Pony POV Series Season 5.5/6.5 Side Story: Seven Dreams/Nightmares

by Alex Warlorn

Clover's Story Part 2: After The Disaster

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series Gaiden/Side Story
My Little Pony Tales
7 Dreams/Nightmares Clover
By Richforce and TheJacobLB44
Edited By Alex Warlorn, Kendell2, and Louis
Part 2 of 4

After Disaster

The lights in tunnel began to flicker and then they went out as they did the train came to a complete stop. Lucky Bloom was crying louder than ever.

"Oh great!" said Dandy. "Now we've completely stopped!"

"Mommy!" Dahlia cried.

"I'm sure it's just a temporary short," said Meadowlark. "We'll be moving again shortly."

I wasn't so sure. I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that something bad had happened. We all heard a rumbling up ahead. A number of ponies in the car started screaming while holding their heads and soon after that the train driver came into our car.

"The tunnel ahead of us collapsed. Everyone off of the train and follow the tunnel behind us to the nearest station, stay close to the walls."

"But something's wrong with Mom and Dad!" said one little blue-coated white-maned unicorn filly. "They screamed and then now they're just saying jumbled up words."

"If a pony can help another out do so, children stay with your parents let's try to keep this orderly."

"I don't get it," I said, snapping out of my depression. "What's going on?" Not knowing just made it more frightening, more disturbing. Sometimes nothing can be much scarier than something.

"No one can get a cell signal out, so your guess is as good as mine."

The couple that was talking nonsense had gotten help quickly so after I took Lucky Bloom from Mom my family and I went out of the train and through the dark tunnel. I heard quite a few stumble on the way out but none us had so much as brushed the leg of anyone else.

It was just as dark at the station except for a shaft of light that came down from the entrance. We were slowly allowed to back up to street level and what we saw was terrible! Manehatten looked like some sort of bomb went off. Most of the skyscrapers were either heavily damaged or, like the Clydesdale Building, were just plain gone. Ponies were lying all over the street; some were bleeding and crying for help, others seemed to be in the middle of a mental breakdown and then a large number...I don't want to think about it. And the dust...How could this be happening?

"Pardon me, Madam," said Cheval asked one of the ponies coordinating the rescue efforts. "A number of us were underground, when whatever it was happened. I'm sure that it would be important for us to know what happened so we may know what to do."

The Mare went about her business but then called the ponies from the subway together in one place. "Okay here is what we do know. At the exact time the wish spell was to activate, there was a massive explosion at each of the seven spell castles. No one has ruled out terrorism at this time. The explosion was...it's...it's a safe bet the castles were all annihilated."

No! Starlight...I think I felt my heart break in two.

"The backlash from the spell has caused severe damage to the city and has knocked out all electrical devices. We also have a number of ponies who were brain damaged as a result so saying the situation is bad is an understatement."

I took a good look around, everypony else seemed to have lost somepony or had somepony hurt around them, but not me. Mom and Dad, Dandy, Lucky Bloom, Meadowlark, Cheval and Dahlia Bloom were all present and accounted for. Seems like my luck has held out, so why can't I stop feeling guilty about it?

"This is your fault!" I heard a mare shout. "If it weren't for your freak magic none of this wouldn't have happened!"

A Unicorn mare stood up against the shouting Earth Pony mare. "Well I wasn't holding my horn to your head and forced you to ask us to cast this spell."

A Pegasus Stallion came between them. "If it's anypony's fault it's those nutjobs who came up with the spell in the first place! Them and the ones who conned us all!"

My blood started to go cold. I was a supporter even though Meadowlark was the more recognizable face, the whole family was in danger.

"I think we better get out of here." I heard my mother say.

While we were sneaking away I kept getting hunches about which alleys to go down and when to cut through a building. We managed to get out of Manehatten before anypony even noticed us. In the following days, I learned what happened to the others from a glowing pegasus. Starlight was...was vaporized, Sweetheart was staying at a relative's farm after losing her parents and one of her sisters. Bonbon was recording what history she could after losing half of her family, Bright Eyes lost her memory and her cutie mark but was holding up well at Lancer's mansion, Melody lost her voice and Patch was going off on the world's greatest fool's errand to find the pieces of the Rainbow.

