Nothing. We had nothing.
I stared up at the dark sky. My mane and coat already soaking wet from the pouring rain. Clipeum lay underneath my wing, completely dry. But even at some point, a wing would not be able to stand being wet any longer and succumb. I could already feel it getting heavier by each minute that passed.
I looked at my son. Asleep and curled up like a dog. His coat as dark as Princess Luna's and his cheeks spotted with white freckles that resembled stars in a night sky. Peeking out from underneath the dark cloak that covered him like a blanket, was a small light purple feather. The necklace that brought him luck.
I stared at the cloak. I was freezing, and although it was small, it was better than nothing.
No. He comes first. You don't need it.
I was selfless. Too selfless. I put my son before myself, that's how I always was. So caught up with taking care of him, that I had forgotten to take care of myself. I remembered yesterday. I hadn't even eaten breakfast. I gave the last of the strawberries to him. We had little food left at the house.
I was going to go out and buy more... But, of course we were interrupted before I could.
I shivered. He wouldn't mind, would he?
I hesitantly took the cloak, making sure to not wake him, and put it over my back and neck. Keeping it on tight with my hooves.
I could feel the tiredness begin to overtake me too. I stayed up late last night, sitting, worrying. I hadn't gotten much sleep.
I started getting drowsy, my eyes drooped, my head lolled forward, and I slowly closed my eyes.
"Mama, mama!"
My eyes shot open. Clip's face was very close to mine, and he had worry in his eyes.
"What, what is it?!"
I stood up, and he pointed to the end of the alley.
I turned around to see a pair of bright glowing eyes in the darkness, and I stepped back. Clip shrunk next to me, and I heard him whining.
The eyes slowly moved closer, and suddenly ran out of the darkness. A small blur of gray and black skittered past us.
I jumped back in surprise. Just a raccoon.
More eyes appeared in the darkness, and I realized it was time to find a different place as more raccoons ran out and away from us. I started to move out of the dark alley, but Clip tugged on my leg. I stopped, and he pulled the cloak off my back.
Even thought it was cold, wet, and heavy. He put it around himself. Making sure to cover his horn, and ran out with me.
He never got upset about having to do things he didn't like. Wearing a freezing cold sopping wet cloak was nothing.
We left the alley, and out into the open. Looking around at the streets of Manehattan. Taxi's basically flew through the streets, everywhere we saw ponies walking through the rain, holding up umbrellas with their hooves. Trying their best to avoid the puddles as to not get their hooves and fancy getups wet.
But whenever there was rain, that meant more ponies inside than usual, which was good for us. The less ponies to see us, the better.
I looked around at the bright lights coming from windows in tall buildings. Big cities with bright lights and bustling ponies was never my favorite place, but I had to be here. I had almost forgotten why I was here.
I was here to find the unicorn rebellion.
With no clue of who they were, where they were, or if they would even accept me.
I looked to my left, noticing the raccoon was hurriedly running on the sidewalk. The other raccoons followed close behind.
Odd.
Out of curiosity, I followed them. We had nowhere else to be. Although it was probably just to find another dumpster to eat garbage from. I began to realize this was probably the lowest, saddest part of my life. Being so homeless and out of options, that I would follow a group of raccoons.
Clip crawled up onto my back, and we ran through the rain, following the critters.
Eventually I did get tired and slower, but it seemed like the animals were going to a strange part of town. The buildings seemed smaller and more worn down. There was basically nopony here. I looked behind me, just now realizing we had long ago left the bright lights of the city and were in some sort of neighborhood.
Where buildings were cracked and falling apart. It was dark and cold here. Colder away from the warm lights of the city. The place seemed abandoned, the buildings were in an old style.
The place was completely empty. It reminded me of a ghost town in a way. But it was safe. We could stay here. Away from every pony, living here and look around for anything useful in the buildings, until we found the rebellion.
If we found the rebellion.
I looked up at a crumbling building, beginning to walk towards it, when I saw something out of the corner of my eye.
Around the corner of a dark gray building, was a flash of pink.
