//------------------------------// // Day 4 // Story: Prototype: Black Rain // by Fuberrari //------------------------------// Braeburn... I hope you're alright... thought Applejack as she watched the trees and train-track disappeared below the horizon. The steady rattling of the train and the cool night wind did nothing to calm her worries for her cousins. She had seen what those... things did to ponies, and she just couldn't stop thinking about what would happen if those things showed up in Appleloosa. In her mind, she knew that worrying about it won't help. But she just couldn't stop thinking about the citizens of Appleloosa falling to the same fate as Luna's guards. Fortunately, a hoof on her shoulder broke her out of the dark thoughts. "Hey Applejack, you alright?" asked Rainbow Dash. Applejack gave an appreciative smile at her concern. "Yah I'm fine. Just... worried." "Well, no use worrying about it now." said Rainbow Dash, mirroring the earth pony's own thought. "But when we get there, we can figure out what's wrong. And if it involves kicking a lot of flanks, I can take care of it." "Like how you take care of that alicorn monster?" Rainbow Dash's look of confidence faltered. "Um... oh, right..." Applejack chuckled. "Don't yah worry. As long as we stick together, we can kick anything's flank." "Right!" said Rainbow Dash. "Anyway, let's get back. The girls are wondering where you went." ===================================================================== The trip back to the sleeping car didn't take long. Twilight's voice seeped through the door as Applejack and Rainbow Dash approached, and it sounded like she had finished filling in Spike on what happened when he was gone. "Wow... I missed a lot when I was gone." said Spike. "Yes you... PINKIE PIE!" shouted Rarity in annoyance. "Can you STOP playing with Fluttershy's... mane thingy?" "But it's so... weird! Hey Rainbow! Applejack! You're back." said Pinkie Pie as the door opened. Applejack did not response. Instead, she simply stared at the odd scene in front of her. Fluttershy was laying on one of the top bunk. Her mane had twisted itself into a long, black fibrous tentacle, and was dangling over the side of her bed. Pinkie Pie, in the bunk beneath her, had apparently decided to use Fluttershy's transformed mane as a sort of thread, poking them through several apples in a row. "Check it out! Apple garland!" "It's... um... nice..." said Fluttershy, nudging her transformed mane with her hoof. "With apples?" Rarity gasped in shock. "My dear Fluttershy, apples are not the kind of accessories you put in your mane! You need ribbons. Red ribbon will look great against black... maybe some purple ribbons..." "Or... maybe we should get some sleep." said Rainbow Dash, earning her a glare from Rarity. "It's getting pretty late, and we still got half a day of train-ride to go." The ponies and dragon murmured in agreement and settled themselves into their respective bunk beds, blowing out their lamp as they went to sleep. In the dark, a slithering noise came from Fluttershy's bunk. Sounds of apples hitting the floor followed, or at least, most hit the floor. "Aw!" yelped Pinkie Pie. "Oh! I'm sorry!" said Fluttershy. ===================================================================== Fluttershy found herself moving toward a double door. Her hoof reached out and pushed it open. It looked like a clinic, one similar to Nurse Redheart's. Instruments and medical pictures lined the wall, surrounding a single bed in the room. On that lone bed lay a mare with a pale blue coat. Her mane and tail was a dark brown color and short for a mare. Fluttershy didn't understand why, but somehow, she felt that this pony was very close to her. She moved closer, her hoof reaching up and shook the pony. Her head turned around, meeting Fluttershy's eyes with a pair of beautiful silver blue eyes. The eyes looked at her with surprise, then quickly turned to fear as red vein started to creep into those eyes. The mare opened her mouth, her teeth sharp as she screeched at Fluttershy. Fluttershy bolted awake, sweat dripped off her mane. Her breath came out in short pants as she looked around. Morning sunlight shone through the window, lighting up the interior. She found her friends had all gotten up, all of them looking around in confusion. That was when she noticed the sound of metal screeching as the train started to slow. "Ah we there already?" asked Applejack groggily. "Argh... my neck's killing me..." "No." said Twilight Sparkle. One of her hoof was rubbing her own neck. "We still have about seven or eight more hours to go..." "Then why are we stopping?" asked Rarity. "I don't know..." answered Twilight Sparkle. The train came to a stop, and the sleeping car door opened. A unicorn guard, covered from head to tail with steel chain-mail, came into the car. "Captain Night Light." said Twilight Sparkle as she trotted up to the armored captain. "What's going on? Why are we stopping?" "It's the missing train from Appleloosa..." the captain hesitated for a moment. A pained look set in his face. "... we found it." ===================================================================== In all her life, Fluttershy had rarely seen train. Her innate fear of speed and loud noises kept her away from places where train frequent. Because of that, she never had a chance to see a derailed train. Now that she saw it, Fluttershy wished she never had to see one again. The train was piled up across the rail, now mere pieces of twisted metals. What's worse, however, were the four bodies of the train engineers still attached to their harnesses. All that remained were bones and some skin, all bearing the signs that they had been eaten. Pegasus and unicorn guards, all in full chain-mails, climbed over the wreckage. "Well... at least we know what happened to the train..." said Rainbow Dash. "I'm going to go see if they need any help." The ponies went through the wrecked train, looking for survivors. But with each car they went through, hope for finding living ponies faded. Dried blood coated the interior of the train cars, but few bodies remained, all of them of elderly ponies. "Captain! I found something!" one of the guard shouted. Fluttershy ran toward the sound with the others. Near the end of the train, guards surrounded the caboose. One of the unicorn guard lit his horn, took hold of the door, and yanked it open. "I WON'T LET YOU!" a yellow and green blur shot out the door and tacked the guard to the ground. When the dust cleared, Fluttershy saw a mare bearing three apple fritter as her cutie-mark on top of the guard, trampling him with her hooves. Dirt, grime, and dried blood covered her pale yellow coat and lime-green mane. Her green eyes were blood-shot and wild. A black circle surrounded her eyes, the kind that told Fluttershy the poor mare haven't slept for days. "Apple