Children of Oonte:Chapter 10
The first sister and resistance and Twilight Sparkle.
Ashley looked over the city from the hills, it was like almost looking into Hell. Smoke and flames lit up the darkening sky. Could also smell smoke, flames and other things burning. Ashley remembered what she had heard and seen about Rio and this was very far from that. She went back into the ship and sat in the pilot's chair. After she had landed, Ashley had this feeling that someone was trying to contact her but she did not get anything from Ponynet. Ashley decided to concentrate harder and at first she could sense nothing and then she was in a room.
The room was small but it had a set of windows on one side and a bar for ballet dancers and one pissed pink pony. "Finally, you answer, did they teach you anything about using, oh what you call it "Ponynet?"", the pink pony said with a lot of annoyance in her voice. Ashley took a quick glance out the window and then faced her sister the pink pony.
"My name is Isabela Cabrela and I owe you an apology," Isabela said apologetically. "My mouth sometimes runs away with me," Isabela continued.
"I sensed something but I did not know what," said Ashley.
"Don't worry, we are talking now. Do you like my studio until the putas burned it down? Its not really my studio but I found a way to make places within Ponynet. It cuts down on the amount of work my brain has to do," Isabela explained.
"I can teach you how to do it if you want," Isabela offered.
"I would like that," Ashley replied.
Ashley asked about the status of Ponynet and the city and Isabela replied that with the fighting and chaos there were not enough ponies to support Ponynet or they were too distracted. Isabela could not leave until they had some sort of order and a place for the resistance to stay. Ashley told Isabela where she had landed and Isabela said she would meet them in the hills above the city and then Ashley was back in the aircraft again.
She finally met her sister in the flesh and some refugees at nightfall. Flames still lit up some areas of the city. "What a fine looking ship but its a bit on the cold side.", Isabela said when she was sitting in the ship with a salad.
Ashley was going to adjust the temperature but figured that Isabela meant something else. "Well, where are your personal things? Its just a cold impersonal place," Isabela chided gently.
"Well maybe I will find something to put on the walls later", Ashley replied.
Isabela wanted Ashley to set up some sort of shelter and food and water for the refugees while Isabela went back in the city to get more refugees. Rich and Sherman would help Isabela and Ashley would make equipment to support the refugee camp. After that discussion Ashley went outside with Isabela and made food for the refugees and went to sleep next to Isabela under the stars.
A few hours later, Rich took a quick peek above the beige bullet scarred wall he was crouching behind. four Claw Combine units were hiding behind another gray wall waiting for the right time to counterattack. Rich checked his wrist scanner and saw that two CC units were trying to flank him. He waited for the right moment and popped up and shot one of the flankers but the other one rolled away behind cover. Then the four CC units kept Rich hiding behind the wall by shooting at his wall while the remaining flanker kept popping up and taking potshots at Rich, the shots were getting closer to hitting Rich. The CC guns were cutting chunks of concrete out of Rich's cover, it would be just a short while until Rich had nothing to hide behind. Isabela came around the side and shot the flanker while cursing loudly. Some of the fighters they met came around the other side and caught the four CC units from behind and they were dealt with.
There was a bit of time to celebrate but then Isabela and Sherman started to yell at each other. Sherman was telling Isabela that she was ignoring tactics and she could get herself killed while Isabela was saying that she had been fighting here longer than Sherman and she knew what she was doing. Rich and the other fighters would have sat back and watched the loud argument but a howl from further east made everyone remember where they were. A second howl answered the first one, it sounded like it was a bit north of their position. Everyone checked their weapons and headed west to the temp safe house and then from there they headed back to the hills.
Ashley got a message from Rich from Pnet and got some of the fighters at the camp ready for a possible attack. Ashley built a food maker and a water maker earlier and was working on something to make ammo. Later on that evening Sherman, Rich and the fighters and the refugees they found in the city entered the camp. Ashley did not sense any Claw Combine units in the area. That was a relief.
Isabela apologized to Sherman and promised not to do any more fighting in the city unless necessary. "My job is to keep morale up," she said. While plans were being made for the next day, Ashley got a message from Pnet and had to leave the meeting.
It was from Trent Harmon, a unicorn working in the Mage guild of the NYC Herd. Trent had the ability to detect the magical talents of ponies and humans. "Equestria sent another emissary, a Twilight Sparkle, you need to fly to the NYC Enclave and pick her up," Trent said. Trent also sent the GPS coordinates so Ashley knew where to land the ship.
Ashley had to go back and tell everyone about the new emissary. "I will have to leave soon and fly to upstate NY," Ashley said with a bit of annoyance and then she went to get the aircraft ready. She wanted to do some fighting instead of making stuff, now she had to play flying Ms. Pony.
Twilight Sparkle walked through the gateway as soon as it was open and she found herself on the other side with strange ponies and humans.
"Welcome to Earth, Twilight Sparkle" a two legged male unicorn with white fur, blonde mane and blue eyes said. "My name is Trent Harmon," Trent said holding out his hand. Twilight looked at his hand for a second and then held out her right fore hoof, Trent took it in his hands and shook it.
"Cool, a unicorn, just like in the show!" cooed a human. The human stuck out her hand to touch Twilight and Twilight backed away from her.
