THREE
Not good, not good, not good.
Twilight’s hooves beat against the hot earth in a fierce gallop, her breath catching painfully inside her chest. The red world spun around her as she tried to pick up speed, but the dense atmosphere was stifling, the dusty air barely accepted in her lungs. She wouldn’t be able to run forever.
But her pursuers would.
“Fresh meat! Fresh meat!”
They all sounded the same, chorusing in an ear-splitting mechanical roar. Twilight could hear their hoofsteps behind her, slowly gaining.
She couldn’t breathe.
She didn’t know what she’d been thinking trying to walk the wasteland unconcealed. She could have tried an invisibility shroud, but the resulting loss of energy in a spell that powerful would have meant her progress to Canterlot would have been elongated from several days to several weeks. She couldn’t afford that time, not with her dwindling supplies and not with the monsters that stalked the new world order.
Twilight hadn’t thought about it, had just hoped that she wouldn’t run into trouble. It was stupid, there was nothing to hide behind out here. Just rocks, boulders and oh yeah, more rocks. It was just a matter of time before the husks saw her.
And see her they did.
Now they wouldn’t stop chasing her.
Twilight craned her neck around, shooting an undirected blast of magic that she hoped would slow the husks down. She heard a satisfying crunch from behind, along with the grunt of another fallen body. She grinned to herself. Good. That might have stopped one, maybe two of them. Just four more to go.
Of course that would have been the moment her legs betrayed her. Twilight’s shoulder spasmed, a jolt of pain shooting up her right foreleg as her boot caught on a rock. She fell, her wings extending out to the sides in an attempt to catch herself. But it was no use.
Twilight yelped as her body collided with the hot earth. The protection spell around her body flared, saving her from too much damage, but she could still feel the jagged rocks cut into her skin as she skidded across the dirt.
She scrambled upwards, hooves digging into the ground to gain traction, but she knew she wouldn’t be fast enough. The husks would be upon her any second.
Twilight turned her head, eyes burning, as she caught sight of the four husks behind her. Their sharp teeth glinted under the red sun, their metallic, hungry eyes filled with malice. Twilight tried to will more magic to her horn, but the shock of her fall had left her dazed and ultimately useless. She couldn’t find the energy to protect herself.
She was just about ready to accept defeat when she heard a different sound. A new set of hooves against the ground.
Then everything went white.
A flare of green magic shot out from somewhere behind the four husks, colliding directly with the closest’s skull. Black ooze splattered over Twilight’s goggles, her protection spell flared around her muzzle, black blood bouncing harmlessly onto the ground, bubbling into the dirt.
Twilight stared in shock. As did the husks.
“Protect!” one of them shouted out. “Don’t let her-”
But the creature couldn’t finish, because another burst of magic severed its head.
Twilight stifled a scream as the dead, grey face of the second husk rolled to a stop inches from where she stood. She lifted her hoof, narrowly dodging a spurt of black blood.
“Well don’t just stand there!” shouted somepony new.
Twilight squinted, catching a mint green coat in the distance.
“Run!”
Twilight obeyed.
Another burst of magic behind her confirmed that a third husk had fallen, which left just one more. Twilight closed her eyes, her legs felt numb as she pushed herself to go faster. She wasn’t sure if she could even still feel her heart beating.
And then there was somepony running beside her. She could catch that same mint green in her peripheral, which was the only reason she didn’t attack out of pure instinct.
The relief of another survivor was somewhat marred by the fact that she could die at any second.
“Is the last one dead?” Twilight rasped. She wasn’t sure how much further she could gallop.
“It will be,” the pony said. Twilight thought she recognized the voice. A mare’s voice for sure – a unicorn of course - but it was more than that.
Then the mare turned around, aiming her horn at the last husk.
There was a crunch, a thin rain of black blood and crystalized bone; then it was dead.
Twilight ground to a halt, her legs shaking beneath her. It took her a second to realise she was hyperventilating.
“Whoa, whoa,” the mare said. Her features looked blurry to Twilight. She wasn’t sure if that was the blood on her goggles, or the lack of oxygen in her brain.
“’m sorry,” Twilight murmured. She tried to use her magic to grab a water jar from her saddlebags, but her horn only sparked before fizzing out completely.