I turned my head, but the bright color was already gone.
I narrowed my eyes in confusion, and turned around. watching, waiting. Had I just imagined it?
I walked over, and peaked around the corner. There was a mare.
She was sitting against the wall, hunkered down in fear, a light yellow mare with a choppy short pink mane. A beautiful white dress covered her, and behind her ear was a teal flower. Her eyes were shut, her teeth grit, and her hooves on her head. Her wings were wrapped around her like she was hiding in a butterfly cocoon.
She was trembling, trying to hide from me.
She slowly opened her eyes, seeing me in front of her and squeaking as she shut them once again. She turned her head away.
"Who- who are you?" I asked. In some way, the mare looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place it who she was.
She opened her eyes again, and looked me up and down.
"W-wait..." She said, her voice just barely over a whisper. "You're... they're right!" Suddenly she jumped up, looking at me with wide eyes. Her gaze turned to Clipeum, and she reached forward towards him.
I put my wing in front of him protectively, and she jerked her hoof back, looking at the ground.
"I asked, who are you?!" I said, raising my voice a bit. She squeaked and shrunk down fearfully. She was a full grown mare, but the way she acted seemed childish. I was trying not to be too harsh, but you never knew what could be behind those eyes.
But then, she slowly moved her head back up, she looked me right in the eye with a sudden determination and bravery.
"I am Fluttershy. The Element of Kindness, and one of the leaders of the rebellion!" At the last few words, she yelled. Opening her wings, and her teal eyes locked with mine.
I could only stare. Now I knew why she seemed familiar. Fluttershy, one of the Elements of Harmony. A leader of the rebellion.
"Y-you're... H-how..." She put a hoof over my mouth and smiled. "My raccoons found you. We've been looking for you ever since your face was put on wanted posters and in the newspaper. We know who you are Midnight Glider."
She reached her hoof towards Clipeum, and I did not stop her as she pushed his hood back revealing his horn. "We will keep you from danger." She said softly, pulling him closer forward.
She turned around, gesturing us to follow, and we did in a sort of trance. Following the brightly colored mare through the dark and empty ruins.
"You mean 'we' as in the rebellion? We've been looking for you too actually! I- I-... Thank you. Thank you so much." I sighed, and walked beside her.
"It's truly an honor to meet you... Fluttershy. I don't know you too well, but I've heard stories, battles, about you and the Elements of Harmony... Are you going to let us join the rebellion? I want to help in anyway that I ca-"
"Thank you. But for now we're keeping you both safe. We don't need to lose anymore unicorns."
I nodded, and watched Clip as he nervously walked by the unfamiliar mare.
"By the way, what's your name little unicorn?"
"Uh... Clipeum... Or C- Clip." He responded, lowering his head and looking away from her face.
She chuckled. "That's a unique and lovely name Clip. Who gave you that?"
I cleared my throat. "It was a name given by my husband... I still don't know how he came up with it. I think it's from another language, but I never asked."
Fluttershy smiled. Knowing better than to ask about family members that were obviously not present. It was common sense.
We walked up to another building, just as broken down as the others, and she opened the door. I hear a yell from another mare, sitting at a table with a stallion. Her hoof slammed on the table as she yelled, "We have to get her back!"
Both heads turned to us, the first thing I notice is the mares mane. A rainbow ran through her hair, which on her neck was short and spiked up. Her coat sky blue and her eyes a brilliant rosy pink. She wore a silver chestplate, and black gloves on her hooves. She looked stunned, her jaw dropped when she saw me.
Fluttershy nodded, and said "We found them, Rainbow Dash."
Rainbow Dash flew over the table, and hugged her friend. "Fast too!" Rainbow exclaimed, her voice was the opposite. Deep and raspy, but she looked at me with a smile.
Fluttershy looked at me. "In the newspaper it said their was a rebellious pegasus mare, described as you, with a young unicorn running amok. We want to help you Midnight, it sounds like you have gone through a lot. If you have questions, you can ask these two."
