//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: Scorched Earth // by Shorty Sparkle //------------------------------// Chapter V I looked outside to the snow which had covered most of the ground even under the trees. All the snow here was caused by the extended nights. Everypony in all of Equestria were scared of what was happening. Everypony always was, but the reports of strange creatures coming from Everfree forest wasn’t isolated. Animals outside of the forest began changing too. The most notable of these were the dragons. I could see a young dragon walking around outside. We had the lights out and were waiting for the thing to pass. “Remember ponies that the dragon you see is not what it seems to be.” Zecora was talking in her rhyming scheme again. “The dragon you look upon now is only a fraction of what he is becoming. The world is making these dragons so stunning.” I looked at her confused. Why stunning? That dragon didn’t look that good. It was becoming deformed and... With that thought the dragon saw a mouse running in the snow and opened its mouth. A spark of electricity came out stunning the mouse. Then a burst of fire roasted it. “Oh, that just isn’t fair. The fire was bad enough but they can stun us too?” Storm didn’t look very happy about the whole ordeal. He sighed then looked at me. “I think that after this dragon is gone we can safely say you aren’t turning into a monster. So I think we should try going back to the base.” I hadn’t smiled since I was bit but hearing him say that we will go back. I can’t say I didn’t get a little bit of a grin. “That’s great, but we walked so far...” “It doesn’t matter how far I walked.” He said putting emphasis on the I, “All I know is that we need to have shelter and even though Zecora here was nice enough to provide shelter for us.” He gestured to the Zebra’s house “I think we should get going as to not eat up her supplies.” The Zebra nodded. “You see young filly. I need the food here to fill my own tummy.” I didn’t argue. Not because I thought she was right. I just didn’t want to hear another rhyme. “So we will head out once the dragon leaves?” “That is the plan.” --- We didn’t have to wait long. The dragon had lit fire to a tree when trying to kill a bird and the tree actually killed the dragon. Storm and I were amazed at what just happened and we decided that the murderous trees be kept alone. We started walking almost right afterward. The trek was long and we ran into some issues. The snow was melting somewhere as it fell and caused some flooding on the river. We had to go all the way around it. “Snow is still falling and something is already melting it.” Storm shook his head. “The world is getting really screwed up.” We heard the fire before we saw it. And when we turned the corner I broke down crying. The base was gone being replaced by a wall of flame easily 20 feat high. “Dear goddesses. The whole place is burned to the ground.” I looked over to part of the rubble of what was left of our town. The dragon’s wing was poking out. Our guys must have killed it after it hit. At least I thought that until the wing moved. “Storm, we need to run right now.” He looked at me as if I was crazy. “Why exactly to we need to run.” I was about to answer him when the roar came out. We both looked to see the dragon had gotten completely out of the building it was in. We started running before we even told our legs to go. The dragon chased. --- The fire was breaking out all around. The forest was fighting back the best it could but the full grown dragon was too much. There was no way even the vastness of the forest could fight this dragon. I was gasping for air already. My black and Purple mane becoming charred by the fire. “Storm! Where. are you?!” I could hear a coughing but it wasn’t coming from Storm. As I moved closer I saw the elder. “You!” He was standing with a knife in his muzzle. “You did this to us! You brought this down on us!” I shrieked as he stepped towards me not knowing what he would do. He grinned. “You have not known what you have done and I will take solace knowing your demon filth will be killed by my hooves!” He thrust at me trying to kill me. I dodged the knife by a fraction. The elder was not as lucky as I. He crashed head first into a tree and the knife had spun around cutting his mouth open. The blood pored out. I could hear the muffled moaning as he gargled his own blood. I started feeling light headed when Storm came to help me. He looked in disgust on the elder. “Damn fool never knew what was right...” Storm put his body against mine to keep me up. “I know what you just saw is hard. I know what it is to lose your home.” “I do too.” I looked up to the stallion standing over me. I hadn’t even realized I fell. “I lost far too many homes to count even before this.” I looked down at the limp body of the elder. “He was right. I did bring this. I always bring this.” Storm sighed. “Don’t tell yourself that. This was caused by that dragon and the point that we are alive is a miracle!” He bit down on my mane and pulled me on my hooves. “Now get up! We have to keep moving.” We stepped out and away from the fire. The destruction around us had spread across the forest at an alarming rate. We made our way back to the base and found the dragon gone. “Alright, I vote we go and search the place. Somepony may still be alive and I am not about to leave them all behind.” I nodded in agreement. We started into the base to see the destruction had been far more then we originally assumed. A massive hole had formed in the center of the old courtyard making its way down into the depths where the base had been constructed. Down into the catacombs of our base we found many useful