“Hang on,” the mare said.
Before Twilight could blink, there was a jar levitating before her in a soft green glow. Twilight gratefully took the jar in her muzzle, taking three drawn out sips before she even started to feel like herself again.
“Feelin’ better?” the mare asked, eyes glancing nervously behind them. “’Cause we really oughtta go.”
Now that Twilight’s vision had cleared, she realised why the mare’s voice had sounded so familiar. The green coat, the white and mint mane. If Twilight could see her flank behind those dark green cargos, she knew she would have seen a lyre cutie mark.
Twilight gaped. “Lyra Heartstrings?”
Lyra’s eyes narrowed. “How in the hay…”
“Twilight,” Twilight said incredulously. “Twilight Sparkle.”
It seemed the fight had been just as taxing on Lyra, for her eyes suddenly cleared like she was looking at Twilight for the first time. “Well I’ll be damned,” Lyra said. “And here I was thinking you were long dead.”
Twilight wasn’t sure how long she stood staring at Lyra in open mouth incredulity.
Lyra on the other hand seemed to recover in a matter of seconds. She nudged Twilight’s shoulder, urging her forwards. “If you can stand then we gotta move,” she said firmly, eyes narrowed. “The blood will just attract more.”
“I…” Twilight stammered, shaking her head. She fell into a hurried trot by Lyra’s side. “I have so many questions.”
Lyra raised a brow at that. “What like?”
“Like… what happened?”
Lyra’s stare was hard, and as Twilight watched her she realised how tired her old friend looked. In fact, it was more than that. Now she was able to have a proper look at her, Twilight realised that Lyra looked substantially older. There were bags under her eyes and her mane was longer, unruly and uncared for.
“You’re not kidding are you?” Lyra asked after a few moments of contemplation.
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.
Lyra opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, a horrible screech sounded from behind them. Twilight nearly jumped out of her skin.
Lyra’s eyes widened. “We don’t have time,” she growled, looking behind them frantically. “There’s more of them coming, we’ve gotta run. Now.”
Twilight’s limbs still ached, but she managed to dwindle just behind Lyra’s stride. “Where are we going?” she asked between breaths.
“No time,” Lyra insisted. “I’ll explain later, just move.”
Twilight didn’t dare argue; she could hear the husks behind them, their metallic screeches echoing easily through the empty air. She kicked into a higher gear, forcing herself to go faster. Every part of her screamed against it, but she paid her body no mind.
But then Lyra stopped. She came to a halt so quickly that Twilight very nearly ran straight into her hind quarters.
“What the-”
“Shut up,” Lyra hissed. She pointed a hoof to a large rock protruding from the ground. “Get behind that, now.”
Twilight complied, following Lyra with her tail between her legs. She was a lot different from how Twilight remembered. Colder, angrier… but Twilight could see that Lyra knew what she was doing. She had experience with the husks, and Twilight had to trust her. She didn’t have another choice.
Just as Lyra pressed Twilight’s back against the hot stone, a shadow loomed over them, sending a chill down Twilight’s spine. She glanced upwards, catching a pair of orange wings against the harsh red sky. It gave the unsettling illusion of fire.
“Who is-”
“Shh.”
Twilight clamped her mouth shut, staring upwards as the creature stopped mid-flight.
It was a pegasus; that was clear even from the ground. A mare, too. She had a wild orange mane, but there was something wrong about her. Her coat had lost its sheen, though she wasn’t nearly as greyed out as the husks. Twilight squinted against the red sun, her eyes widening in shock as she realised another detail about the mare.
Her right foreleg was completely silver; the whole thing had been replaced with some kind of robotic appendage. It was hard to see the details from this distance, but Twilight was positive. The mare was some kind of cyborg.
As she continued to stare, another shape appeared in the sky next to her. A blue maned stallion with bright eyes. It wasn’t until he stopped completely that Twilight realised why they were so bright. He was wearing some kind of device over his eyes… or his eyes were the device. Either way, they were completely digitalised. Twilight had never seen anything like it.
It was only together that Twilight realised who the ponies were. She’d seen them flying plenty of times at all sorts of events. Most recently, Rainbow Dash had performed alongside them.
Those were two of the Wonderbolts.