Fluttershy looked to Rainbow Dash, a slight blush on her face. She cleared her throat, and said, "Rainbow, this is Midnight Glider, of course, and her unicorn son, Clipeum."
Rainbow flew down in front of me, and held out a hoof for me to shake. "Rainbow Dash, the one and only!" She went back up into the air, and shot over to Clip, where she ruffled up his mane and laughed. "Hey little sucker! I'm Rainbow Dash. Wanna see my guns?" She said proudly.
Fluttershy protested, quietly saying, "no." But Rainbow still showed off her muscles. Which got a "Wow!" From Clip, and a sigh of relief from Fluttershy, who muttered, "Thank goodness that's not what she meant."
I looked then at the stallion at the table, who had a stern look on his face, looking at me and Clip with only slight annoyance from interrupting his meeting.
The stallion at the table stood up, putting his front hooves on the table. It was a unicorn stallion. But something was wrapped around his horn, a metal lock. I recognized those. Unicorns under slavery had them. It prevented them from using magic. He sighed. "It's truly great to see another unicorn here." He smiled slightly. His coat was white but his hooves dark royal blue. His short mane had different stripes and shades of blue, his eyes were icy blue, and he wore the same chest plate as Rainbow, but bigger to fit his size. A spear hung at his side, and he was quite buff. He looked a little older than the rest.
"If you'll excuse me." he said, leaving the room and going up the stairs to the next floor.
"It's really you." I said amazed. Ignoring the stallion. "I'm meeting the Elements of Harmony."
Rainbow chuckled. "Well, you still have a few more to meet. We welcome you to the rebellion, Midnight, Clipeum. We're going to meet for lunch soon, and we'll set up a room for you to stay in. Fluttershy?"
"Yep." Fluttershy said, going up the same stairs.
"I can't believe she found you so quick. We read about you, and began a search. Heard you were sighted getting on a train to Manehattan and we set animals all over the city searching. Fluttershy has a gift you know." she grinned. "She can communicate with animals, they are our eyes and ears, gets us the info we need."
Rainbow looked up at the stairs where Fluttershy had just left. "She's a special one."
"Oh, well, I'm truly grateful. I found out about the rebellion in the newspaper and came out looking for you as well. It was about, the capture, of Rarity?"
Rainbow looked down sadly. "Yes, we were just discussing that. She's our only unicorn without the magic lock. She makes all the armor, she made Fluttershy that dress. But she's not the one who makes the weapons."
Rainbow waved her hoof, and we followed her upstairs. We walked down the hallway, rows of doors on both sides like a hotel. She opened one door, and we stepped inside. On the walls were shelves. Shelves full of all sorts of weaponry. Guns, knives, swords, everything. Rainbow took one gun down, what I could only assume was a pistol, grabbed a magazine of bullets, and clicked it inside.
"Not the best, but I want to show you the simpler stuff first. Come on."
We followed her back downstairs and outside. We ended up watching her shoot things like garbage cans and windows in other buildings.
I kept Clip under my wing, and watched her with terror and fascination. I had never seen a gun, I had never heard of any pony with a gun.
She stopped shooting for a moment to look at me with a grin.
"How did you get these? I thought guns were illegal!"
"They are." She chuckled. "We buy them from Gryphon Arms. They make the weapons! But we do have our own personal gryphon you see. She's made some weapons. Not many, but she's getting better!" she laughed as she shot another trash can farther away, causing it to fall over and dump it's contents onto the ground.
"Ha! She went from making disgusting scones to making beautiful weapons!" She shot a window this time, and we heard the impact of the glass shattering. Clip watched it all with fascination. "But, normally the guns I use cause stuff to catch fire or explode. But, I do need a break every once in a while."
"Can I try?" Clip asked excitedly. Before I could say no myself, Rainbow said it for me.
"No! And as much as I wanna say yes, it's dangerous. You need some training if you're gonna use any sort of weapon."
"But you're brave just for asking, little sucker." She ruffled up his mane again, and started to walk back to the building again when she realized she had run out of bullets.
