----- Ruby Light -----
Ruby Light ran through the burning streets of Canterlot. She had to find her friends and make sure they got out of the city. Turning corner after corner, she galloped towards the street they all lived on. She passed houses and stores ablaze; their occupants running the opposite direction of her. She had to find them.
Turning the final corner, she saw a pegasus and an earth pony standing next to each other; her friends. Cyprus, a turquoise pegasus, and Prism, a light orange earth pony. The two of them looked up at her with pleading eyes, begging her to help them. Ruby ran even faster, pumping her legs are hard as she could but her friends seemed to keep getting farther away. She let out a cry as a tower of flames engulfed the two colts.
The scream had barely left her lips before the tower of flames transformed into a giant form of King Sombra. The evil king towered over her, laughing at the pain in her eyes as his figure grew to over twenty feet. Ruby tried shooting a blast of magic at him, but the King remained unfazed. Again, he laughed at her feeble attempt. Ruby closed her eyes and waited for King Sombra to crush her underhoof.
Suddenly, the laughing stopped. Ruby opened her eyes to find that King Sombra was no longer there. Before her was the empty street that she grew up on. Looking around, she realized that it was also no longer on fire. The city seemed to have returned to normal.
Ruby blinked and was suddenly transported to the steps leading to the castle. She could see the towering structure before her, both imposing and inspiring. As she gazed upon the castle, she saw the sun behind it begin to grow larger. As it continued to grow even larger, Ruby began to feel warmer. It was then she realized it wasn't getting larger, it was getting closer!
As if this thought alone was the trigger, the burning sun shot out of the sky. It rocketed through the sky, headed straight for the castle. Ruby tried to scream in protest, but her voice came out weak and quiet. The flaming sun continued it's decent until it was struck suddenly by a violet light. The two forces pushed against each other, neither giving up an inch. As they fought, more and more magical energy swirled around them.
Then, without warning, the two sources of power exploded. The force of the explosion shoved Ruby back several feet, leaving her knocked to the ground. As she stood up, she glanced around at her surroundings once more. The royal city of Canterlot was gone. All that remained was rubble and ash. Ruby fell back onto her knees and screamed.
Ruby Light shot up out of bed; her own cries waking her.
Ruby clutched her chest, working hard to catch her breath in the wake of the nightmare. Immediately, she reached for a scroll and quill to write the dream down before she forgot.
She had never felt the need to write a dream down before, but this one felt different. She made a simple note about the start of the dream; she had been through this dream before and was very familiar with what happened in it.
She then went into as much detail as possible describing everything that happened after Sombra disappeared. She made note of how the sun and the violet energy seemed to fight before their explosion leveled Canterlot.
Just as she finished writing her final thoughts on the dream, the final remnants of the dream leaked from her conscious mind.
She flopped back down on her bed and tried to collect her racing thoughts. She hadn’t had a nightmare about that night in over a year and the fear of that night threatened to overtake her.
She took in a deep breath and began to count to 10, just as Zecora had told her.
1.. 2.. 3.. 4.. Focus on the immediate. She was safe in her bed. She moved her hoof across the bed sheets, paying close attention to the feel as it brushed the sensitive underside of her hoof.
5.. 6.. 7.. 8.. Pull the focus to the room. She focused on the cool dawn air that came in from her open window. She felt her fur rustle lightly in the breeze.
9.. 10.. Focus on the big picture. She wasn't in Canterlot. She was in Ponyville; she was safe.
Her next step was to get ready for the day as normal. She forced herself out of bed, and approached her mirror she had above the small set of drawers. All around the edge of the mirror were pictures of her friends as well as one of her parents.
The mirror had been the princesses suggestion. Princess Twilight believed that seeing the faces of those you loved helped relieve some of the stress their situation caused. And to the princess’s credit, she was right. After nightmares, the images of everypony looking on her with their smiles helped calm her racing heart. She began to comb her mane, bringing to mind the events that led her here.
After she had led her classmates to the edge of town, she had turned around to find her friends. It had taken her A while to make her way back to their home street, but eventually, she found them.
They had huddled together under a collapsed building, Cyprus protecting Prism with his wings. The look in Cyprus’s eyes said that he would have defended his friend till the death. Maybe that was why the two of them joined the royal army.
Ruby, her classmates, and her friends, then started what would be the hardest 5 months of their life. They had spent that time on the run, hiding from King Sombra’s army as much as they could.
They had lost Morning Star early on. The group had made it to a small forest clearing within the Everfree Forest. Morning Star loved to look at the dawn as it broke through the trees. So she stepped away from the group one morning. No more than a hoofull of minutes passed before a group of soldiers descended on her. Ruby had heard her screams at night for the next month.
As the months passed, they had begun to hear whispers about a resistance building in the ruins of Ponyville. They had all decided to go there and hopefully find the resistance. Luck, it seemed, was on their side.
Approaching the small hamlet of Ponyville, they had been met with only charred remain. Looking around them, they had begun to fear that the rumors had been no more than false hope. Somepony even suggested that they might have been lies spread to catch the rest of the Canterlot ponies. Before they had the chance to leave, a blue pegasus emerged from seemingly out of thin air.