Twilight didn’t dare say what she was thinking out loud for fear of having Lyra shove a hoof in her mouth. Still, there was no denying it. The orange pegasus was the leader of the Wonderbolts, Spitfire. The blue one must have been Soarin. As Soarin turned in the sky, facing Spitfire directly, Twilight noticed that one of his wings was a metal replication. How it was able to fly as well as flesh and feathers, she wasn’t sure, but it reminded her much too much of a past reality when Starlight had been in control of the world’s fate. Twilight suddenly felt sick.
Lyra didn’t seem to notice Twilight’s reaction. That, or she didn’t care. Her gaze was firmly fixed on the two cyborg pegasi as they communicated with each other above their heads. Twilight couldn’t make out what they were saying, but Spitfire pointed a hoof in the general direction of the husks that had been attracted. Their screams still carried easily to Twilight’s ears, drowning out anything she might have heard from the sky.
Soarin glared at Spitfire, his lips rippled into a barely contained growl. Twilight shuddered; she’d thought that Spitfire and Soarin were different from the husks, but there was something just as animal in their behaviour as the undead ponies chasing after them. If they survived this, Twilight had a hundred questions she wanted to ask Lyra.
Finally, an agreement was made. Soarin disappeared in a cloud of smoke, metal and biological wings beating against the wind, and Spitfire dove to the ground, landing just feet from where Lyra and Twilight were hidden.
Lyra stared imploringly into Twilight’s eyes, begging for her to be quiet; not like she needed to be told. Everything about this new Spitfire screamed danger.
The husks that had been running towards them slowed as they saw Spitfire standing her ground. Lyra slowly inched around the rock, guiding Twilight with her so they remained out of sight.
Twilight watched from the small corner of vision she had around the rock as the husks skidded to an unsteady halt just a small distance from where Spitfire stood.
Twilight wasn’t sure what was happening, but whatever it was, it wasn’t good. Spitfire lowered her head, snorting out a puff of air before driving her hoof into the dirt. It cracked under her weight, making Twilight jump.
The husks mirrored her actions. The one in the lead growled a mechanical growl, narrowing its metallic eyes.
Then they ran.
Spitfire towards the husks, the husks towards Spitfire. Twilight was sure they would collide, but at the last moment, Spitfire arched towards the ground, her wings arcing out at her sides in one ferocious flap that sent her propelling into the air and above the husks’ heads. In the same motion, she came crashing down onto the husk in the centre, all four of her hooves meeting its skull in the same instant.
Twilight winced at the sickening crack of bones as its skull exploded. Black blood pooled out of the creature’s head, coating Spitfire’s hooves in oily ooze. It didn’t bother her in the slightest, and before any of the husks could even turn their heads, she’d brought her metal hoof directly into the neck of the husk in front. It went cleanly through the flesh, tearing it away like it was nothing but sodden paper. The husk fell to the ground, writhing as blood spurted wildly from the wound. With another precise slam of her metallic appendage, Spitfire severed the creature’s head.
The rest of the fight passed in a fiery haze of red mane and metal. The husks landed a few lucky shots, but Spitfire proved her superiority. Soon the wasteland was drenched in black blood and husk corpses. Only one lucky undead pony stood now, its grey eyes wide, but not fearful. Instead it looked resigned. Its lips drew back into a sharp-toothed snarl.
Spitfire grinned. “Y’know what I’m gonna say,” she said.
Twilight stifled a gasp. Spitfire’s voice held the same mechanical undertones as the husks, but apart from that, she sounded just like she had when Twilight had known her. Brash and unflinchingly powerful.
The husk growled. “Thisss is our ground.”
“We already covered this last time,” Spitfire enunciated, gesturing with her mechanical hoof. “From this wasteland to Canterlot is our territory. We see you on it again, you’re gonna die.”
“Ssshe will not like this.”
Spitfire rolled her eyes. “Right, your fearless leader. Where is she huh? Hiding in the shadows like always?”
The husk snarled again. “Sssshe will not-”
“Save it.” Spitfire moved into the husk’s space, their muzzles inches from each other. “Pass the message onto your leader, and if we see you again…” Spitfire mimicked slitting her own throat, sticking out her tongue. She grinned wickedly. “Get me?”
The husk’s eyes narrowed. “Ssshe will come.”
