Painfully and slowly, the world returned to Starlight. It crashed into her brain and turned into an excruciating pulp in her skull, constantly throbbing with short sparks of life. The young mare whimpered at the darkness surrounding her and didn't realize that she still had her eyes closed for at least another minute. Then she wished she never opened them to begin with.
The lifeless face of a soldier lay in front of her, eyes grey and lifeless as a piece of metal severing his neck turned out to be the cause of death. The sight of flesh being displayed so loosely and in such a bloody manner made her shoot back with a repulsed feeling, body protesting to the sudden movement. A sour taste rose from the back of her throat; the majority of her breakfast launched its way out of her mouth and painted the red ground with another sickly color. Her body was weak from the crash and the convulsions upon seeing the damage--it was difficult to imagine that she could have been killed in a way similar to that stallion. It was difficult to think about where the other soldiers were.
She sniffled, looking around through tearful eyes at the massacre around her. The carriage was strewn about like paper, some parts in the trees and some on the ground. She realized that the area of the crash was actually far off from the open Plains they were in originally. She found herself gazing up at large trees, some of them insanely large and insanely tall. Plant growth almost blocked every ray of sunlight from reaching her. Starlight sniffled again and prodded her horn with a hoof; it hurt, but it was relatively fine. She hoped that Trixie had a similar condit--...
"Trixie?!" She she called nervously, her throat still lumpy from the fresh tears. "Trixie, can you hear me? Fluttershy? A-Any pony...?"
When no one answered, Starlight whimpered again and limped around the wreckage to search more. A few fires idly ate away at the trees and the grass on the ground, so she had to step around them and listen above the crackling. The more she walked, the more she noticed a sound beyond some of the wreckage, something similar to her own sounds distress. These were more urgent and yet quieter, mixed with the sound of growling. Starlight in the direction of the noise and spotted Fluttershy in the distance, huddled and facing a dark shape well over her size.
Her yellow wings weakly fluttered and caused her to wince in pain, but she didn't take her eyes off of the bizarre beast patiently waiting in front of her. It looked like some giant abomination of bird, with leathery and tattered wings hanging limply from its wiry limbs. It's body was savagely leaning on it's haunches, while it's slitted eyes stared hungrily at the helpless pegasus. It's awkward, crooked jaws seemed to be permanently open and unable to close due to the jaw structure, allowing for a pink tongue to loll out with glee. The strange bird took a swift peck at Fluttershy's hindleg, which appeared to have a large gash in the side and squawked impatiently when the pony cried in pain and tried scooting back more.
"Hey!" Starlight fired a blast of energy from her horn, trotting forward gingerly so as not to hurt herself. Seeing the bird reel back in surprise and look for an escape gave her more hope. "Go away! Go on! Get out of here!"
She fired off a few more bursts of energy and sent the creature flapping wildly backwards, perching itself on a far off tree and gazing with glowing yellow eyes at the two. Starlight fired off one more to spell to show she meant business and then slowly helped Fluttershy to her hooves. "Fluttershy, are you alright...?"
The pegasus looked as if she didn't know how to answer that question, and Starlight didn't blame her after being attacked by...whatever they'd been attacked by. She looked down at her bleeding leg and swallowed worriedly, eyes flicking towards the bird not far from them. "I tried to talk to it...I...I'm usually good at deterring animals...it...it was so...hungry."
Starlight cast a glance back at the animal. "Maybe it's just because you're injured? We'll have to get a tourniquet on that wound and fast...H-Have you seen Trixie?"
Fluttershy gasped as if she suddenly remembered the blue mare and looked around worriedly. "I haven't seen her. I'd forgotten you both after I woke up...She can't be too far away from us."
"Well, let's get you patched up and then we'll look for her." Starlight offered and frowned as she looked up. The sun was setting even more by now, and everything was getting darker. "I want to find her before something else does. "
A rustle of metal-- a distant grunt caught their ears, and they both flinched. The sound neared them steadily, turning from faint noises to a pattern similar to walking. From the corner of growing fire on one corner of the debris, an equine figure lumbered slowly towards them it's head down. The passing smoke eventually permitted them to see that it was a lone soldier, one that appeared to be carrying a familiar blue body on his back. Starlight rushed forward to meet them both; Trixie seemed unresponsive to her voice and physical movements when she was close enough. She should be opening her eyes. Why weren't they opening?!
"Don't worry, she's still alive!" The soldier sound tired, yet surprised by the mare's speed. He gently shifted his stance so that Trixie's body fell into Starlight's hold with slow ease. "There's a really bad bruise at the back of her head, but she's still breathing."
After verifying his statements, Starlight took a moment to look over the stallion-- he looked like another lucky survivor, given that he only had a black eye. His dull yellow coat was stained with blood, but it didn't seem to be his. "Th...Thank you...Are you hurt at all...?"
"No, I'm perfectly fine, Ma'am...Oh, your leg!" The soldier took notice of an approaching Fluttershy, and unmatched his armor so that he could remove the belt holding it together. With the aid of his horn, he fastened the belt around Fluttershy's leg as carefully as possible and recieved a quiet thanks from the pegasus. "There. We'll have to put some kind of cloth over it to keep it from getting infected."
Starlight spotted the remains of somepony's bag nearby, and she tore a large piece off for the stallion. "Um...Did you find...anypony else alive?"
The stallion stopped his work briefly, eyes distantly focused on his aura surrounding the cloth. "...Just your friend there."
The tone in his voice said a lot more than he let on, but Starlight didn't want to pry. "I'm sorry."
He said nothing in response to that, but he did speak again."You're...Princess Twilight Sparkle's student, right? And you're her personal friend?"
Fluttershy nodded and Starlight went into a bit of detail. "Well, I actually graduated a while back. I'm more like a...Senior in their last year of high school. If, that makes any sense."
"It didn't, but it's an interesting analogy." The stallion shrugged and smiled softly as his tourniquet was finished. "I'm Fire Wisp, by the way."
"Oh! Starlight Glimmer. Wish we could have met under better circumstances."
"Yes...Speaking of that..." Fluttershy urged their attention upwards to the constantly darkening skies. "Maybe we should figure out what to do now that it's getting dark."
"Well, there's going to be a refuel carriage large enough to carry...what's left of us off the island. We just need to get to the north end." Wisp explained to them." Not now of course, but that should be the main goal."
Starlight looked at the fire consuming what remained of the carriage, their orange flicker glowing in her eyes for a moment. "I guess we'll rest here and then start moving tommorow...any other survivors will head in that direction too."
"I'll check some spots to see if there's any luggage left over. I don't remember bringing any food, but maybe somepony else did." Fluttershy looked a bit doubtful that there was anything left from the crash, but she didn't say so. She did glance back at the bird as she began her search. "Um..."
"Right." She pointed out the bird for the stallion to see. "We can't all be asleep with that thing right there. I guess we'll take turns looking for the night."
"And I'll take first watch." The soldier said, almost as if he rehearsed it. Given his job, he actually might have done something like this before. "I'm pretty much a night owl, anyways."
"If you're sure. I'll go next after you, then." The mare responded with the same level of commitment in her voice as the stallion had. She sighed aloud, her eyes traveling towards the sound of a distant roar. Everypony paused at the familiar, terrifying noise. "In any case...we've got a long night ahead of us."