A loyal pony that would gladly follow her to Tartarus and back. A determined and fighting spirit.

But Twilight had always seen that in Rainbow Dash.

Even before the invasion.

Now Twilight saw more in that pegasus’s eyes. She really wished that she couldn’t.

She saw the pain and stress of living in a destroyed world for years, living off of limited supplies and always on the move. She saw the fatigue and exhaustion of the rough, draining lifestyle of a traveler and soldier constantly fighting off bandits and rogue militias to keep her friends safe. She saw the guilt and trauma of a first lieutenant that had watched as her entire battalion was torn to pieces and obliterated in front of her helpless eyes.

“This is Rainbow Dash.”

The sound of Rainbow’s voice broke her train of thought.

“You alright Twi? Is there someone behind me?”

Rainbow asked as she looked over her shoulder and saw nothing but a large black airship parked next to a small town. The town itself looked like a tornado had smashed its way through, leaving very little standing. Buildings, the ones that were left anyway, had entire chunks torn out. She even saw one building that had lost its entire second floor, swept away by a powerful force. It was obvious that many of the foundations of the remaining buildings had been crumbling for some time.

Applejack was seen carrying boxes of food on her back, walking up the metal walkway that extended from the ship to the ground. It was leading her to the cargo hold. A few ponies dressed in white camouflage and some in solid black uniforms were assisting her in lifting the supplies into the ship while a few other uniformed ponies and a green uniformed griffon with a red beret stood guard.

The ponies that occupied the town were nowhere to be seen. Rainbow thought this was strange, considering that they had just purchased supplies a mere few minutes ago. This action put her on edge, if ponies were hiding, it was for a reason.

Rainbow raised an eyebrow in concern as she glided down toward her friend.

“You blanked out there for a second.”

As her hooves touched the ground, she could feel the shell casing from a Pressure rifle contact her hooves with an icy touch. Rainbow kicked it away as she trotted up to Twilight and rested a hoof on her friend's shoulder. She brought herself face to face with the unicorn.

“Uh…you okay there Twilight?”

The steel black door hissed open and hit the side of the ship with a loud thud. A white unicorn mare wearing a purple scarf and sunglasses stepped out and waved to them, oozing with giddiness.

“Rainbow dear! Are we ready to cast off? I’d like to leave before any of those nasty vagabonds get any ideas!”

Rainbow turned back to Twilight with a smirk.

“So how about we fly this rectangle? What do ya say?”

Twilight gave her a weak smile and passively trotted past her friend to board the ship.

Rainbow glared at Twilight as she passed.

“What is wrong with that girl?”

****

One of the hallway lights flickered for a split second, causing Twilight to blink in discomfort as her eyes adjusted to the artificial light. Her hooves clanged against the metal floor as she followed Rainbow and Rarity through the ship. She swiveled her head side to side, taking in everything that was going on around her.

The engines hummed loudly in this section of the ship, and the dark walls were covered in a tangled mess of wiring and control panels. The corridor was small but not cramped, large enough for a pony to walk through without touching the side rails. As the walkway led near the kitchen and dayroom, they bypassed several doors, most of them living quarters and bathrooms. Behind them, the engine, electrical and the magical fuel room were positioned, the humming of the destroyer’s powerful engine filling Twilight’s ears.

The Aurora was a magically-powered warship. The unicorns within the crew would periodically have to dump some magic into the fuel cells and also the powder magazine for ammunition. This Sky Destroyer was a sleek and fast forty-gun ship of the line and equipped with advanced Karalian technology. Twilight couldn’t help but to be impressed with being able to keep this thing in the air without a single aerial sailor onboard.

They'd had aerial sailors...

She followed Rarity’s white form as they navigated the ship from pure memory. Voices could be heard from some of the civilians mingling with the soldiers, their conversations nearly drowned out by rumble and squelches of the engines. Twilight tossed all of these trivial observations from her mind as she continued to follow her friends through the corridors.

****

Two wounded soldiers were sitting with their backs against the wall outside of the dayroom. They were dressed in solid black uniforms and armor, one wearing the same Stalhelm that Rainbow Dash donned on her head. The other had her steel helmet placed on the ground next to her. Her head was wrapped in a bloodied white bandage that covered one of her eyes, as was one of her forelegs. Her partner wasn’t in a much better plight. The entire right side of his torso was exposed and covered in bandages, small bloody dots around his ribs and chest. One of his backlegs was also dressed.