Fritter!" yelled Applejack. The mare looked up. Her eyes were wide and haunted. "Applejack?" said the mare while she stepped off the guard, who pulled himself up with a groan. Applejack swept the distressed mare into an embrace. The haunted eyes gave way to ones of hope. "Applejack! It is you! It is you!" Apple Fritter started to laugh and cry at the same time. Her body shook as she sobbed for one moment, and again when she laughed for joy at seeing Applejack. A few guards entered the now open caboose. "By Celestia! There are foals in here!" came a guard's cry from the caboose. Fluttershy galloped over, and with her friends, peeked into the caboose. The whole car smelled like an outhouse that had not been cleaned for months. Yet, in the dimly lit caboose, pairs of light of different colors twinkled from the nooks and crannies. Foals of different ages watched them with uncertain and fearful eyes. One of the guard tried to approach them. But the foals merely shrank further back into the shadows. The guards looked at one another, unsure of what they should do in the situation. "It's okay." said Apple Fritter as she climbed in next to Fluttershy. Her voice still a bit shaky. "It's safe now. They're here to help." The foals looked hesitant. But one by one, they walked out from the shadow. Fluttershy backed away with her friends, letting the guard escort the foal out one by one. Some foal she remembered seeing from the last time she visited Appleloosa, others were new, all of them filthy, tired, and scared. Fluttershy put her wing over one of the smaller foal, pain shot through her heart when he flinched from her touch. "It's okay... you're safe now... you're..." a loud snort caused her ears to shot up straight. She looked to the source. On one of the low lying hill nearby was a single buffalo. Except, it was obvious to Fluttershy, that this one was one of those infected ones. Large patches of its hair was gone, exposing the skin that barely contained the enlarged muscle beneath. Whatever short neck the buffalo had was gone: the base of its head had merged into the body. The drooling mouth was barely visible under the enlarged head, but she could still make out the sharpened teeth that was stained with blood, likely pony blood. A pair of horns flanked the side of its head. Each had lengthened to almost the length of a pony, and shaped like two sharp blades. The buffalo let out a bellow and charged down the hill toward them. A streak of rainbow shot past Fluttershy. Before long, Rainbow Dash drove one of her clawed wings into the beast and dragged it to the ground. Her other wing started driving its claw into the base of the buffalo's skull. At least, she was trying to. "Oh come on!" yelled Rainbow Dash as the beast thrashed on the ground. Her clawed wings only managed to penetrate a few inches before stopping. Even so, the beast roared in pain as the clawed open up large gashes on its back. However, the beast managed to push itself upright for a few seconds, long enough for it to slammed the pegasus into a rock nearby. "OOF!" Fluttershy wince when a series of cracks came from Rainbow Dash's body. Her eyes bulged out in pain. The clawed wing lost its grip when the buffalo bucked her through the air. Fluttershy winced again when Rainbow Dash crashed into another rock before sliding to the ground. The buffalo lowered its horns at the dazed pegasus. Its hoof pawing the ground, ready to charge. Or it would have, if Fluttershy hadn't just stabbed it with her mane whip. "Hey! Pick someone your own size!" The buffalo turned to her and snorted. Its horns now pointed toward her. "FIRE!" came captain Night Light's command. Flurries of foot-long bolts whistled through the air and to the beast, which roared again in pain as the bolts entered it. Before it could even recover, Rainbow Dash was already on its back again, opening up yet more bleeding wounds on it. The guards took that distraction and fluidly swapped out their empty pack with a full one. "Ma'am! We're going to hit it again!" yelled the captain. Rainbow Dash gave the beast a few more swipes before leaping away. A second swarm of bolts slammed into the beast. It let out a weak roar before its hooves collapsed under it and the monster toppled to its side. "Is it dead?" asked one of the guard. He never got his answer when a pegasus guard shouted from the air. =================================================================== "There's more of them coming!" the guard pointed over the hill the buffalo came from. And true enough, Applejack felt the ground started to rumble. "No time to find out! Every-pony in the train now! Pegasus team! Setup the defenses! Unicorn team! Clear the tracks!" shouted Night Light. Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy went with the unicorn guards and started shifting the derailed trains off the track. Twilight Sparkle and the unicorn used their magic, while Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy used their enhanced physical strength. Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and herself helped Apple Fritter guide the panicking foals into the train cars. In all the commotions, no pony saw the downed buffalo, still bleeding from numerous wound, getting up. Nor did any pony heard the weak snort from it as it got ready to charge. Applejack did noticed something was amiss when she saw movement at the corner of her eyes. She saw, with pin-pricked eyes, that the buffalo had charged. It's blade horns parallel to the ground and aimed at the nearest pony it could find. Which, as it happened, was Apple Fritter. She was focused on getting the last foal on the train, and did not see nor hear the buffalo bearing down on her. "Apple Fritter!" shouted Applejack as she broke into a full gallop toward her niece. "Get away from there!" Apple Fritter turned, her eyes staring at her in confusion. With no other options, Applejack lowered her head and head-butted her own niece away. Before she could even react, she found herself slammed into the train car. Screams of foals and Apple Fritter filled her ear. ===================================================================== Rainbow Dash felt her heart skipped a beat when she followed the scream back to the train. There, between the train and buffalo, was her friend Applejack. Blood dripped off her where the buffalo's horns had entered. The buffalo was struggling, its horns embedded into the side of the train. Apple Fritter bucked at the buffalo, yelling at it to release her sister. Rarity was bashing the buffalo's head with levitated rocks, while Pinkie Pie yanked on the buffalo's tail with her mouth. "All of you! Get away from there!" yelled Rainbow Dash before jumping on the buffalo's head. Her front hoof on the train while her back pushed against the beast's head. Pinkie Pie and Rarity had dragged the struggling Apple Fritter