"Enough toying around with guns. But, hey, it'd be fun to see you fight. I'll train you myself if you really want to."
He grinned brightly. "Really? I can shoot down baddies?"
She chuckled. "Yep. you'll beat them right into the dirt!" She said, beating her hoof on the ground.
He ran forward, "I'm gonna beat you there!" He called out excitedly. "Oh no you're not!" She yelled back, ready for a challenge.
She shot forward, caught up to him, and slowed down, flying right beside him and flipping so she faced the sky. She started moving her legs to look as if she was swimming through the air, and they both laughed. She fell back a little to let him win on purpose as he placed his hoof on the door.
"Oh darn!" She said sadly. "I lost! Looks like you're just too good."
She pushed open the already slightly opened door farther, and he fell forward when it swung open. He went inside, laughing with his new friend.
"You're really good with him." I whispered to her, as we all gathered back inside.
She smiled. "Yeah... He reminds me of some pony, I- I never treated her right. I need to make it up for her. I need to redo it... Right this time."
I nodded in understanding. "Where you close with her?"
"Not close enough. I was a role model for her... But, I took her for granted. I was too self absorbed at the time... She didn't mean a lot to me. But now I miss her more than anything." She sniffed. But shook it away, hiding her emotions as best she could.
"Come on sucker!" She flew next to him again. Picking him up, and carrying him up the stairs.
He giggled all the way, and she said, "See! You can fly! I always knew you could..."
"No! Don't take her from me! I'm the only family she has!"
"Rainbow Dash!"
"Please! Don't hurt her! She's not even a unicorn! She's so young, don't take her away from me! You can't do this!"
"Miss Lulamoon has ordered us-"
"Scootaloo! I know you can fly! Fly so far away from them! Fly far away! Scootaloo... I know you can do it! I love you..."
Rainbow Dash wiped a tear from her eye, as she set the gun in it's rightful spot on the shelf. She picked up Clip once again, and spun him around and around. They both laughed, and she said happily, "You're with me now! We're going to be such good friends, you're going to meet such good ponies!" But her laughter stopped as another mare entered the room.
Rainbow continued to hold him in the air, but stopped in her tracks, her eyes following the new pony in the room. I moved away to let the earth pony walk past me.
Her dark pink mane was long and straight, her coat a light pink. Covering her muzzle was a white mask with a big red X on it. Except... Her face was flat. It looked like she had no muzzle. But stained across her face and hooves was blood. Fresh blood. No emotion shown in her expression, but her bright blue eyes were wide open and her pupils were the size of pin pricks. She held with one hoof, a large black gun which she held over her shoulder.
Nothing about this mare looked even the slightest familiar until I saw her cutiemark. Three balloons, two were light blue, the other yellow. That cutiemark only belonged to one pony, and this pony just couldn't be her.
"Aaah, Pinkie." Rainbow said, setting down Clip. Pinkie froze and slowly turned her head to Rainbow silently. "You've been doing target practice again?"
Pinkie set the large gun in her hoof on the shelf. Her eyes locked with Rainbows, still unspeaking.
"You know, Fluttershy doesn't like it when you shoot the rats."
I shifted uncomfortably.
Pinkie looked at her hoof covered with blood, and she looked back up again at the pegasus. Her face did not change for even a moment. I couldn't even tell if she was breathing.
"Well, uh, lunch is almost ready, could you gather everypony for that?"
Pinkie did not respond. She only walked out of the room and down the hall.
"Pinkie... Pinkie Pie?! That was the Element of Laughter?" I asked surprised. "What happened?"