Both faces betrayed exhaustion and lifelessness.

Twilight pitied the sight of them. They looked undeniably miserable. She had no doubt that these two had been wounded during their last engagement with a rogue army unit a few days ago.

That was awfully strange. After five years one wouldn’t think any of those factions still existed. They would usually have wiped each other out by now.

But this last group…they were determined.

The unit that these soldiers fought was different from previous enemies. Those ponies launched a vicious and coordinated attack, not the usual suicide charge out of desperation that many starving enemies resorted to. Also, this last opponent was a disciplined military unit, not a disorganized rabble of civilian militia.

Very strange.

Twilight made a mental note to study into that tonight, when she would have some time alone to look into some records. She watched as Pinkie Pie swooped in from seemingly nowhere, and landed in front of the wounded ponies, failing to break them out of a thousand yard stare. She beamed a wide toothy smile and a tray of cupcakes in one of her forehooves.

“C’mon ponies! Turn those frownies upside downies! Here! Have a cupcake! It always helps me when I’m feeling blue!” the pink pony beamed as she held the plate out to the wounded troops.

“But WAIT! I’m pink, so that means I can’t be blue but maybe I can be both at the same time. Wouldn’t that make me cotton candy? That would be great because I LOVE cotton candy. Except when it gets all sticky on your hooves but then you can just lick-”

They didn’t even acknowledge Pinkie’s existence as the Karalian ponies easily retained their stoic and emotionless expressions. The soldier with the chest and rib wounds was hacking at random intervals. Twilight would have been heartbroken at the amount of pain the two were in, but years of exposure had desensitized her somewhat. She wondered if she was starting to lose herself or at least a part of the old her.

She needed to stop tagging along with the assault teams.

“Pinkie,” Twilight called out.

The party pony was finished explaining the science of winged cashews before Twilight yelled at her to stop.

“Pinkie!”

“Yes Twilight?” Pinkie responded, fluttering her eyelashes.

“…Don’t. Leave them alone.”

“But-”

“Pinkie,” Twilight repeated like a stern mother.

“Fine.”

Pinkie’s ears drooped as she lowered her head. She turned to the wounded ponies one last time and held the tray out to them.

“Are…are you sure you don’t want a cupcake?” Pinkie asked with a heavy frown.

One of the soldiers shook his head sadly and the other simply stared at the metal floor.

Pinkie walked away with a sigh and she also let her head down.

“This is bad. Not even Pinkie could rally them. It looks like those two have given up all hope. The situation must be sapping their morale and wearing them down. Five years is a long time.”

Twilight then thought for a second about her own feelings. She clenched her eyes closed and replayed some of the images of what they have gone through. She remembered all the death and destruction she and the others had witnessed throughout the last few years. Unfortunately, there were too many instances to count.

Watching that family she tried to save getting roasted by napalm. The sight of that young Equestrian soldier getting beheaded by an artillery shell…

“And I can’t say I blame them.”

****

The command room at the front of the ship was filled with unicorns. Twilight watched as the unicorns twisted dials and pushed buttons with their magic. Blinking lights and illuminated words lined the walls of the room with the familiar cold and metallic floor on her hooves as well. The room was well-lit and filled with the sounds of hooves clopping on the metallic floor.

It appeared that all of the unicorns were hard at work, moving to and fro to different consoles and instruments. The dits and dashes of Horse Code added continuous beeping to the background noise as a couple of civilian analysts were sending a message to the next town, alerting them of their arrival, or just trying to contact any survivors that needed help, Twilight assumed.

In the center of the room, sat the map table. Rarity was standing next to it, levitating a piping cup of coffee as she studied the holographic map.

She could see a rainbow-colored tail sticking out of the co-pilot’s seat, the owner staring out the wide window at the front of the ship. Twilight saw clouds pass by and the mountains in the distance. The window covered almost three-fourths of that wall, allowing for a great view of the outside world. Not like anypony would like to see that world anyway…

By this time, Rarity had spotted her and waved a hoof in Twilight’s direction.

“Over here darling!”