away, who kept crying out Applejack's name desperately. Fluttershy flicked her mane whip around the buffalo and started to pull. With the sound of scrapping metal, the buffalo's horns popped out of the train, dropping Applejack to the ground. "Rainbow Dash! Fluttershy! Get that thing away from the train." yelled Twilight Sparkle. The derailed train's engine hovered above her. Fluttershy kept on pulling the buffalo, who was trying to charge at the injured Applejack. Rainbow Dash rushed forward and gave it a quick buck. The impact sent the buffalo to the ground, which allowed Fluttershy to drag it away. "Get away from it!" as Twilight Sparkle commanded, Fluttershy unwound her mane whip and backed away. The beast let out another guttural bellow before a train engine slammed on top of it. It sank a few more inches into the ground as Twilight Sparkle's horn flared, her eyes filled with rage. After the unicorn was sure that she couldn't push the engine down any further, she extinguished her horn and trotted over. "Applejack! Applejack! Stay with us." said Rainbow Dash. Her hoof nudged the bleeding pony on the ground. Applejack looked to be conscious. Her eyes darted at the ponies around her before locking on Apple Fritter. Her mouth opened and closed wordlessly as her breathing grew more shallow and rapid. "She's going into shock!" said Twilight Sparkle. "We need to stop the bleeding. Wait! We have to get her inside first. Rainbow, help..." The sound of sword being drawn triggered a reflexive action in Rainbow Dash. Her clawed wing flared and her eyes narrowed. A unicorn guard stood in front of her, his sword levitated and pointed at Applejack. "What are you doing?" yelled Rarity, putting herself in front of the unicorn. The guard took a step back, but his sword still pointed in the same direction. "She's going to turn! We have to..." the guard said with a shaky voice. "We don't know that!" said Twilight Sparkle. "She may not have caught it! Give her a chance!" "But..." "What's going on here?" barked Captain Night Light. The unicorn guard with the drawn sword turn to his superior. "Lieutenant Quick Draw! What are you doing?" "She was gored by that... thing. We have to deal with her before she turns!" "You don't know that! We don't know that! Just give her a chance!" begged Twilight Sparkle. "Please!" added Fluttershy. Night Light looked at the gasping Applejack on the ground before turning his attention back to the group. "And if she turns?" asked Night Light. His tone showed a genuine question rather then a condescending one. "Then we'll take care of her ourselves." said Rainbow Dash without missing a beat. Night Light eyed her for a second before nodding. "Good enough for me. Keep her away from every other pony. Every-pony in the train! We're leaving!" barked Night Light. "Captain!" one of the pegasus guard landed in front of him. "They're too close, I don't think the train can pull away in time!" "I'll try to slow them down!" shouted Rainbow Dash before galloping off. "How?" asked Fluttershy who had already lifted Applejack on her back. "I got a plan! Just go! I'll catch up!" yelled back Rainbow Dash. She saw the group rushed into the train as the steam whistle blew. The guards positioned themselves on the top and side of the train, their weapons at the ready. The train engineers strained as they pulled the train into a roll. Rainbow Dash turned to the problem in front of her. Namely the hundreds of monstrously transformed buffaloes bearing down on the train. Her clawed wing may be able to take down a few, but definitely not enough to stop the horde from reaching the train. The goal was to slow them down. She needed a way to stop the stampede, and if she can't stop them by standing in their way, she will just have to take the ground out from under them. With the tensions she built up in her leg, she launched herself high into the sky. Her wings flapped furiously as she tried to gain as much additional height as she could. Once at the peak, she spread her wing out as far as she could and started to glide. Rainbow Dash looked down, gauging the distance between her and the stampeding beasts. And... NOW! Rainbow Dash dove, her wings beating rapidly as she pushed herself toward the ground. Powerful wind blasted against her face and mane. A cone of vapor started to form and tighten around her. This will be just like that time she helped demolish Applejack's barn. Except this time, she's much heavier, much faster, and her target was the stampeding horde of buffalo hell-bent on hurting her friends. An explosion of rainbow burst forth where Rainbow Dash broke the sound barrier. But for the first time in her life, she wasn't concerned with it. She continued to accelerate for the remaining few seconds, and watched as her hooves disappeared into the back of a buffalo. The buffalo was instantly pulverized as ground erupted around her, sending dirt, rocks and nearby buffaloes into the air. Further out, the remaining buffaloes were thrown off their hooves as the ground rippled beneath them. Rainbow Dash shook off the dust that had settled on her. A couple buffaloes near her were dead. Their body showed no sign of injury other than the blood flowing from their mouth. Those further out were on the ground, alive but dazed from the impact. Unfortunately, Rainbow Dash discovered that the dazing effect also affected her somewhat. She managed to get her hooves to listen to her just in time to avoid being trampled beneath the stampeding buffaloes. She ran out of the dust cloud she had created, and groaned when she saw hundreds of buffaloes still stampeding their way toward the train. One more time... ===================================================================== "Looks like she did it." said Captain Night Light as he stood on top of the caboose. The initial surprise at the appearance of a Sonic Rainboom had wore off, and replaced by certain awe as the sky-blue shape arched through the air before dive-bombing the buffaloes below. Even without the multicolored light-show, the result was impressive. Dozens of mutated buffaloes were knocked down with each impact, which took out many more that came after. "Captain!" he turned around and found a purple unicorn standing behind him. A baby dragon sat on her back. "Is there anything we can do to help?" "Let's see..." the captain had to drop to the roof of the caboose as the train shook. The buffalo horde was getting closer, and the earthquakes caused by Rainbow Dash was getting much too close for comfort. "... first, tell your friend to stop doing that. She's going to derail the train." ===================================================================== "More towels!" yelled Fluttershy. Her bloodied hooves pressed on a stack towel on Applejack's side. The towel and the bed beneath Applejack were completely stained red with her blood. Rarity quickly