As for myself? My friends notwithstanding...I didn't lose anything. At least not anything important. Sure, celebrity doesn't count as much as it used to but what got to Meadowlark more was how everyone lost interest in dancing to embrace sheer survival. Our house was gone, along with Mom's garden. Nopony is interested in my father's art, even though he now has more materials than he could ever use. But I still have what's important to me while my friends and those around me have each lost something and they deserved more! The only reason I haven't lost anything is because of my luck! I know I should be grateful but...

Cheval really wants to find Suzette but agrees with Mom and Dad that finding a place of safety is probably the wisest course of action for our immediate survival needs. However I noticed Dandy has been more affectionate lately. Maybe the disaster made him more dependent on me as an anchor. Maybe I was wrong and, it wasn't my raising stardom that attracted him to me...Dandy, Lucky Bloom, I am so sorry.
+
About a month has passed and we found ourselves seeking shelter at a military base. We were far from the only ones; many ponies were crowding the gates while a line of soldiers kept all of us from entering. An earth pony wearing a general's uniform came out of the gate.

"Attention, civilians, I am General Ripper. I am sure you all heard the rumors on how we have a very large stockpile of preserved food here at this base. Well, those rumors are true we do have such a stockpile."

The crowd had almost rushed the gate until the guards had cocked their guns.

"Now as a reasonable stallion, I am willing to share the wealth but I have to consider the health of the ponies under my command first. Luckily, it just so happens I had a number of casualties during the recent disaster so we will be accepting volunteers who, like the rest of my troops, will have first dibs on any supplies."

"Me first!" said a pony who only just recently had become a stallion. "I'll enlist!"

"Me too!" said a Pegasus mare. "Where do I sign?!"

"Now, now," said the General. "I will interview those I consider Army material. So if you wait your turn it will soon be obvious who will soon be accepted to fight to rebuild this great nation."

Fight to rebuild Ponyland? Rebuild? Yes, rebuild. But fight...against what? I'd heard some horror stories about monsters born from the disaster, but...I started to look around and to my surprise we were next to Dazzle and Chain Link. If I was still a filly I'd be hounding Chain for an autograph, but from the looks of them the catastrophe had hit them pretty hard.

"Hi," I said to Dazzle. "You wouldn't remember me, but you hosted a contest I won...And you've met friends of mine like..."

"Yeah, listen we're not in much of a mood to talk," said Dazzle. "With all forms of media down, the two us aren't as in high demand as we used to be. We lost our fortune, our fans and my ma...never mind."

"And besides," said Chain Link. "The general is coming this way."

General Ripper was asking a lot of questions about physical ability and mental aptitude. Some ponies he talked to in great detail while others he only asked a couple of questions and then moved on. But the very young, very old, Pegasi and Unicorns he only gave a glance to.

The general came over to us and motioned that he wanted to talk to Dandy, Meadowlark, Cheval, and me. I kept Lucky Bloom close to me; it would be too easy to lose him in a crowd this size.

"What were your occupations?"

"We were part of a dancing troupe," said Meadowlark. "Dandy here was a truck driver."

"Well coordinated?"

"Not me and Clover so much," said Dandy. "We were clumsy as kids but we both got better at it."

The general took a good look at Lucky and turned back to Dandy. "Yours?"

"Yes, sir."

"He looks less than a year old. I bet it must have been hard conceiving."

I didn't like where this line of questioning was going.

"Actually, we were a little surprised. I mean having ours only about five years after Meadowlark here had Dahlia..."

"How do you feel about Unicorns and Pegasi?"

"About the same as I feel about Earth Ponies really."

General Ripper suddenly snapped. "Don't play dumb with me while that baby is there!" The general then lowered to a whisper and we managed to hear. "I'm on to their game. This disaster was a big move, but not their first. A year ago they finished improving the process of fluorinating drinking water, it seems that they were trying to help us keep our teeth strong but their real plan was to lower our Stallions' vital fluids so that they would have an advantage population wise once they get mobilized after this disaster."

Dandy snorted at him. "What gave you that ridiculous idea?!"

"I was on it before the disaster, how could a red blooded military stallion like me not be able to...perform."

I couldn't believe it. We were all being interrogated because this Stallion can't untuck his pride?