items. My pistol wasn’t going to do us much good against anything other than a cockatrice. I put it in my saddle bags since it did save my life. I found a weapon that automatically pulls the trigger repeatedly when being fired. Causing bullets to come out so much faster. The Earth Ponies called it an Assault Rifle. I went down and found some barding. Nothing special but it kept enough room around my flanks to put my saddle bags. The barding wasn’t military grade but it would work. Actually I think it was used by the technicians working on the guns. It wouldn’t save you many times but it would save you enough to not screw up again. Most of the weapons we found were still being built at the time making them useless. Storm went with a gem device that increases his magical stamina and also filters that magic into a beam of raw energy. It does a lot of damage and if it doesn’t kill it will paralyze. He also went with a heavier barding which would keep him safer than me but slow him down a bit too much if you ask me. We grabbed a few canteens and filled them with water. There wasn’t much left in the kitchen except for a few cans of food that we quickly grabbed. We set out fully stocked and ready for a battle with just about anything save a dragon or one of those screaming things. We realized quickly that the amount of dead ponies was a lot less then the amount of ponies in the facility. “Where do you think they went?” Storm asked throwing me out of a daydream about Fluttershy. I had been caught in a lot of those recently. The mare who helped me realized I could trust ponies... I missed her so much. “Well, I would say Ponyville but that was destroyed.” I thought for a minute. “Not many other places we can get away from the Queen’s magic. Maybe Manehatten with all its population. It might keep her from tracking us down.” “No, we go there with these weapons we might as well be walking into a dragon’s cave with a gem extractor 3000.” I gave him a look before we both burst out in laughter. When we finally calmed down I gave the big unicorn a hug. “Thanks for that. I needed a good laugh.” He smiled and we moved on. Walking through the snow wasn’t the greatest idea but the best we had. I brought up going to Zecora’s but the moan from the trees put us against that idea. It was rather odd now that I think about it. That moan didn’t sound like something from trees. We decided on the outskirt town of Appleloosa. It was a rebel town but it was so small that the idea of it actually made Nightmare Moon laugh. We figured it was our best bet though and headed out to the south. It was a days train ride and a weeks walk. We didn’t have a train though and the lack of supplies would keep us from making it. Content on having a place to go Storm didn’t seem to care. We set out to get out of the Everfree forest. I couldn’t help but think of the things I had seen out there before. Death had followed so quickly after the first attack on Canterlot. The Nightmare Army moved out across the land killing anypony who fought back. The most ironic of the battles was the Manehatten Massacre. A group of ponies fought back and were all killed. The whopping 7 ponies killed was somehow called a massacre. Before it had made sense though. Ponies had never been in a war and didn’t know how much death was excessive. Ironically the name stuck though and the Manehatten Massacre became canon. So much death had followed that nopony knew what to do. Shock was followed and Equestria went into a year of almost complete silence fearing that any speaking at all would give you a rope and a pole to hang yourself from. The darkness was a new thing as well. The sun only remained out for a few hours a day. Just enough to keep the planet from freezing but provide the land with hours upon hours of darkness every day. The walk to the edge of the forest was rather uneventful. I had been thinking the whole time and not even noticing anything going on. When we finally reached the edge of the forest we saw some light. I rushed to the light thinking about how it must be somepony from the base. I got out of the trees to see a bunch of mangled and beat up stallions. I pulled out my rifle. They smiled at the sight of me picking up weapons of their own. The weapons were from the base but... These ponies were not. A unicorn’s magic flashed and hit my weapon away and locked me to the ground. Three stallions now loomed over me. I spread out my wings to fly away only to get pinned down by magic once again. The first stallion stepped out. His mane was black and his coat a dark brown. “Well what do we have here?” He said while making his body look as big as he could get it. “Somepony has gotten lost.” He chuckled and looked to his friends. The green unicorn that was holding me down broke into a laugh. His blue mane swinging around. “So, Archer, is it your turn or mine? I hope mine cause this is the cutest one to come out of that forest today! And there have been quite a few.” This pony was a sickly dark green with a brown mane. A large scar running down his face. “I don’t know Scar, you had the last one.” The unicorn looked at both of them and they all laughed. “I think this one is a fresh one too if you know what I mean.” A flash of light came flying out from the forest knocking the unicorn on his side. I did a roll onto my belly and pulled out my pistol. The bullet range through the air and I heard a grunt and a plop. I had killed many monsters with my gun before. Cockatrice were not problem and the Medusa was just as fragile. A pony though was even more fragile. The bullet ripped into the dark green stallions head. Brains went flying out and splattered onto his light green buddy. Another flash of light launched