Twilight approached her and let eyes fall on the glowing map in front of her. She could see landmarks and squares that represented towns and cities.

…Or what used to be towns and cities at least.

“Where are we headed?” Twilight asked robotically.

Rarity coughed and took a sip of her coffee. It tasted rather mediocre today. She decided that she would have a word with one of the aides about this later.

“Well dear, first we will past this mountain range here,” Rarity pointed a hoof at a group of brown triangles on the map.

“Then, we will fly over a hundred and fifty miles over the wastelands and stop at this town here and resupply,” Rarity explained.

“And what town is that?” Twilight asked.

Rarity scrunched her eyebrows at she looked closer at the map.

“I believe that Versay is the name of the town,” Rarity answered.

Twilight raised an eyebrow at the name.

“Versay? That doesn’t sound Equestrian.”

“Yes dear, once we cross that mountain range will be going from southern Equestria to northern Karalia again.”

Twilight groaned. They were never going to find them flying around randomly like this and the ship’s magical radar wasn’t helping either. Still, they couldn’t give up. They had to try. No matter how bleak things may seem, there is always hope.

But recently, Twilight had felt that kind of drive slipping away for her. Day by day, misery was slowly eating at her spirit from the inside out like a parasprite. She blamed the gloomy atmosphere, and the troop morale was hanging on by a thread. Internal depression was sucking away her spirits, energy, and eventually it’ll come for her sanity. Soon, she would be hollow. Just like those wounded soldiers sitting outside the dayroom.

“Maybe I should go talk to them. You know, maybe we can relate.”

Twilight chuckled darkly at the thought.

“Twilight, is everything alright?” Rarity asked, concerned for her friend’s strange behavior.

After hearing this, Rainbow Dash looked over her co-pilot seat in curiosity. Twilight shook her head rapidly to snap herself out of it again.

“Yes. I’m fine.”

Twilight took a deep breath with both Rarity and Rainbow eyeing her with worried glances.

“So, how big is our crew?” Twilight asked, hoping to change the subject.

Rarity gawked at her for a few more seconds before answering. Rainbow turned back into her chair and continued flying the ship.

“Twenty-three Karalian ponies, sixteen of them soldiers. Nineteen Equestrian ponies, seven of them soldiers, counting Rainbow Dash of course…”

As Rarity rambled on, the ship shook slightly as it hit some turbulence.

“… Two Leasathian griffons, both of them soldiers. And I believe we just picked up three new civilians. One was an engineer before the invasion. He might be useful,” Rarity finished as she took another sip of her coffee.

“Good, we’ll continue to pick up more as we land at towns. We enough supplies for about a month, I think.”

Twilight left the command room as soon as she finished speaking, the automatic door shutting behind her.

“I need some sleep.”

****

As the automatic door slammed shut behind Twilight, Rainbow Dash turned back over her chair to face Rarity.

"Did that just happen?" she asked, a wide, worried look in her eyes.

Rarity nodded slowly.

"Yes, I'm afraid I saw it as well. I'm worried about her. She's been out of sorts lately."

"...Yeah," Rainbow whispered as she stared at the metallic silver of the floor, letting her mane fall over her eyes.

****

As Twilight went back towards the dayroom, to get to her quarters, she noticed that both of the soldiers were still sitting against the wall, moaning in pain. A few civilians had tried to help them by passing out blankets but it was easy to see that none of them had been doctors or nurses before the cataclysm.

As the saddened civilian ponies left the room, Fluttershy and two more Karalian soldiers entered the room. The yellow pegasus held a white box with a red cross in her mouth. As she reached the wounded ponies, she dropped the medical kit, a metallic clang was heard as it hit the floor. Fluttershy flipped it open and retrieved the contents.

Twilight watched as her friend continued to care for their wounds, and offered them both water. Fluttershy smiled as both ponies accepted this with robotic gratitude. But it didn't matter, Fluttershy was happy that they showed any gratitude at all.Twilight also noticed that the Karalians that entered the room with her were both lieutenants, judging by the silver bar on the front of one’s helmet and a gold bar on the other’s. Working with soldiers for a while, she had learned enough to get by.

Well, that was one thing that never changed about her.

Twilight Sparkle, ever the student.