Spitfire barked out a laugh. “Sure, whatever.” With that, she lifted her mechanical hoof back before slamming it hard into the husk’s chest.
Twilight winced as the creature shot backwards. She could hear several ribs crack, and when the husk stood, a part of its chest cavity was on display. A rib was sticking out at an awkward angle, black blood trickling from the wound. The husk didn’t seem to pay the injury any attention; it got back onto its hooves with little issue before turning and running back the way it came.
Spitfire grinned in victory. “Hey Soarin!” she yelled out. “Guess who just got us dinner!”
Lyra’s eyes widened at that. Twilight gave her a questioning look, but Lyra only shook her head as Spitfire shot off into the distance.
Then Lyra was dragging Twilight out from the rock. “We don’t have much time,” she insisted. “They’ll be back for the bodies.”
“What?” Twilight asked incredulously. “What do you mean?”
“What do you think I mean?” Lyra growled. “To eat dummy, they eat greys. Don’t you know that?”
By the look of incredulity on Twilight’s face, Lyra got her answer. Her eyes narrowed. “Just where in the hay have you been all this time?”
Twilight winced. “I… frozen. I think. In a crystal.”
Lyra’s eyes widened before she shook her head. “We don’t have time for this. Look, I’ll tell you more when we’re back at base. For now, just follow me, we need to get out of here before the borgs come back.”
“Borgs?”
“Cyborgs,” Lyra said. “C’mon, that one was easy.”
Twilight refrained from wringing her old friend’s neck. Instead she gritted her teeth. “I was actually heading for Canterlot, I thought there might be-”
“No way.” Lyra was already trotting away.
Twilight was quick to follow. “You didn’t even listen to what I had to say!”
“I don’t need to,” Lyra said. “Canterlot is a death trap, didn’t you hear that borg? They made that place their home base a long time ago. They might prefer grey meat to ours, but they’ll eat anything given the chance.”
Twilight frowned. “How does that work anyway? What about being part robot means they have to eat-”
Lyra whirled on Twilight. “I don’t know,” she snarled, closing the space between them in one stride. “I’m not an expert on borgs, nopony is. If you go near ‘em, you die. If you go near the greys, you die. If you’re caught in the swarm, you die. This is the world we live in. Now I don’t know how long you were in that crystal, and I don’t know what you remember, but I don’t have the time or patience to explain it. Right now we have to get the hay out of here before more greys sniff us out.”
Twilight backed off, affronted. Her ears dropped as Lyra turned back, stalking her way towards whatever base she was talking about.
“What happened to you?”
Lyra paused. Twilight was sure she was going to start yelling again, but instead she just ducked her head, sighing heavily through her snout. “I lost somepony.” She shook her head morosely. “We all have.”
Twilight decided not to talk again after that.
It was only when they stopped to rest that Twilight thought it prudent to speak.
Lyra levitated a bottle of water from her own supplies, taking a drawn out sip. Her eyes remained fixed in the distance, wary for any kind of movement.
Twilight cleared her throat.
“So… where are we going?”
“Home,” Lyra said quickly, placing her water in front of her.
“Where’s home?”
Lyra still didn’t look at her. “Appleloosa.”
Twilight perked up at that. “It survived?”
“Nothing survived.”
Twilight winced. “But-”
“Places didn’t survive,” Lyra corrected, “ponies did. We rebuilt and protected what we could there. Some towns weren’t even that lucky.”
Twilight thought of what remained of Ponyville and suppressed a shudder. She glanced the way Lyra was watching, staring into the bleak emptiness of the wasteland. For the first time in a while, Twilight realised that the red sky looked a little darker, deepening to the colour of dried blood. It made the details in the distance blurry and unfocused.
“So you call the husks greys, huh?”
Lyra actually smiled at that. “Husks? Nice. Wish somepony had the imagination to think up something like that.”
“Greys isn’t so bad.”
Lyra snorted.
Twilight sighed, opening her saddle bags with her magic. She produced two apples from the bag, levitating one over to Lyra.
Lyra stiffened when she saw it, plucking it out of the air with her own magic. Her eyes widened the longer she stared at it. “Now how in the hay did you get your hooves on one of these?”