killing the light green one. I stood in sheer shock as the dark green pony fell on the ground. Already being dead before hand. Storm ran out almost in tears. He put his legs over my eyes blocking my view. “Just close your eyes Celest... You don’t need to see this.” He didn’t have to tell me what he saw. As we walked I could smell and hear just fine. The pile of dead bodies had flies all over it and the stench had already become large. I heard Storm whisper to himself. “All of them...” --- It was apparent that the world was falling apart far too quickly. Ponies were taking advantage of the chaos to do things that we wouldn’t have done otherwise. So much death had changed us in such a short period of time. It was hard seeing all that we loved fall apart like it did. We had to soldier on though. Storm was doing much better than I was. He didn’t have any issues will killing anypony that stood in his way. Yet another person changed by this horrid time. I wondered if Equestria would ever be the same even if we found a way to stop it. We had stopped for the night to rest. We were out in the middle of no where. The heat was still there though keeping the ground from collecting a lot of snow. It was also making the snow rain instead. We were being pelted by rain when we found the cave. I wanted to start a fire. The warmth would feel great after the cold of the snow and the rain. We didn’t have any wood though so we would have to go with just they dry of the cave. I was shivering so hard that Storm gave me a worried look. “Are you sure you are ok?” He asked “I am sure I can find some way to warm the place up.” “No, we can’t waste your energy. If you run out of strength for magic we might as well surrender ourselves to those ponies...” I shivered again. This time out of the memory of those three stallions. We had been chased after the fact. The gunshots had caught the attention of another group of people who chased us until the rain came. I guess they didn’t much care for getting wet. “Right...” The storm outside was getting worse quickly. I was almost asleep when the first lightning bolt struck. The forest wasn’t the only thing changing. The lightning had changed as well. Darkness had enveloped it causing it to be darkness itself. Nopony had any idea what was causing these things. After that I couldn’t sleep. The thunder had kept me up almost all night long. Another long storm and a long night to top it off. --- When I woke up again forgetting that I have even fallen I asleep. Something was wrong and I didn’t exactly know what. I looked around expecting to see Storm gone but he was laying there. It seemed like everything was actually fine. Then I saw it. It had fallen asleep curled up right on my flank. I couldn’t help by scream. I spread my wings and flapped as hard as I could. The snake was faster though. It bit down before I could move. With my past experience with snakes I almost shot myself right then. Storm intervened taking the snake off. He shook his head at me. “Don’t you worry. Its just a garden snake. Nothing to be worried about.” He have the slithering thing a good look over. The snake looked to have smiled at him. “I used to have one of these as a pet. They are a great weapon.” He chuckled. This was the first time I had seen him lighten up in months. “I don’t even remember how many times this thing kept me from danger. It is amazing how much ponies freak out when they see a snake.” I laughed at the thought. Him just dangling a snake in front of somepony just to get them off his back. “I do miss those days. I used to think my life sucked... I almost want to go back in time just to slap myself for thinking that.” We gathered the supplies we had and moved out. The snake seemed adamant on following us. Something I was none to happy about. I sucked it up like a good pegasus though and we kept walking. It was breezy today. The air wasn’t stiff like it normally was. The breeze was a fairly new thing as well. It happened in Old Equestria, as I have come to call it, but normally only during storms. Now the breeze would be constant and it felt pretty good. It felt good to spread my wings when walking against the breeze. The wind against my wings made me feel like I was flying again. I hadn’t done it in so long. Even in the Everfree Forest, where Nightmare Moon’s magic couldn’t reach, I wasn’t allowed to fly. I wouldn’t have wanted to either. Manticores and Wyverns had almost completely taken the sky making it far too dangerous to fly. Pegasi were unable to do much. There are rumors of a group of pegasi that have been fighting back. Saying they are based in the Northern Mountains. I knew better. The Griffins lived to the north and I wasn’t about to believe that they would help us at all. The tug on my tail brought me back to the real world. I shrieked as I fell. I hadn’t been paying attention and the wind had picked up. While I was day dreaming my wings caught the wind and I lifted off. Storm shot me a glare. “We don’t need the Nightmare Army bearing down on us thank you very much.” His horn glowed and wind died down. We heard it before we saw it. A whistle off in the distance. It was getting closer though and the whistle was soon joined by a low rumbling type noise. We rushed to the top of the hill that we had been walking to. When we reached the top we both gasped at the sight. The train was going fast. VERY fast. Belting across the landscape and heading quickly to a turn that would surely De-Rail it. Dark figures chased it from the air. The Nightmare Army soldiers were firing crossbow bolts at the train in what looked like an attempt to stop it. We took a chance. If the train De-railed then it didn’t matter. The Dark Forces wouldn’t notice