"General, isn't that a little paranoid?" I asked.

"Just the sort of thing I would expect an enemy spy to say!" the General snapped.

"What enemy? Every government has collapsed, including theirs, the only reason you have any authority is because you have food and guns."

The General raised his hoof. "That is insubordination! You deserved to be shot!"

I managed to duck his blow in time but his hoof knocked off Dazzle's hat. To everyone's surprise her trademark curly mane was a wig. I think from what she almost said earlier she somehow lost her original in the disaster and replaced it with one of those wigs that came with the costume set she sponsored. As stunned into silence as I was it was the General that spoke first.

"Sweet mother of Big Bertha, you're bald!"

Chain Link started backing away. "You shouldn't have said that."

"I AM NOT BALD!!!!!!!!"

The next thing I know the general went flying through the air screaming and knocking over the two soldiers with guns. They fired reflexively the bullets heading into the base, they thankfully didn't hit anyone but they did hit a large pile with a tarp over it. The pile then exploded into a huge fire.

The General looked that the chaos. "The ammo dump! Hurry all of you! Put out that fire before the whole camp goes up in smoke!"

All of them ran out there at that point. Chain Link grabs his wife's hat and wig and places it back on her head, and took her hoof and both escaped from the disaster, Dazzle's hooves didn't stop shaking.

We later found out that while none of the soldiers were killed, the entire base did "go up in smoke" and with no weapons or rations keeping them on base all the soldiers quit. Ironically General Ripper's military career had ended with both a bang and a whimper.

We actually ended up going in the same direction as Chain Link and Dazzle for a time. We actually had a little bit in common, since we were all ponies whose jobs nopony cared about anymore. Me and my friends had interacted with Dazzle so many times as she hosted PTV's contests and interviews, it was strange almost to have her be now just another pony, like us now.

None of us mentioned Dazzle's mane or asked if her tail was fake too. I noticed Meadowlark keeping care of her own mane a little bit more carefully. What really surprised me was how few questions they asked us. After seeing nothing but Dazzle's upbeat stage-self, seeing her sensitive and defensive was really sobering. Chain Link was a lot more quiet than he ever was on stage. I could appreciate them, I knew what it was like to have an identity the reporters knew, and your real self. Chain Link only sang once the entire time, in the middle of the night, to her.

But the weird part was when we tried to introduce ourselves.

"Please, don't tell us your names," Chain Link replied.

"But you heard our names when we spoke to the General," I said.

Dazzle looked at us. "Did we? I don't remember your names at all. We didn't ask, you never told us, so we can never say we knew if some angry ponies ask if we ever saw you. You're just a good family we made friends with before we went our separate ways. And you were never Meadowlark-lite."

"...thank you."

We did eventually split up. The last I ever heard of them they had started their own family. I wish them luck.
+
The army base it turns out that was the beginning of my luck working in a different way for us. We would find a place to settle down, things would usually be fine for two to three months and then a near-disaster would strike that we would all avoid because of a lucky circumstance I would get myself into.

There was one this time Dahlia had wandered off to a nearby beach hoping to find Sea Ponies after I told the family a rumor I heard about them showing up around there. We all left the house look for her and after we found her and came back we found that the whole house collapsed into a sinkhole we built right on top of. At first we said that Dahlia saved us with her curiosity but she said she wouldn't have looked if I hadn't happened to overhear the rumor.

Most of my 'lucky saves' went similar to that. Strange circumstances that just happened around me. But there were others that were very memorable...

We were heading down the road next to the forest when this huge roar tore through the air. I looked aside to see a gigantic creature with a lion's body, bat wings, and a scorpion tail charging right at me.

I covered Lucky with my body...but the attack never came. I turned to see the creature looking away from me, its eyes flashing yellow.

"It's alright," said a voice. I turned to see a quartet of white ponies with rainbow manes. The old stallion had a Cutie Mark of red and blue cars and wore glasses, while the elder mare's Cutie Mark was a basket filled with groceries. The younger two were a young mare with a blue and pink tricycle Cutie Mark and a stallion with skateboard Cutie Mark. I couldn't believe it...

"Logan? I-is that you?"