Twilight shrugged. “Unicorn magic left over from the dark ages. A few rudimentary farming spells coupled with a fast growth spell and… well… apples!” Twilight laughed awkwardly, taking a bite out of her own.
Lyra sniffed the apple before taking a bite. Her eyes closed in satisfaction. “You can taste the magic,” she said wistfully.
Twilight tried to smile. “How do you make yours?”
“Earth ponies mostly,” Lyra said with a shrug. “Some unicorn magic here and there to help keep the soil from dying.”
“And water?”
“There’s a reservoir underneath Appleloosa,” Lyra said through another bite. “It was deep enough that it didn’t get affected by the Event.”
Twilight paused, gesturing with her apple. “The Event?”
“Really?” Lyra turned to look at her then, eyebrow raised. “Just how much don’t you know?”
Twilight realised with a dark certainty that she knew a lot less than what she previously thought. “The last memory I have is just after the changeling invasion… Thorax asked for our help in tracking down Chrysalis.” Twilight frowned, trying to think back to the conversation. She remembered Princess Celestia approving the whole expedition, and she remembered heading out with her friends, but she couldn’t remember the outcome. She must have managed to get home of course, otherwise she wouldn’t have been in her palace when she awoke.
Maybe there had been a fight? Was it possible Chrysalis had something to with this… Event?
It was only when Twilight had come back to herself that she realised Lyra was staring at her.
“What?”
“That’s what you remember?”
A coldness seeped into Twilight’s bones. “How much am I missing?”
Lyra shook her head incredulously. “Twilight, that was years ago.”
Twilight stiffened, her heart sank in her chest. She opened her mouth to respond, but she couldn’t find the words to aid her.
Years?
“I…”
Lyra’s eyes softened. She stood to say something, but before she could, her face was obscured by shadow. Twilight’s eyes widened in fear, looking upwards for another borg, but there was nothing there except for the dark red sky.
Dark red.
It was getting dark?
Before Twilight could ask, Lyra was rushing to her things in, lifting her saddle bags back onto her back. Twilight felt a weight on her spine as Lyra helped her with her own bags.
“We need to find cover,” Lyra insisted.
“What?” Twilight asked. “It’s only dark.”
Lyra’s laugh was humourless. “It doesn’t get dark here, dummy. That’s the swarm.”
“Swarm?” Twilight vaguely remembered Lyra mentioning that earlier. “You said that’s one of the ways to die out here, right?”
“Uh-huh.” Lyra was fastening the last strap on her bags with her teeth. She rushed forwards, butting Twilight in the side. “I wasn’t kidding, the swarm is bad news, the only kind of weather we get ‘round here since Cloudsdale exploded.”
“It exploded?”
“We don’t have time!”
Twilight nodded, frantically trying to keep up with Lyra even in the new shadows that surrounded them. “What is the swarm?”
“Nopony knows,” Lyra explained quickly, although she’d already broken into a jog. “We think the borgs can control it somehow, but whatever you do, don’t let it touch you, okay?”
“What does it look like?”
Lyra’s hooves suddenly dug so hard into the ground, Twilight heard it crack. A shudder passed over Lyra’s whole body as she stared out the way they’d been heading, jaw agape.
Twilight looked around her and immediately understood why. Heading towards them was a mass of green, incredibly toxic-looking gas. It floated through the air with purpose, almost as though it could see them standing there. It rippled; everything the green gas touched seemed to quiver around it. Twilight half expected to see the ground melt.
“Run,” Lyra gasped. “RUN!”
It didn’t matter how fast they ran, the gas was an unstoppable force. It continued with speed and grace, intoxicating everything it touched.
Twilight felt tears spring to her eyes as she forced herself into a gallop. She didn’t know what the swarm would do to her, but it didn’t matter. No matter what it did, it was going to kill them both.
“We have to get out of its way!” Twilight insisted, but even as she spoke she didn’t know how. The gas encompassed everything; there wasn’t a direction it wouldn’t reach.
“Down,” Lyra said suddenly, pointing her hoof towards the right.
Twilight wasn’t sure if she’d misheard, she could see nothing but barren dirt. “What?”
“Down!” Lyra cried. “There’s a hole in the earth up ahead, if we can get below it, we can block ourselves in!”