returned with another stack of clean towels. Fluttershy tossed the blood soaked towels to the side and pressed the fresh stack against the open wound. The towels turned blood-red almost immediately. "It's still not stopping." said Fluttershy with a note of despair. "Rarity! Hold it for me!" "Oh... um... okay..." Rarity trembled as she put her hooves on the bloody towels. Fluttershy quickly dashed to her bunk bed and started rummaging through her bags. "Oh dear Celestia there's so much blood!" cried out Rarity. "Fluttershy! Please hurry!" Fluttershy didn't say a word as she dug through her medical supplies. In truth, she wasn't sure what she was looking for. Holding the wound shut was easy, she got enough bandages and medical tape to do that. But without stopping the internal bleeding, Applejack will still die. She had tried the blood-clotting powders, which had worked many times before when she needed to treat injured animal. But Applejack was bleeding so much that the powder got washed away before they could work. Now, she was just looking for anything that might work, anything. "What the... Fluttershy! Is this normal?" yelled Rarity. "I don't think this is nor..." Fluttershy froze when she heard a noise that sounded like a watermelon being punched through. She scrambled to the side of the bunk bed, and saw Rarity sitting completely motionless. Her pupils had contracted to a pin-prick. The pristine white coat on her face and chest was completely red and dripping. She was wondering just what happened when she heard a growl that sounded like Applejack. "Applejack?" ===================================================================== Twilight Sparkle read about cannons before. While Princess Celestia generally preferred more peaceful resolutions to conflict,s she accepted the fact in time conflict may be inevitable and that it was better for the Royal Guard Forces to be well equipped. Furthermore, some ponies had a propensity and knack in making destructive devices which had cause untold damages by accidents. So, as a solution to both problem, Princess Celestia employed those ponies as the Royal Armorer where they could practice their talents in a more or less safe environment. Of course, for centuries, most of the devices created were never used in combat. Although some of the devices do get adapted for more peaceful uses. Originally designed by a pony appropriately named Big Boom just a few decades back. The cannon led to the creation of fireworks launchers and the party launchers, which Pinkie Pie called one of the greatest invention in Equestrian history. It had never been used against any living targets, but attempts were made to use it as a farming tool. However, the need to pick out metal shrapnel from the "tilled" farmland made it somewhat unpopular. Therefore, in the decade since, it was kept in storage and only worked on and tested occasionally. Until now. "Fire!" shouted Twilight Sparkle, her head poking just out of the hatch leading to the caboose' roof. Spike blew out a short spurt of flame lighting the fuse on the cannon before ducking back in the caboose. When the fuse burned down, a plume of flame and smoke blasted out of the muzzle sending a metal sphere over the stampeding horde. As she had calculated, the sphere detonated right above the front of the horde and released numerous smaller spheres that were scattered among the buffaloes. Seconds later, a cloud of explosion swallowed the stampeding horde. Two unicorn guards quickly scrambled onto the roof and started reloading the cannon. Twilight Sparkle took the time and started looking for the next group of targets. She had studied about ballistic trajectory sometimes in a past, as a hobby to pass time. It was one of those skill she never expected to be practical. Yes, she may be able to calculate the perfect pitch to get the horseshoe to the stake, but without practice, she could never make that perfect pitch. But here, the cannon was, for all intent and purposes, perfectly predictable. The same amount of black-powder always yielded the same velocity. The same elevation gave her the same angle of launch. Taking into account of the relative velocity of her and the target, plus some wind correction, meant that she could place that cannon ball exactly where she wanted. In this case, "where she wanted" was directly on top of the things that had tried to murder her friends. Or had murdered her friend... "Ready!" One of the unicorn guard shouted, snapping her out of her thought. Spike scrambled out to get ready while Twilight Sparkle used her magic and adjusted the various mechanisms on the cannon, aiming it toward the closest cluster of mutant buffaloes. "Fire!" she shouted again. The cannon crashed again and the cluster of mutant buffaloes disappeared beneath the rolling cloud of explosion. She paid no mind to the few buffaloes that made it past. The airborne pegasus guards swooped in and unloaded their bolts into those. Anything that remained were taken down by a rainbow streak. Rainbow Dash may need a while to kill these things, but it took her no time to slow them down by dragging them to the ground. "Ready!" Twilight Sparkle went back to her task. Her mind registered a cliff wall rising up to her right. But with her focus squarely on getting those cannon balls on top of buffaloes, she did not register the tactical implication it posed. At least, until she was reminded of it when an airborne guard yelled out a warning. "Watch out!" Twilight Sparkle looked up just in time to see a few dozen monstrous buffaloes jumping down. Many just crashed into the ground by the tracks, but a few managed to land on the train itself. One, in particular, landed right behind her. "GAH!" Twilight Sparkle ducked into the hatch when the buffalo charged. The blue sky disappeared for a moment when the large beast ran over the hatch, followed by the sound of tearing metal. She poked her head back out and looked toward the back of the caboose. The cannon was gone. More important, so did Spike. "Spike!" Twilight Sparkle jumped out of the hatch and frantically scanned her eyes across the roof. But the rooftop was empty. "Spike!" "Over here!" came the response from the rear of the caboose. Twilight Sparkle trotted there and peered over. To her relief, Spike was dangling just beneath the roof, his claw hanging onto the broken support of the cannon. Twilight Sparkle levitated the baby dragon up and into her hooves. "Oh thank goodness you're safe!" said Twilight Sparkle. "Uh... I don't think WE are safe yet." said Spike as he pushed himself away with one claw and pointed behind the unicorn with another. Twilight Sparkle turned around and found another buffalo charging at them. "GAH!" with no where to run, Twilight Sparkle ignited her horn. Moments later, she and Spike disappeared with a flash and reappeared behind the buffalo. The