The Sunset Trilogy

by ocalhoun

Book 2 - Chapter XVIII

Book 2: Equestria Lost
Chapter 10

Apollo Dawn found himself inordinately pleased with his crew. Despite the snow drifts often blocking the path, his team had already gathered up nearly enough supplies to see them through the long trip southeast to Stalliongrad. They had been lucky, really, finding a survivalist pony's secret stash of apocalypse food. Barrel after barrel of food that, while a little gritty and tasteless, would last for years without going bad... And no small amount of useful gear either! Whoever that pony was, he was ready for anything! ... Well, except for a deadly disease, apparently.

As his half of the team approached the hardware store, he could hear muffled voices from around back, so he took to wing, making a short hop over a particularly high snow drift to find the other half of the team.

“Ah, Polly my boy!” Quartermaster called out to him... That old earth pony was the only one he would tolerate being called 'Polly' by. “Glad ye came by! I was jes teachin' these youngins a few of the finer points of wagon repair!”

Apollo looked at the long-suffering team members, all over a wagon that, while large, seemed to have more broken parts than working ones. He glanced back to the bespectacled old pony questioningly, “You're sure this is the best one?”

“It's the ONLY one sonny!” He replied, “Why, the only thing this here town's got a shortage of is waggins!”

Now that it was pointed out, he finally noticed... it was true, he hadn't seen a single other conveyance of any kind in the whole town. Hmm... perhaps that meant some of the townsfolk had left by wagon, which meant at least some of them might have survived... Well, that was a relief. “You're sure it's even possible to fix this thing?” He asked skeptically, turning back to Quartermaster.

“Sure as my grandpappy Nicklemaster's stockin's!” he replied, brushing his mostly imaginary mane back, “Why, we're almost half-done already! Lucky fer us it were behind the hardware store all convenient-like!”

Apollo looked back at the busted wagon doubtfully. If it was already half repaired, he didn't want to know what it looked like before they started! Would that thing make it all the way to Stalliongrad?

Despite cloudy eyes, his logistics expert saw his doubtful look, “Now dontcha worry lil' Polly, I been doin' things like this since I were just a liddle squirt, and I knows a thing er two about it! We'll have this here contraption glidin' along like a fluffy cloud... and I'm puttin' skids on it too, so we can have ourselfs a dainty little sled.” The old pony's neck stretched impossibly long, looking over Apollo's head, “And you lazy ponies move yer cabooses! This here Andromeda ain't gonna fix itself!”

Apollo was about to leave, but turned back around at that last word. “Andromeda?”

“Why of course!” Quartermaster said, zipping much faster than his usual pace to caress a busted side board. “Anything so fine deserves a fine name! Why, I spent the first couple'a hours just figgerin what te name such a beauty.”

With that, Apollo decided it was time to go – and also that this half of the team should get a break tomorrow. He flew, winging his way back to the front of the hardware store and angling towards the door, only to change to quickly back winging his way to a stop as a blue-glowing bundle of various axes, picks, hammers, and shovels came floating out, followed by his triumphant-looking magic expert. As he settled to the ground, Albatross came running out.

“Hey Apollo, Check these out!” he said excitedly, holding up a squat little metal cylinder. With his teeth, he popped the cap off of it, and it suddenly hissed to life spouting out a little magical flame. “They've got portable stoves! Lot's of 'em!”

Shimmer Spell used her magic to pop the cap out of her coltfriend's mouth, putting it back onto the cylinder and cutting off the flame. “Where should Shimmer Spell put these things?” She asked.

Apollo hid a little eye roll at his assistant. The pegasus always had been very impressed with any kind of magic... possibly why the praise-loving Shimmer liked him so much. “Hmm... Just take them around back. You'll find what Quarter calls a wagon back there, and we might as well put durable goods somewhere close to it.”