Twilight’s eyes widened. That was perfect! They just had to make it there in time. She was beginning to hear a sizzle in the air, an uncomfortable pressure was pushing against her protection spell. Whatever this gas was, it was stronger than her magic. She wouldn’t be able to keep it out.
Lyra turned swiftly, heading towards the proposed crack in the earth. Twilight skidded to keep up, but she wasn’t as strong as Lyra was, the turn in the earth twisted her hoof out from under her. Twilight gasped in pain as she hit the ground, her chin bouncing off the earth hard enough to daze her.
“Twilight!”
Stars glittered in Twilight’s eyes as she tried to right herself. She turned her head, her stomach sinking as she saw the gas just feet away. It had changed in shape. What was once a wall was now a semi-circle, slowly closing them in.
“Leave me,” Twilight rasped, lips trembling. She dropped her head, pressing her face against the hot earth. “Leave me Lyra, you don’t have time!”
“Like hay I will!”
Twilight’s head shot up. Her eyes burned with twisted desperation. “We don’t have time, you have to go!”
Lyra spun around on her front hooves. She took one second to scan the gas before her expression shifted. Twilight couldn’t read what she was thinking, but in the next moment she was running towards her.
Twilight could feel tears pooling in her eyes. “No,” she said weakly. “No, Lyra, don’t-”
Lyra grabbed Twilight’s mane in her mouth, lifting her up sharply. Twilight gasped out as Lyra pulled her upwards. She fell against the unicorn, hissing in pain as her hoof hit the ground.
“It won’t work,” Twilight said hopelessly, she couldn’t stop the tears anymore; they flooded her face, making it nearly impossible to see.
“Yes it will,” Lyra said, but there was no determination in her voice. Twilight thought it sounded more like acceptance.
That’s when she realised.
“Lyra, no-”
Too late, Twilight felt the familiar tingle of foreign magic on her skin. Lyra’s mint glow encompassed Twilight completely, lifting her from the ground.
“Lyra!”
Lyra’s eyes were gleaming, but Twilight didn’t see any fear in them. She smiled at Twilight, bowing her head.
And then the magic strengthened, not just levitating her, but carrying her towards the hole in the earth. Twilight’s legs scrambled uselessly as she was deposited into the hole. The second the magic disappeared from around her, Twilight tried to leap out, tried to call out to her, but a rock was already rolling over the hole, painted in a soft green glow.
The last thing Twilight heard before everything went dark was Lyra’s voice, warm and determined in the silence.
“I’m coming Bon Bon.”
Then she began to scream.
The Journal of Princess Twilight Sparkle
Entry #3 – Lyra
I want to dedicate this entry to Lyra Heartstrings. Without her, I wouldn’t be alive to write this down.
I don’t know how long I sat in the dark and listened to her scream. The gas sounded painful – more than painful, I don’t actually have the words in my vocabulary to properly describe the sounds I heard. Just know that they will haunt me for the rest of my life.
At some point, Lyra did stop screaming, although I know that what happened next was nothing close to peace. I know that she died, just like she had explained to me.
What she failed to tell me was what else the swarm does.
Because it most certainly doesn’t just kill you.
It brings you back.
It must.
Because what I heard next was laughter. An awful, corrupted laughter like a thousand bells ringing in a broken harmony. It was distorted and terrible and I knew exactly where I’d heard it before.
The husks that had cornered me in Everfree sounded just like that when they were laughing.
I’m so sorry Lyra, truly I am. If I hadn’t run into you, you might still be alive right now. Instead, you’re a husk and I’m hiding behind a boulder waiting for you to leave because I’m a coward.
I’m a coward who is too afraid to see your face now that you’re one of them.
I’m a coward because I know that if I see you, then I will have to kill you.
Oh Celestia I am so sorry. Because I know that’s what you would want, I’m sure. I don’t know if you’re still conscious in there or if it’s just your body being controlled by an unknown force, but I know that either way, you would want me to kill you.
And I’m sorry.
But I’m a coward.
When I first saw you again after all this time, I was sure that you had changed. That you were hard, perhaps even cruel. But you proved to me that your heart wasn’t cold or hard, but filled with a warmth and compassion that I can only hope I can spread even in your absence. You deserved more than this.
Please forgive me.