buffalo didn't seem to care that its target had disappeared and charged right off the train. Twilight Sparkle shook her head, trying to clear away the post-teleportation nausea. "Twilight!" shouted Spike. Twilight Sparkle looked toward where Spike was pointed and found another buffalo making an attempt to impale both of them on its blade like horn. She lit her horn again to try to teleport, but the nausea was making it impossible. "Behind us! There's another..." shouted Spike before his voice died away. "... huh?" Twilight Sparkle turned around. At fist glance, she thought it was another buffalo thundering toward her. It had a pair of black horns like a bull. Each easily three feet long and sharpened like two double-edged swords. But unlike a buffalo, its form was smaller, about the size of a pony. In fact, it was a pony, a pony with an orange coat and a deep wound in her side. Her flank bore a cutie-mark of three red apples. "Applejack?" uttered the two in disbelief. ===================================================================== Her head hurts... Her side hurts... And she's pissed! Applejack didn't know how she could even move, nor why she has a pair of horns sticking out of her head. She felt light-headed and a bit confused about how or why she was on the roof of the train. But right in front of her was Twilight and Spike, and they were in danger. For Applejack, that's all she needed to know. Twilight Sparkle ducked when Applejack leaped over her. Her hoof thundered against the train roof as she landed and continued galloping toward the charging buffalo. She dropped her head and steeled her neck as the two closed their distance. The force of the impact sent tremor through her body. The metal roof buckled behind her hooves. The sound of bone cracking echoed through the air, but Applejack knew it wasn't hers. Instead, the buffalo's head gained a distinct dent in it as it stumbled back from the impact. Not giving it time to rest, Applejack galloped forward to the buffalo's side. She slammed the left side of her head into the buffalo and drove the three feet long horn deep into the monster. The monster didn't even have a chance to react before Applejack jumped up, tearing her bladed-horn through the beast's spine. The mutated buffalo rolled on its side with a wavering bellow before Applejack landed on top of it. With another twist of her neck, she swiped her right-side horn through the base of the beast's skull and severed it from the rest of its body. Black tendrils shot out from her and started to pull the dead buffalo into her. She felt the pain in her side and head faded and the wound in her side started to close up. After all traces of the mutated buffalo had disappeared, she turned to her unicorn friend, who had gotten up and was staring at her. "Applejack... is that you?" asked the unicorn. "Of course its me sugah cube!" Applejack found herself being squeezed by Twilight Sparkle. "You're okay! You're okay!" cried one very relieved sounding unicorn. "There there sugah cube..." said Applejack. Her eyes caught a group of guards having trouble with a buffalo in the distance. "Uh... maybe we should take care of these... things first." ===================================================================== Lieutenant Quick Draw was not having a good day. He and his team had already fired off their spear pack and managed to take down a monster buffalo. But before they could even reload, another one showed up. They still have their swords, but they just can't cut through the thick hide on these things. Instead, they had been dodging the buffalo's charge. Another crash shook the train car behind him. A second buffalo had landed behind him, trapping him between two blood-thirsty mutant buffaloes. I'm screwed... thought Quick Draw as the two buffaloes pawed metal roof below. He levitated his sword high. If he's going down, he's going to go down fighting. He never got a chance to make a heroic last stand when a battle-cry of a pony sounded from the back of the train. Quick Draw blinked in confusion as an orange mare flew over the buffalo that landed behind him. The very same mare he had tried to kill for fear of her turning. Her head tilted to the side as her horn... Horn?... sliced deep into the monster's back. It traced an arc from the monster flank all the way up to its neck. The pony landed and broke into a run. Behind her the buffalo simply split in half from the wound before sliding off the train. His eyed followed the mare as she ran past him toward the charging buffalo. Impossible as it may seem, the mare stopped its charge with a headbutt. She locked her horns with the buffalo's, and with almost effortless ease, threw the beast into the cliff wall. "Yah alright there?" it took Quick Draw a few moments to notice that she was asking him. He only managed a small nod in response. "Great! Keep up the good works!" With that, the mare ran further up the train toward another buffalo. Quick Draw still had trouble understanding what just happened. But one thing he knew for sure, he was very, VERY glad he didn't kill that mare. ===================================================================== Captain Night Light was deeply impressed. When the buffaloes managed to jump on the train, he had expected, grimly, that his guards would be taking casualties. Celestia's protege and some of her friends had turned the tide. The orange earth pony with the strange horns ran up and down the train, chopping up the monsters with frightening efficiency. The sky-blue pegasus with the rainbow mane had caught up and was dragging those beasts off the train with those claws of hers. Celestia's own protege, levitating a railway sign she ripped up along the way as a club, was whacking the buffaloes off the train like baseballs. Even the timid looking yellow pegasus was doing splendid work, her whip smashing and tripping buffaloes over the trains. His guards had also changed tactic. Secured in the knowledge that the four ponies will keep them safe from any buffaloes that got near, they focused on reloading and firing their heavy bolts at any buffaloes that were pursuing or trying to jump on the train. Soon, the track started to pull away from the cliff-wall and back onto flat terrain. Captain Night Light was pleased to see that while the stampeding buffaloes were still numerous, their number had thinned out to the point that his guards should be able to keep them back. As long as we keep up this speed... we should be fine. His train of thoughts derailed when the train mare started swearing at the top of her voice. ===================================================================== Twilight Sparkle threw the railroad sign she had been levitating away and sat down. The immediate danger had pass as the guards' heavy bolt launcher kept the mutant buffaloes away from the train. A sense of relief washed