"Hey! Clover!" Logan exclaimed, going over to the creature and petting its head as Dandy and the others came over to check on me. He just seemed to look at the creature and it seemed to understand him. Finally it left. "Long time no see!"

Logan...he'd been a good friend but...I never expected to see him save our lives. It turned out he'd found the yellow shard and after finding his parents were safe and sound with his grandmother, the four of them had begun trying to find a place in the world. He'd tapped into the power of the shard and been using it ever sense to help everypony he saw needed him. I told him Patch was trying to find the shards and he said if he ran into her he'd give it to her, but I don't know if they ever met. All I know is as per usual, I had the luck of having someone there to save me, just in the nick of time.

And then there was when we decided to try our hooves at farming. Agriculture seemed to be in vogue -- all the Earth Ponies seemed to be gravitating towards that. I wanted to go to the farm Sweetheart was at but I was still too noticeable and so it was too dangerous for Sweetheart if I was ever found. So we went to another farming area and noticed a farmhouse that seemed inhabited. Our aim was to get permission from our potential 'neighbors' to farm what they might see as their land.

Dad knocked on the door and a Unicorn stallion wearing some strange metal object around his horn opened it with a Pegasus mare following close behind him. Was there something wrong with her wings?

"What do you want?" the unicorn asked.

"We're looking for a new home and noticed that farmhouse across the road is vacant," my Dad said. "Would you mind if we stayed there?"

The two looked nervous. "No! Your KIND isn't welcome here!" said the Unicorn.

"Please," Mom said. "You don't seem to be using that land. We could keep to ourselves..."

"No, you don't understand you have to leave NOW," said the Pegasus.

It was around then something struck me as odd about these two. True relations between the tribes have gotten worse but those who were thinking that way thought that their tribe was better. You just don't see members of two tribes ganging up on the third, or co-habituating. We weren't getting the full picture and that gave me a very bad feeling.

"Maybe we should listen to them..."

They ignored me as Meadowlark continued. "Can't we at least use the place for the night? The sun is setting and..."

"Read my lips," said the Unicorn. "If you stay here BAD THINGS will happen."

"Listen I know things after the disaster many ponies feel they should look out for their tribe first," said Dandy. "But we're all still ponies and..."

Just then something jumped out of the dark, a cloth got pushed on my muzzle, and I blacked out.
+
When I came to me and my whole family was tied up in a barn along with the two ponies from earlier and I was looking a bull straight in the face.

"They're all up!" the bull said.

No I am not kidding he, actually spoke. Looking around I noticed a lot of 'livestock animals' were looking at us like that squirrel back when I first came to Paradise Estate.

"Exzellent," said an ewe that the rest seemed to treating as a leader. "Ve ave enough ponies to make an example to zee rest of zhem."

"Since when can a sheep speak Germane?" Cheval said.

"Since ze awakening," the ewe said. "The 'disaster' you so disdain had done much the rest of us. It expanded our minds, now we other hooved creatures can speak as well as you can and we all think for ourzelves. Though I am not so zure about ze goats."

Awakening?

...Ah, yes.

The Rainbow of Light, when it was whole, made the animals near it at Paradise Estate more intelligent. The disaster must have spread that effect all over the world. Or at least some spots! Or we would have heard about this before now right? I felt a chill imagining some of those monsters born from the blast becoming intelligent and prayed that wasn't the case.

"She's crazy!" said the Pegasus, I finally noticed her wings were bound. "She keeps talking about some kind of revolution."

"I tried using magic on them," said the Unicorn. "But they put this magic restrictor on my horn. Where they found it..."

"Zilence! You ponies may have treated us like mere beasts of burden and many still do out zhere, but no more! Ze time of ze pony is over! Now ve vill ave true equality, even if it must be forced on you pigs!"

A sow grunted sounding annoyed.

"Zorry, Mabel. But that provez my point, once we unite the other uplifted animals we can end ze tyranny of ze pony and create a verker's paradise!" The ewe turned to the assembled sheep, bovine and other farm animals. "Livestock of ze world unite! You ave nothink to lose but your yokes!"

"What are you going to do to us?" asked Meadowlark.

"Zhat is up to you. Either you aid us in ze revolution or you vill be used as hostages if our demands aren't met."