Rainbow sighed. "Is, she still is the Element of Laughter. Just... She can't laugh anymore. It was at the beginning of all this... Twilight Sparkle, and Trixie had a duel. One that determined whether Twilight would stay in Ponyville or not. Twilight... Twilight lost. She was sent out, and Trixie hate her so much... She burnt down her home. The Golden Oak library was gone. After that... She became so controlling. She started to take over Equestria. She had so much power that she sent the alicorns to the moon. Princess Celestia, Princess Luna. But, Princess Cadence went missing. Nopony knows what happened to her after that. Shining Armor, that stallion I was with earlier, is her husband. He won't give up on looking for her. He was demoted from being captain of the royal guards, and became a slave. We've only successfully rescued two unicorns. Shining Armor, and another mare. You'll meet her at lunch probably. She's very outgoing and loud, You'll spot her in a second. But, well, of course they have those magic locks that we still haven't figured out. Impossible to take off. We even tried using a hammer, a crowbar, everything! Twilight would know..."
Rainbow took in a deep breath. "I-I'm sorry I got off track-"
"No, it's fine!" I interrupted. "I never did hear the full story. But, again, what happened to Pinkie?"
"Oh, yes. In the magic duel, Trixie made Pinkie's muzzle disappear. Never got it back. She tried to communicate for a while, but eventually gave up. After Twilight was gone and the library burned down, she held a town 'meeting' in Ponyville, where she-" Rainbow choked a little on her words. "She publicly executed unicorns. She was too powerful. She had some followers at the time, and it was only growing. She killed two unicorns... Snips and Snails. They were still young, in school. I couldn't watch it. Pinkie couldn't take her eyes off of it. She freezes up when she's scared. She can't get the images out of her head. She lost it a bit... For some reason, she continued to go to the executions. I tried to get her to stop, Applejack tried too, but something about them... entranced her, and since she can't speak she could never tell us why," Rainbow sighed.
"What... What about the elements? You had necklaces! Where are they? Can't they defeat her? Trixie?"
Rainbow shook her head. "The Elements are locked up in a special place, somewhere in the Canterlot Castle. Only Celestia could open it, and even if we did get them back, we couldn't use them without Twilight. We have to resort to other things to protect ourselves."
I took in the room again, they had to resort to violent weapons for this. They were supposed to hold the power of friendship, but it wasn't enough without their leader. Being polite wouldn't get them anywhere, befriending the enemies would not get them anywhere. I doubt they would even be able to befriend any of the guards, and Trixie was definitely out of the question.
"We're lucky to have Rarity though." Rainbow smiled. "We started the rebellion before they got to her. We've been missing for years, but now that they got Rarity... Trixie knows we're still out here. Celestia knows what they're doing to her." Rainbow sat down, and put her head in her hooves.
I looked behind me at the door, and saw Pinkie Pie walk in. She put a hoof on Rainbow's shoulder, and she stood up. "Did you get every pony for lunch Pinkie?"
Pinkie nodded, and walked back out and downstairs. We followed her. I walked next to Rainbow.
"Uh, how exactly does she get everypony if she can't talk?"
Rainbow chuckled. "I guess she just knocks on their doors to remind them, goes out searching the area for them, they know."
"Ok." I said, looking down still confused.
We walked down the steps, and into a different room.
It was just as dark and gray as the other rooms. Cracks spiderwebbing on the walls, with the dim lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling. The room was filled with tables, at least 4 ponies at each one, mares and stallions walked through, holding mugs of cider and plates of different foods. I was surprised at just how many there were. It looked as if there were forty ponies in here. Most were pegasi or earth ponies. But I did catch a glimpse of Shining Armor, who sat at a larger table holding a cup of cider. He no longer whore his armor, and sat at the table with only one other pony. A stallion I did not recognize.
I followed Rainbow to the end of the room. Where there was a bar. We sat in the seats, and Clip crawled up onto it with slight difficulty.
Above the bar were red lights, that glowed brighter than any other light in the room, and behind the bar were rows and rows of different drinks. Which I could only assume were alcoholic. A stallion with a red coat, blond mane, and bright green eyes, wearing a white apron, was bustling around serving ponies, going in and out of the kitchen door behind.
He paused at us, and smiled. "The usual, Rainbow?" He asked, his voice was deep.
"Yep." Rainbow responded. "Also, I got newbies. Cook 'em up something special." She winked at him, and he hurried back into the kitchen.