over her. In part from the fact that one crisis was averted. But most importantly, Applejack was alive and seems to be doing okay. Better than okay, if the argument she was having with Rainbow Dash on who knocked the most monster off the train was of any indication. "BUCK... BUCK... BUCK... BUCK..." Her ear turned to the source of the sound before her head followed and found Steam Whistle, the train mare, swearing up a storm. Bewildered, she trotted over and joined Captain Night Light and the train operator. "What's going on?" asked Twilight Sparkle. "The bridge! The bucking bridge is gone!" Steam Whistle pointed her hoof out toward a canyon in the distance. True enough, Twilight Sparkle could make out the long curving track that ended abruptly at the edge of the canyon lip. Pieces of wooden structure was all that remained of the bridge. "So we're going to crash." asked Captain Night Light. The expression on his face looked like he was running through the options they have. "Or we can stop..." said Steam Whistle. She took one glance at the horde of buffaloes still descending on them. "... you know what? Crashing sounds less painful than being eaten." "We can try to fight them off." said Night Light to no pony in particular. "Odds are not good... but it's better than nothing." Twilight Sparkle squinted her eyes to focus on the broken bridge. The distance didn't seem that great, and it looked like it simply collapse. There was a pretty good chance that most of the pieces were still in the canyon... "I got an idea!" shouted Twilight Sparkle. "Steam Whistle! Keep the train running! Rainbow Dash... RAINBOW DASH!" The pegasus stopped her argument with Applejack and half galloped, half glided over. "Yeah?" "How much faster can you beat the train there?" asked Twilight Sparkle, her hoof pointing toward the broken bridge. "Wait what?... Whoa! Is the bridge out?" "Yes!" said Twilight Sparkle impatiently. "How fast?" "Er... a minute, maybe two?" Rainbow Dash was a bit taken back by the forcefulness of Twilight's question. "Good!" Twilight Sparkle quickly jumped on Rainbow's back and wrapped her front hooves around the pegasus' neck. "Take me there." Rainbow Dash, still not exactly sure what just happened, decided to just follow Twilight's instruction. She jumped off the train and broke into a gallop the moment her hooves touched the ground. The sky-blue and purple shape quickly receded into the distance. A confused Steam Whistle looked at the captain of the guard, who merely shrugged. "I'd listen to her." said Night Light. "Alright then..." Steam Whistle stuck her head out the side of the train engine. "My little stallions! Pound those little hooves of yours hard and fast!" "Are you sure? You said the bridge is out!" came the reply from one of the train engineer. "Well! That's what Celestia's protege's ordered! And if whatever she is planning didn't work, well, it's better then being eaten!" ===================================================================== Rainbow Dash had seen Twilight Sparkle performed some very impressive magics. From juggling an Ursa Minor to swing a train like a club, she had learned to place her confidence in Twilight Sparkle when it came to extraordinary feats of magic. But even then, she had doubts about this. Rainbow Dash peered over the canyon edge beside Twilight Sparkle. At the bottom of which laid the broken bits and pieces of the bridge, and from this height, looked nothing more than a pile of splinters. She looked up at the other side of the track, which was at least a few hundred yards away, and wonder how Twilight Sparkle could get the train there. "Okay Rainbow. Tell me when the train is here." Twilight Sparkle closed her eyes. Rainbow Dash had to take a step back and shield her eyes as Twilight's horn flared up. She watched in awe as the wrecked bridge, now glowing purple, floated up and started to assemble themselves into place. Wooden beams moved to create the trusses that supported the bridge as bent rails straightened and laid themselves on top. In less then a minute, the canyon was spanned by a purple glowing bridge, even if said bridge looked like its going to fall apart at the slightest breeze. Which was just as well, as the whistling of the train announced its imminent arrival. "Twilight! The train is here!" Rainbow Dash thought it wasn't possible, but Twilight's horn glowed even brighter as the aura around the bridge gained a more tangible quality to it. The bridge started to shake ominously as the train roared past them and over it. Twilight Sparkle gritted her teeth under the strain. The ground started to crack beneath the unicorn's hooves. One of the train wheel dislodged with a crash, but the car managed to stay on. The screech of metal grinding against metal filled the air as the glow on Twilight's horn reached a new intensity. Rainbow Dash watched with her breath held as the end of the train got on the bridge. Then finally... "They're through! They're through!" Rainbow Dash shouted at Twilight, whose horn fizzled out in an instance and the bridge collapsed once more. "Good..." was all Twilight could manage before she passed out on the ground. A wisp of smoke rose from her horn. The shaking of the ground quickly reminded Rainbow Dash of the stampeding mutant buffaloes still behind them. "Let's get outta here!" Rainbow Dash wiggled under Twilight Sparkle and lifted her. She broke into a run toward the edge of the canyon, and with as much power as she could manage, leaped. Her wings spread wide open as she started to glide toward the opposite edge. That was when she realized her mistake. The canyon gap was such that, by herself, she could clear it easily with room to spare. But with Twilight Sparkle on her back, she found herself falling faster than she expected, with her trajectories taking her on a high speed encounter with the opposing canyon wall. Then a second horrible realization dawned on her. She would likely survive the collision with the wall, but the unicorn on her back would not. Ah crap! Ah crap! Ah crap! thought Rainbow Dash as she looked around frantically. She could try dropping straight down to avoid hitting the wall, but it was likely that the landing would also kill Twilight. "RAINBOW!" Rainbow Dash looked toward the opposite canyon edge and saw a yellow shape on the ground darting toward her. "GRAB!" A black and pink tendril shot past Rainbow Dash. Without a second thought, she grabbed it with her mouth and found herself being pulled ahead. With the added speed, she adjusted her wings to maintain a level glide as she angled in for a landing. Her hooves hit the ground in a slide before plowing into Fluttershy. She felt the unicorn being thrown from her back as Fluttershy and her tumbled on the ground. When they finally came to a stop, Rainbow Dash took a moment to regain her bearing before she noticed that she