She glanced over at Albatross, and he nodded, taking to the air. Apollo marveled at how well the two worked together as his assistant guided Shimmer, “Okay, a little to the left... little more... and... THERE!” At that word from Albatross, a loud clatter rose from behind the hardware store, followed by a few startled screams of terror. At Apollo's quick glance upward, Albatross quickly became defensive, “Hey, it's okay, I didn't hit anypony!” Apollo gave him a withering look, “Okay... maybe it was a little close,” He said, cheeks flushing.

Still looking up, Apollo noticed more clouds rolling in. He turned back to his half of the crew, “On second thought, let's get a few more of those shovels from inside and put them in the inn... looks like we might get more snow tonight, and we don't want to get snowed in all winter.”

Dutifully, Shimmer and Albatross trotted back into the store. Apollo took another look at the sky, weighing the possibility that he and Albie might be able to go up and make a dent in the amount of clouds up there and save themselves snow clearing later... but he noticed something odd... the moon was rising... again... and in the wrong direction.

As the two ponies in the store came back out, this time with a big bundle of shovels in tow, they noticed Apollo staring at the sky, and looked up themselves. The full moon had fully risen now, impossibly fast, and was now circling the sun as the whole sky warped into a dour reddish grey color. Wasn't it impossible to have a full moon and the sun right next to each other? Even more impossibly, the stars were coming out as well, becoming visible despite the sun still high in the sky.

None of the ponies had seen anything like this before... with a crash, the floating bundle of shovels dropped onto the hardware store porch, failing to attract any attention from the ponies staring at the sky. The voices and sounds of work from behind the store had fallen silent as well.

After a while, the ponies were about to go back to their work when a long thin tendril split off from the sun, arrowing down somewhere to the south, baffling them even more. It vanished as quickly as it had appeared though.

Apollo looked down to Shimmer Spell... Surely his magic expert could explain some of this... She was still staring raptly at the sky, so he gave her a nudge, and an imploring look.

She only turned to him and shrugged helplessly, turning back to watch the sky again.

He also turned back to the sky, just in time to see the sun start to waver, then begin to trace a widening circular route across the sky, spiraling closer and closer to the horizon.

By the time the sun finally neared the horizon, Apollo had managed to herd his team to the inn's entrance, even managing to get them to bring a shovel each, despite how the rotating shadows were starting to make him a little woozy... As the sun dipped below the horizon, some semblance of normalcy returned... the sky at least looked somewhat like a normal night sky... except that the sun shouldn't have set for several hours yet. He wasn't able to actually get them in the inn, of course. By unspoken unanimous agreement, they stayed just off of the inn's porch, still watching the sky.

Suddenly, one of the stars ceased to be a twinkling point, instead becoming a vivid ray of light, angling off to the south, then another and another. Apollo turned to Shimmer again, but thought better of asking her anything when he noticed her dumbstruck stare at the misbehaving sky.

Looking up again, Apollo Dawn found himself dumbstruck. The moon simply rolled away from it's position high in the sky, seeming to land and stick, just peeping over the southern horizon. As it landed, seeming to shake the stars loose from their places, Apollo was strangely crushed. Somehow it felt as if he had lost a dear friend. As the stars slowly fell towards the horizon all around, Dawn began to worry, just a little. The plague in this little town now seemed a lot less significant.

The eight ponies stayed outside for some time after that, staring as the last stars disappeared beyond the horizon, leaving the sky grey and empty, except for the storm clouds still rolling in. In fact, those clouds looked worse than ever, growing black, and even letting out the occasional burst of lightning, rolling thunder echoing off of the nearby mountains. As the winds began to pick up and the first flakes of snow fell, that seemed to be enough to usher the crew into the safety of the inn. Lightning in a snowstorm was unheard of... something told Apollo that this storm would be as unusual and catastrophic as the display in the sky had just been.

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Comments

[Amos Anon]

Lightning in snowstorms- while rare- do happen on occasion. I myself have witnessed it on multiple occasions. Great chapter, though! The adventurers are really becoming likeable for me. Their team dynamic is well done.