"Please can't we all just work together?" I reasoned. "The disaster may have made you all smarter but the world got into bad shape as well. Things would be so much better if you gave help before demanding...Fact is, there's no one left to make demands to. What's the point of a revolution when you have no one to revolt against?"

"Zilence!" the Ewe snapped. "You zhall be first!"

I was getting myself ready to meet my maker when suddenly the air was broken by a very loud roar like that of a lion. The barnyard revolutionaries all panicked and left us to our fates as they ran out the barn's back door.

The front doors opened as pair of beasts came in, heads of eagles and the bodies of lions. One stretched its wings out and took a few flaps, a Griffin, before the tribes rediscovered each other these predators only lived above the cloud layer with the Pegasi. The other had no wings, but a number of spike-like bony growths along its back, a Keythong, another predator closely related to the Griffin that only lived in unicorn lands before. With one of each, we were lunch.

They got closer, I managed to move myself between them and Lucky, hoping that if I shield him with my body he would be able to survive. They got to the Unicorn and Pegasus first; I closed my eyes to avoid the carnage. Then I heard the cutting of ropes followed by the clanking of metal, the fluttering of wings and the distinctive pop of a unicorn teleporting. I opened my eyes to the two cutting my family's bonds.

"I don't get it," Mom said. "Shouldn't they be eating us now?"

"We not hungry," said the Griffin. All of our jaws dropped at this. Griffins weren't supposed to be any smarter than a lion or any other large predator. They're cunning yes, but not able to have a conversation.

"We smell much meat here. We call to let meat know we coming so meat not afraid," said the Keythong. "We want talk to meat, but others run."

"You can speak too?" Meadowlark asked.

"Since big boom," said the Griffin. "Start to think more, most of clans still want just hunt and eat but we want to make what you made. Live for more than food and mating."

"You want to build a civilization," I said. Ok, so maybe it was lucky some predators had became smart.

The Griffin and Keythong came to me.

"I Rasa," said the Griffin. "He my mate, Yoki. Can Meat teach us?"

I gave them a smile. "Well for starters, ponies don't really like to be called meat."
+
"Keythong?" said Twilight. "Way haven't I ever heard of them before?"

"That's because there are none left," said Luna. "As the clans of Griffins and Keythong became more civilized and closer they intermarried more and more. By the time the three tribes reintegrated the Keythong were so assimilated into Griffin bloodlines they ceased to exist as their own 'tribe'."

"Some of my kind fear that this would be our fate," said Zecora.
"If with too many ponies we would relate.
They think if too blurred become the lines,
than as a people we would decline."

"That's a little sad," said Pinkie. "I know the Keythong are gone now but does that mean that they shouldn't have been allowed to love who they wanted to?"

"They hadn't entirely disappeared. Before, while Griffins were swift of wing and quick of wit, they tended to lack physical strength and boldness. The Keythong had those qualities in abundance and passed it on to their Griffin descendants. They didn't vanish, they changed, like life is supposed to."

Twilight looked down at the book. "So the explosion didn't just create hordes of monsters and cause the end of the world...it granted Griffins, Keythong, Cows, and the like sapience...I wonder if they should know this...we all want to know our origins..."

"That is a question with too many variables to be answered quickly," Luna explained. "There will be time to think of it when we are finished. Let's continue."

To Be continued . . .

Author's Note:

Fanart by Chiuuchiuu http://chiuuchiuu.deviantart.com/art/My-Little-Pony-Tales-Clover-362334137

Comments

[Paleb05]

Clover: 7th Pony entry
Dream/Lost Age: Minty: Merged with G1 Twilight's shadow to become Twilight Sparkle.
Nightmare: Was able to survive several disasters due to a stroke of coincidental luck.
To Be Continued.

[Alex Warlorn]

2895296

Luck indeed, but GOOD luck?

[Paleb05]

2895735

Good point that does sound off, changed it to coincidental instead.

[Godiswithus3]

Jeez, Clover's luck keeps saving their sses every time.

[Misty Spell]

Part 2 of 4

Patch had the most to actually do and she didn't get that much focus!

The General looked that the chaos. "The ammo dump! Hurry all of you! Put out that fire before the whole camp goes up in smoke!"

Don't buck with the luck!