was lying across on Fluttershy. Her mouth still biting down on Fluttershy's mane. Rainbow Dash spat out the mane and pushed herself to her hooves. "Thank you... you okay?" asked Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy nodded in response as she got up. Rainbow Dash quickly trotted to where Twilight Sparkle had landed. Worries started to seep in as she noticed that Twilight wasn't moving. "Twilight... Twilight! Can you hear me?" asked Rainbow Dash while she nuzzled the unicorn. "Please answer me." "Mommy..." Her worries were washed away when Twilight Sparkle groaned. "... no more roller-coaster rides..." Rainbow Dash looked up. The train had stopped. Among the guards standing on the roof, she could see the rest of her friends, all with their eyes on them. "She's okay..." said Rainbow Dash before she raised her voice. "SHE'S OKAY!" A thundering cheer rose into the air. ===================================================================== "... then Rarity came in all covered all in blood looking for the little filly's room and told me Applejack's head exploded! And I was like no way! And then all the little ponies all started screaming. So I told them head exploding is good! It means all the bad nasty stuff got blown out!" Twilight Sparkle rubbed her head and groaned in exacerbation. How that pony managed to keep herself that high-strung all the time eluded her. The racket Pinkie Pie was making from preparing an "Applejack's Better Celebration" party didn't help her headache either. On the other hoof, Fluttershy seemed all too happy to assist in Pinkie Pie's endeavor. The pegasus had allowed her whip-mane to be threaded through apples and hung across the top of the bunk beds like garlands. Spike had been requisitioned for the task of popping popcorn. Rainbow Dash just watched the commotion from her bunk-bed. Applejack and Rarity had gone to help take care of the foals and had been missing for a good three hours. Twilight Sparkle was starting to wonder what's taking them so long when the train door opened and the two ponies in question walked in. "Hey Applejack! Rarity! You're here!" yelled Pinkie Pie at the top of her lung while hopping her way toward Applejack and Rarity. "We can get started with the PARTAY! YA..." Her voice was cut off mid-sentence when Applejack shoved her hoof into the party pony's mouth. "Pinkie Pie. Ah appreciate the fact that you're throwing a party for me. But there are little fillies and colts sleeping in the car next to us. So ah would appreciate it if yah keep it down." "Mm hm..." Applejack pulled her hoof out of Pinkie Pie's mouth... "... yay..." who proceeded to let out a cheer that sounded just like how Fluttershy would cheer. "Better." said Applejack. "So, how did it go?" asked Twilight Sparkle. "Well, we finally put them little fillies and colts to bed. It looked like they haven't slept in days... poor things..." said Applejack. "Of course, they would've gone ta bed earlier if miss clean and proper here didn't insist on giving them all a bath." "It's prim and proper. And how do you expect them to get some good, rejuvenating rest if they're cover in muck and grime?" replied Rarity. "Can't you wash them after they had some shut-eyes? One of them fell asleep in the tub!" "I would have you know that quite a few of them were highly appreciative of the bath!" Twilight Sparkle shook her head as the two argued their way to the bunk. However, their argument was halted when Spike let out a stream of flame with a burp and a package with a scroll attached dropped out from it. Spike picked it up and rushed to Twilight. "What was that?" asked Rarity. "Oh, I sent a quick report to the Princesses about what happened. It looked like they just replied." said Twilight Sparkle. "Wonder what's with the package..." she unrolled the scroll. "Well, what did it say?" asked Applejack. Twilight Sparkle set the scroll to the side. "Princess Luna went back through her record on falling star. She said that there were several meteors that landed in buffalo territories..." Twilight Sparkle paused for a moment. "... that would explain the monster buffaloes..." The ponies nodded in agreement. "What's in the box?" asked Rainbow Dash. Twilight Sparkle finished the letter and opened the package. Two large syringes floated out of it under her magic. "... the researchers are asking for some samples from Applejack." Applejack gulped as Twilight Sparkle advanced on her with the syringes. ===================================================================== Applejack jolted awake with the sound of the train whistle. Just outside her bunk-bed window, the sun was hanging low over the horizon. The screeching noise of the train braking reverberate through the car as the train slowed. Must have dozed off for a while... thought Applejack. "Dear Celestia... it looked like... a war-zone or something..." said Rarity. Applejack trotted over to the unicorn's bunk bed, and gasped. They had arrived at Appleloosa, that much was for certain given the railroad sign. But the town looked drastically different from when she last visited. Most of the building had collapsed. The few that remained standing was reinforced and fortified with logs and planks. Surrounded those buildings were tents. Some looked like they were hastily erected. The apple orchard looked sparse. Many of the trees had been reduced to stumps, likely turned into one of the many spikes that surrounded the town. Their sharpened end pointed outward to protect a town like the spines on a porcupine. The town ponies didn't look any better. Or town-folks, as from the looks of things, a couple of buffaloes had taken up residence among them. Many of them carried some form of improvised weapons, with spear-like weapons being the most common. All of them looked tired. But against a backdrop like this, Applejack could hear some of them cheering as the train pulled in. The cheering intensified as the royal guards disembarked. Some of the ponies looked like they were crying out of joy. With the rest of her friends, Applejack left the train. It didn't take long before a stallion with an amber coat trotted up to her. "Braeburn!" "Applejack!" said Braeburn. His eyes were filled with hope. "You came! You got our message right? Oh, who am I kidding, that's why you brought help! They made it! Oh thank Celestia they made it! How's Apple Fritter? Is..." Applejack watched the hopeful looked in his eyes died away as he looked behind her. "Apple Fritter?" "Braeburn..." Apple Fritter sniffed before throwing her hooves around Braeburn's neck and started to sob. The joyous atmosphere disappeared as the foals left the train one by one, each finding their way back to their parents and guardians. At least those that still had one, the rest found themselves in different hooves as they cried for their lost parents. "What..." Braeburn choked