Trent said, "Hey! She is still adjusting, how about we give her some time to adjust! Carol can you come here please?" Carol walked up, she is a short teen female unicorn with white fur and blondish brown hair and blue eyes.
"Twilight, can you follow me please?" Carol asked. Twilight followed Carol out of the Mage Guild room.
"I noticed that you resemble Trent," asked Twilight.
"Yeah, he is my uncle," answered Carol.
Carol ran down the stairs while Twilight carefully climbed down the stairs, the risers were a little too high for pony legs. Carol waited until Twilight reached the ground floor and then they went outside into the warm sunshine. "My uncle told me to take you to my quarters and make you feel comfortable until Ashley comes and picks you up. She will be here tomorrow morning," Carol explained.
"Who is this Ashley?" Twilight asked.
"Ashley is a pony that knows a lot of magic and she is on a quest to find her sisters. She made an aircraft so she could fly to her sisters," Carol said.
"Does she have gray green eyes and a black mane with green stripes?" Twilight asked, she remembered seeing a unicorn asking about the messenger when they were making a gateway for Fluttershy.
"Yes," Carol replied.
While following Carol, Twilight saw some large pony like creatures in a meadow behind a wooden fence. They looked like big ponies but their muzzles were longer and were twice as high as regular ponies. "What are those?" Twilight asked.
"Those are horses, they are larger than ponies but they don't talk but you can pick up their body language and get an idea what they are feeling. Um,I can't go in the meadow anymore," Carol said with some regret in her voice. Twilight had been looking at Carol's face and sensed there was more to the story.
"Can I get a closer look?" Twilight asked, there was something interesting about that stallion.
Carol sighed, "I really can't go near that stallion, I got into trouble." Twilight heard something in Carol's voice and decided to skip the horses for now.
"When we first moved out here, someone trained the horses to do their business either in their stable or a special place. The horses could walk anywhere they wanted to. It was pretty cool but then we got some more human refugees and they were uneasy with horses looking over their shoulders so we had to keep the horses in the meadow. Too bad I liked it the other way," Carol sighed.
"Hey! Are you hungry?" Carol asked.
Twilight said "Yes". Carol took Twilight to another building where there was an open kitchen. Carol reminded Twilight of Pinkie Pie but Carol had less energy and less randomness.
"I wonder how many spells Carol knows?" Twilight wondered.
The open kitchen was run by Ma Boerling or Ruby Boerling. She liked being called "Ma". Her husband, Hans Boerling had passed on 10 years ago. She and her family owned the farm but they had ran into money problems and was close to losing the farm until the NYC Herd and some of the local Herds made her a deal. She could keep the farm but they would need more buildings. When the CC came the NYC Herd enclave moved here and built more buildings. Some of the unicorns knew how to conjure up food and Ma would cook it. No worries about running out of food or water.
There were a few ponies and people at the table eating and they all looked up when Carol and Twilight walked into the dining room. Carol introduced Twilight and some people and ponies waved or said hello. "What do you want to eat? There is some oatmeal and eggs left or do you want pancakes?" Ma asked. Carol asked for eggs and Twilight asked for oatmeal. Twilight wanted to try it out since Fluttershy had raved about it. Carol sat at the table and was surprised when Twilight was able to sit on the bench next to her.
Twilight could sense that the humans and ponies were wondering how she was going to eat her nutty smelling oatmeal. Would she bury her muzzle in the bowl or use a spoon? Twilight used her telekinesis to pick up the spoon and dug in. After the oatmeal was done, someone passed a covered basket of biscuits around and Carol used her telekinesis to put one in Twilight's bowl. There was fruit juice to finish the meal. This was a pretty good breakfast. Carol and Twilight went back to Carol's room and Carol brought Twilight up to speed about current events.
After dinnertime, they went back to the Mage guild so Twilight and the guild members could swap spells. There were no books to learn spells from so Twilight had to touch horns with the unicorns she wanted to trade spells with. That was strange. Henry Collins, a green unicorn with a black mane and green eyes told Twilight about Oonte's older sister, Ilystra Greystar. Ilystra Greystar was in charge of magic.
Henry was hoping that Greystar would start teaching ponies more magic, Oonte taught spells but only a few spells at a time. Also the way Oonte taught spells made it hard to write them. She just dropped them in a unicorn's head and that unicorn knew that spell. It was great to get a group up to speed with certain spells but training could only happen locally. Twilight promised to help with writing spell books.
The next morning Carol and Twilight waited at the landing site for Ashley. During the night before they went to sleep Twilight asked Carol about her problem with the horses. Carol told Twilight about "Horse Affinity". All ponies have a basic empathic link with 4 legged animals but some don't know about it and others know it and use it. "I have a very high Horse Affinity and they found me without my clothes next to that stallion, by the way, his name is Jasper. I did not know that until someone explained it to me. So I have to be aware of it and be careful," Carol explained.
They could hear Trent coming up with a basket of food. "Good luck on your trip Twilight," Trent said.
Twilight said, "Thank you". Trent gave Carol the basket and then Ashley's ship landed, the door opened and the staircase rolled down. Carol gave the basket to Twilight and she went up the stairs and entered the ship. Twilight turned around and waved back and then the ship rose silently and headed back to Rio.