A few moments later, a mare walked out. An earth pony wearing black boots on her hooves, a white apron, and a light brown stetson on her head. Her fur was orange and her blond mane a bit messy. Her mane was tied to one side in a ponytail.
She leaned on the table in front of us, laying down a clipboard and a pen on the counter. She gave us a warm smile.
"Howdy, I'm Applejack, your waitress and I heard ya'll are new around these parts?" She pointed at us, then noticed Clip's horn, her eyes widened and she laughed. "My, what is that? Hard to find you folks these days."
"Applejack! Aah, the Element of Honesty!" I looked at her and smiled. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Midnight Glider, and my son Clipeum, or Clip."
Clip smiled, and Applejack grabbed his hoof and shook it. "This is great, really great to meet you two. I'm overjoyed to see more are joinin'! Anyway, what can I get y'all? And yes, we do have non alcoholic beverages for the young one. What do you want? Juice? I'll get you some juice."
She leaned down underneath the table, and came back up holding a glass and a pitcher full of apple juice, ice floating around. She poured it into the cup, and slid it over to him like a true bar tender.
She leaned her leg on the table, putting it on her cheek and looking at me. "We got apples, apple pie, apple sweets, apple-"
"We get it, you like apples." Rainbow rolled her eyes and grinned at her friend.
Applejack cleared her throat and glared at Rainbow. "Aaaand, we have salads and sandwiches. Daisy? Sunflower? My personal favorite is the rhubarb, apple sandwich."
"Sure I'll get that... Um, does this cost money?"
"Do you want it to cost money?"
"No?"
"Then it's free!" Applejack said, scribbling down my order on her paper. "And for the youngin'?"
He was a bit confused, pausing for a moment to think, then shyly said, "Salad?"
"Don't worry, sugar cube. I'll make you somethin' special."
She walked into the kitchen again, yelling, "Applebloom! Number 8 and a number 20!"
The mare she had yelled at, responded, "Number 20? Thought that was only for special ponies!"
"Oh, this pony is plenty special!"
"Sorry, this'll take a moment. Why don't ya'll join the others and I'll be there in a sec." She pointed her hoof at a table to the left, where Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy sat.
We got off the seats as Applejack walked back into the kitchen. We made our way over to the table, where the two mares sat in silence. Rainbow took a seat next to Fluttershy, who immediately perked up at the sight of her friend. Rainbow casually put her arm around the shy pegasus, and planted a kiss on her cheek, making Fluttershy giggle a little.
It caught me off guard. It wasn't everyday you saw two mares kissing each other. I wasn't being judgmental about it, I was just a little surprised. I thought these ponies were just friends, but it seemed these two were a little closer than that.
After I got over my moments shock, I smiled. They looked happy together.
I looked around the room, it was loud in here, and it had been years since I've been around this large a group. But I noticed somewhere in the crowd, one pony was being much louder than the rest. Yelling words I couldn't really understand from the surrounding noise and talk.
I tried to look closer, and saw ponies, multiple mares, five to be precise, were gathered at one circular table. They all had fierce and focused expressions on their faces and held cards in their hooves. Each pony had stacks of bits piled in front of them. I couldn't see the pony who was making such a racket, but I knew they were somewhere over there.
"She's very outgoing and loud, You'll spot her in a second." I remembered Rainbow saying earlier.
Well, maybe this was that mare.
Curiosity got to me, and I decided to see for myself. I told Clip to stay here, and told Rainbow I was going to be right back. She nodded, and turned her head back to listen to Fluttershy who was talking about something that made Rainbow laugh.
I carefully made my way to the table, and as I was halfway there, a mare that stood out from the others, jumped up from the table, yelling, "Yeah! I won!" I got a clear view of her, and I immediately recognized the unicorn mare in front of me.
Her light fur that would normally be clean, had patches of fur missing where skin was visible. She was covered in multiple bruises as though she had been beaten and injured many times. The fact that she was a unicorn made it obvious why, but even then, I had never seen a unicorn that looked as harshly beaten up as this one.
But even with the scars, there was no doubt that this mare was none other than Vinyl Scratch.