out. "... why..." "We found their train on our way here..." said Applejack. Her eyes started to tear up. "... they never made it there..." "Grandma and Grandpa Cider! Did you find Grandma and Grandpa Cider?" asked Braeburn in desperation. Applejack could only shake her head. "I'm sorry." her tears started to fall. "I'm sorry..." It just can't get any worse than this... can it? thought Applejack. She got her answer when a high pitched scream of a foal cut through the air. By instinct, she started galloping over, just in time to see a pale-blue stallion dragging a kicking and screaming foal out of a small tent. "Let me go! Where are you taking me!? Let me see my mama!" the foal screamed as she struggled against the stallion. "Hey! What in tarnation are yah doing?" yelled Applejack. The stallion dropped the foal out of surprise, who proceed to ran back into the tent. That was when she heard a second scream. This time it was the scream of a mare. Applejack trotted in and froze. Her mind refused to acknowledge what she was seeing. An orange mare with green mane was on the ground. Her neck shackled there by a wooden neck-brace. Blood-stained bandages covered her flank, obscuring her cutie. A rope was tied around her torso and trailed across a freshly dug pit behind her to a stake in the ground. Above her head was a boulder suspended by a length of rope, which was wounded through a pulley and anchored to the ground by another stake a few feet to the left of the restrained mare. What made it more incomprehensible to her, was the fact that the mare wasn't even trying to get out. Furthermore, she was trying her best to get her own foal away from her. "Why's she still here!?" the mare shouted. Panic filled her eyes. "Get her outta here!" "What's going on here!?" Captain Night Light had walked in. Upon seeing the mare restrained on the ground, he turned to the stallion that had tried to to remove the foal. "What in Celestia's name is this!?" "What are you doing!?" Sheriff Silverstar entered after Night Light. He was fuming as he pointed his hoof at the captain. The two was about to start a shouting match when the shackled mare screamed again. "Hurry! It's getting louder! I... I can't...! HURK!" Applejack found herself frozen in place when the mare let out a gurgling noise. Red tendrils started to spread across the injured mare's eyes as they started to bulge out. Her lips started to rip back, revealing a row of teeth that started to grow. Applejack didn't notice Braeburn yanking the foal out of the tent, nor did she notice Sheriff Silverstar kicking the stake anchoring the boulder out of the ground. The only thing she saw, was the orange mare's head being replaced by a boulder. ===================================================================== Twilight Sparkle didn't remember how they got back to the train, nor why they were here. She couldn't remember whether it was her who screamed. But she remembered the screaming. She remembered watching them pull the dead mare into the pit behind her. She remembered seeing the crushed and mangled head of the mare in the pit before the boulder was dropped into it, entombing the unfortunate pony. She remembered the hysterical cry of the foal not understanding why her mother was suddenly gone. In what could be considered a small mercy, the train door closed with a sharp click and snapped Twilight Sparkle out of her trance. Captain Night Light had closed the door behind Braeburn, who sat down in front of them. His eyes just stared at the ground with a haunted look. "What... what just happened?" asked Applejack. A numbed look on her face. "She... she heard the cry..." said Braeburn. "She heard its cursed cry..." "Can you tell us what happened?" asked Captain Night Light who had decided to just stand beside the train door. "It started... two weeks ago." said Braeburn. His voice hollow and monotonous. "The buffaloes came to us for help. They spoke of a strange disease from sky rocks that had been killing the buffalo. It was a diseases we had never seen. Those it affected died within hours in tremendous pain. We did what we could to make their passing more comfortable." "A few days later, one of the buffalo that was sick started to get better. It brought a glimmer of hope to the buffaloes that whatever this sickness was, it was starting to pass." Braeburn stared off into the distance. "But then he... started to change in horrifying manners. He became violent and attacked any body around him. It took many ponies and buffaloes to finally... bring him down." "But the horror didn't end there. A few of the ponies and buffaloes he injured started to hear cries, feral and violent cries. We didn't realize what it meant until they too changed into monsters. We were lucky that time. They were all in the hospital. So we barricaded it and burned it down..." "The remaining healthy buffaloes took refuge among us. Those of us able took up arms to defend the town. For the first few days, it was just one or two a day. We managed to drive them back without injuries." "Then, a week ago, half a dozen of them came at once. We fought them off, but they managed to wound a few of us. Within hours, some of them heard the feral cries. They begged us to kill them, and we tried..." Braeburn's voice started to shook. "They suffered... oh Celestia they suffered for so long..." He started to cry. Applejack willed herself to his side and placed her hoof on his shoulder. It took a few minutes, but Braeburn managed to stop his tears. "So that... setup in the tent..." asked Night Light. "It was the most... merciful way we can find to end those who heard the cries." Braeburn sniffed a bit before continuing. "Some of the buffalo scouts discovered that packs of those... monster now roamed the plain, and that It will be a matter of time before they attack the town." "A decision was made to evacuate those unable to fight back to the cities. We loaded only the foals and elderly on the train. The hope was that once they reached the cities, they can get words of what happened here to Princess Celestia with the hope that she will send help..." Braeburn looked down to the floor again. "Each day, we reinforce our town better and become more skilled in combat. But their number grows larger each day, and our numbers smaller. For the past few days, we started to doubt that help would ever arrive. Some even thought that the princesses had abandoned us..." "I'm sorry." said Night Light. "We would've come earlier if we knew." Braeburn shook his head. "You're here now... that's all that mattered... but how did you find out in the first place?" "Well... miss Twilight Sparkle here could probably knows the whole story better..." said Captain Night Light. Twilight Sparkle suddenly found herself at the center of attention. She took a deep breathe to collect herself, and recounted the events of past couple of days.