“Checker, Niki. You ponies doing okay? Do you need anything?” the first lieutenant asked his wounded subordinates.

Neither responded.

The lieutenant frowned at the lack of liveliness in their expressions.

The first lieutenant was a rather young earthpony, maybe two years younger than her, Twilight guessed. He was short, skinny colt with a brown coat and mane that complemented his green eyes well. Twilight remembered that his cutie mark was what looked like a broken heart with a pencil stabbed through it. She couldn’t see it now because he was still in uniform and the pants covered his flanks. He was the commander of the Karalian military contingent onboard the ship.

“Captain,” he acknowledged, spotting Twilight.

His triangular brown bangs were slightly covering one of his eyes as he tried to give Twilight a smile.

Twilight frowned.

“I’m a civilian Blaze. You know that.”

He raised an eyebrow as he took his place beside her.

“You’re the leader of this ship, are you not?”

“Well…yeah.”

“Then you’re Captain.”

He grinned in victory as he sprung his trap. Twilight merely rolled her eyes at this.

Idiot.

She watched the second lieutenant turn away to assist Fluttershy in treating the wounded ponies. This other Karalian officer was helping Fluttershy rebandage some of the wounds on the poor ponies, gauze in his teeth. Twilight didn’t know much about this pony, except that his name was Thunder Coy and that he was even younger than Blaze.

The yellow unicorn was about to say something to Fluttershy when Applejack and Rainbow Dash entered the room, Dash still wearing her combat uniform.

"Both of them are Karalians huh?" Dash asked as her wings flared as she trotted over to Twilight and Blaze.

Blaze responded and he swung his head in the direction of  the wounded ponies.

"Yeah, Checker and Niki from Drossel Team. Did any of your Dragoons get hit during that firefight? I didn't notice any," he asked, concerned.

Rainbow shook her head as her gaze rested on Fluttershy and the admirable medical work of her oldest friend. Applejack walked past towards the kitchen, giving them a nod as trotted by and straightening her hat.

"No. Who were those guys anyway? I mean, they were wearing both of our uniforms, Karalian and Equestrian. And when they retreated, we checked the dead they left behind and couldn't any military ID's or anything like that," Rainbow Dash said, puzzled.

"Renegades, probably. I hate the type. Traitors."

Before they could continue, Fluttershy approached them somberly. Her head was down and she looked like she was going to choke up. All three ponies turned their attention to her immediately, they could feel the dread emanating from her demeanor. She stuttered with her words as she tried to speak, all three ponies clearly seeing the water form on the edge of one of her eyes.

"I-I just noticed something about Checker's wound that I haven't seen before," her head dropped as she struggled to break the news.

They all moved their heads in closer.

"As you know, he was shot in the ribs with a magical charge from a Pressure rifle. Well um...when I was looking over him, I noticed that the bleeding in his side had increased recently. I thought that I just had to replaced the bandages so I did so but when I looked into his wound I saw..."

Fluttershy had to stop and take an uneasy deep breath before continuing, leaving her friends in suspense.

"The magical charge pierced his lungs. I hoped that the heat from the charge would cauterize the wound but the bleeding told me otherwise. He is bleeding internally, slowly but surely. Blood has been slowly seeping into his lungs, drowning him. That would explain his hacking and coughing."

Blaze looked from his wounded soldier back to Fluttershy.

"What can we do?"

She turned to him and shook her head. Blaze could see the dry tears that stained her face. Poor thing.

"We don't have the equipment on board to help him. If we don't get him to a proper hospital soon..."

Blaze turned to Rainbow Dash and Twilight.

"Did we pick any doctors at the last town?" he asked hopefully.

Twilight shook her head, her eyes blank.

"No."

Blaze bit his lip as he took his black helmet off his head and stormed out of the room. After the automatic door shut behind him, they could hear a frustrated growl.

They listened to the metallic crash of his helmet being flung into the side of the wall.

"As for Niki, she will be fine in a week," Fluttershy added as an afterthought.

She trotted away with her head down as Rainbow and Twilight where left alone in the room with Lieutenant Coy and the two wounded soldiers. Coy was continuing to treat both of the wounded ponies.

"I need to get back to the front deck. You should get some rest Twi. I'll fly her for tonight and you take it tomorrow night, k?"

Twilight nodded stoically.