us in the carnage that would follow. But if it didn’t then we wanted to be there to jump on. We ran to the tracks and watched as the train neared the turn. The magic that enveloped it startled me at first. It grabbed the train and the whole thing moaned as it made the bend. Saved by the magic pull. Storm’s horn glowed and a gust of wind launched up. “How confident are you in your flying skills?” He asked without taking his eyes off the train. My throat tightened. I knew what he was about to propose. I didn’t reject it. We both knew that we wouldn’t make it to Appleoosa with the supplies we had. The train was our best bet. I grabbed him and flapped my wings. I didn’t match the trains speed as it caught us but it would be enough to get in while it passed. I felt the strain on my wings already. It was hard enough flying alone after the time I spent without it. But storm was heavy and the weight was quickly becoming too much. I let off some speed to let the train catch up some more. Finally it reached us. I threw Storm into the first car that passed us. I would have to wait for the next one. As it got closer I readied myself to jump in. I almost didn’t hear the scream through the wind and sound of the train. I did hear it though. “Watch out!” It was a pony on the train. In fact, there were a lot of ponies on the train. I didn’t have long to ponder this as I got hit in mid air. A dark Pegasus crashing into me flailing his hooves at me. I was glad that the dark remnants of the army that followed Nightmare Moon those thousand years ago were still the same personality as the one before. This one didn’t have any fighting skills. The fight was short and the ending was gruesome. The dark magic that was now a Pegasus got thrown against the ground. It was crushed underneath the wheels. I saw the other Pegasi coming at me as well. I doubted I would be as lucky with those. I dove into the train and pulled out my weapon. The first of the Pegasi flew in to be quickly shot by my gun. That didn’t do nearly enough though and I had to throw that one out the door. Another flew up alongside the car and was blasted away by a beam of light. Three more beams flew passed no doubt killing more of those things. Storm sure had good aim. The Pegasi stopped coming after me quickly and I heard the screams from the car behind. I grabbed out my rifle and flapped my wings. Flying out the door of the car and straight into an already broken window of the next. I picked out the shadowed targets and fired. The magic holding them together falling apart as the bullets tore through them. Nothing happened. I cursed the flesh they didn’t have and realized why storm had picked that energy weapon. I had wished right then that I had magic of my own to use. The door behind me blasted open reminding me that there were doors. I spun around just in time to have an energy blast whisk by my face. Storm was in the doorway and was already panting. The magical energy the gun required was too much. He fired off another shot killing the last dark pony in the car. He collapsed to the ground losing the magical grip on the gun. It clattered to the floor only to be quickly picked up again. The unicorn that replaced him was already panting furiously. Her white and purple striped mane flowing and her horn glowed. Two more of the Dark Ponies filled the room and the gun jolted off the ground. The blast of light that came from it was far brighter than what had come when Storm was holding it. Not only did it kill the two in the room but it blasted through the whole train. The Unicorn collapsed to the ground. I took a quick look at her cutie mark and saw exactly what I expected. Her mark was for magic just like Twilight. The train was slowing now as the brakes were applied. I learned later that the blast from her gun killed a lot more than just two of the dark Pegasi. It had killed almost all of them in the train. The rest of them fled at the show of magic. A few ponies were killed by the blast too but no one seemed to care all too much. Even the family of those few knew that the blast saved far more than what was lost. The train slowed enough to make the turns without magic. Which was good because the pony keeping it on the track was lying unconscious on the floor. I recognized Nurse Redheart when she stepped into our section of the train. “Nurse! I thought you were dead!” I screamed. I ran over to her and nuzzled her neck. “You were supposed to be in Ponyville. I figured that when the firebomb came that...” I stopped talking there. She looked down on me and smiled. “Well, thanks to that pony right there most of us got out.” She gestured to all the ponies in the train. “These are all the ponies we saved from the town before it got burned down.” Lyra chimed in, “Yeah, we all hid in Big Mac’s basement. That place is HUGE!” Her companion Bon Bon entered the conversation as well. “It was also reinforced just in case a stamped came. Amazingly enough it held against the spells.” Scootallo jumped out of her seat. “Then a unicorn teleported in and helped us clear the fire to get out!” The conversation went back to Nurse Redheart “Who is the pony now unconscious on the floor so if you wouldn’t mind.” I jumped out of the way and she ran up and started doing nursy stuff. I took a good look at the Unicorn which had saved so many lives. I noticed a strong resemblance to Twilight Sparkle. I’ll be it much older. The train kept going without the threat of the Dark Army. The long walk combined with the interesting finish to the day put me right asleep. That night I dreamed about Twilight Sparkle. One story had jumped out farther than the others. The one about her mother. About how much she did to help anypony out there.