The pegasus held an air of stone cold resolution; nopony got through her. When Ruby had told her about their flight from Canterlot and of the months since, the pegasus’s face began to soften. She had told them to follow her, right before walking backwards and disappearing into nothingness. Without thinking about it for another second, Ruby had led the students into the new Ponyville.
In the following weeks, the group of kids had grown to acclimate to their new situation. They found homes, began to help around the town, and Ruby had led them through the whole way. After a time, the princess had asked for Ruby to meet with her. Ruby feared what the Princess of Friendship could want with her.
The princess had then told Ruby that she wanted her to be an assistant and apprentice to the princess. Without a second thought, Ruby had agreed and her training had begun immediately. 3 years later, she was responsible for all of the town’s functions and reporting these functions to the Council and the princess.
Ruby finished brushing her mane and pulled it back into a tight bun at the base of her head. While she wasn’t strictly apart of the military here, she still held herself to the same level of dress as them. She then secured the bun with a straight metal pin.
The pin had been a gift from her father, about two years before the attack on Canterlot. The end of the pin held a small ruby and was Ruby’s most precious possession. Her family had never been well off and the fact that her father had gotten this for her meant more than words could describe. After Canterlot, she had sharpened the end to a fine point; she called it her last line of defense.
Once her reflection passed her inspection, she grabbed her small pile of scrolls and headed to the conference room. It was still very early, but she knew the princess would be in there. Princess Twilight was always up early, trying to plan for every possibility that the following day may bring. It took her less than a minute to reach the meeting room.
“You’re up early, Ruby Light.” Ruby heard her mentor greet her. Ruby returned the smile the princess was giving her and approached the table. Ruby held the scrolls in her magic and continued forward to the table.
“I wanted to bring you the updates on the town before the meeting this morning and I figured you were up already,” Ruby replied. She stopped in front of the princess before continuing.
“There are two rather important developments that need to be addressed,” she said as she began to unfurl one of the scrolls in front of her. “The first is the report from Applejack about the farm. She says that they have found more patches of dead land to the far north of the farm. This is projected to cut food supplies by around 3%, give or take a percent.”
Ruby saw her mentor place her head into her hooves and begin to massage her temples. Reporting about incoming food shortages was becoming a depressingly regular occurrence.
It was almost a year ago that the farms started noticing small patches of dead land. All of their plants in these areas would wither and die almost overnight. The best that Ruby could describe them, it seemed that some form of magic was draining the plants and earth of all nutrients. Of the original farm that Ponyville had started, only 5% of the land had become uninhabitable.
“By my estimate, if this growth rate continues we will begin to not produce the needed food within 2 years.” At the resignation of the princess’s face, Ruby continued “That is a severe estimate, mind you.”
Princess Twilight raised her head to address Ruby but then hesitated. After a second, she seemed to have collected herself. “Thank you. If that is your estimate based on Applejack’s information, then I’m certain it’s accurate. A plan of action will need to be discussed during the meeting. What was the second development?”
“Several of the citizens have begun noticing that the barrier is shrinking. Even some of the children are whispering about it when they think no grownups are listening.”
They had known that the barrier was getting weaker for about a year. The shrinkage was not much; only about three to four feet. But the fact that it was in fact shrinking was the cause for concern.
To keep ponies from panicking they had kept the issue quiet, but the townsponies had finally started to notice. As Ruby started to think about it, the farm problems and the barrier shrinking both started around the same time; within a month or two of each other.
“It was just a matter of time before ponies began to figure it out; they aren’t stupid, after all. I’ll need to address this quickly.” Twilight put her muzzle in her hoof, trying to think of a plan to keep panic from spreading. “I’ll make a statement about it tomorrow morning. Hopefully, that will help calm some of their fears.”
With a small glow from her horn, Twilight pulled up a roll of parchment and a quill.
“Can you tell the guards to spread the word around town that I’ll be addressing the town tomorrow? I’ll wait to start here until you return. I think your friend should be in the barracks still if you can catch him”
Ruby blushed at the inflection her mentor had put on the word ‘friend’. The princess was referring to Cyprus, she knew it. It was true that Ruby had had a crush on her foalhood friend for a while, but they really were just friends. She gave a short bow to the princess and left the meeting room.
She quickly galloped to the barracks, hoping to catch Cyprus before he left on his rotation. Maybe Prism would be there too! The three of them hadn’t been able to hang out as a group in a long time. She could worry about Council later; right now, all she wanted to do was hug her friends.
It took her only a few minutes to make her way to the barracks; she had memorized the path over a year ago. Trying to see Cyprus as often as possible had led to this path becoming pure muscle memory.
She opened the door and saw her two friends! As she stepped over the threshold, she felt an unpleasant aura take over her. She looked up at her friends, who seemed to be having a whispered conversation with each other. Were they.. fighting? Maybe she should say something to break the tension.
“Now, now, fillies. You’re both pretty,” she said, putting on an obviously fake bravado.
For a split second, she thought her friends turned to her with fury in their eyes. As if she had personally attacked them, or as if they were angry that she was there. But after that moment had passed, their faces turned to a more recognizable state.
“Rubes! What brings you to our humble abode,” Cyprus teased in return. Ruby really did miss spending time with the two of them.
“I would say to see you’re pretty face, but I’m technically here on official business.” Before she continued, her friends assumed the ‘official business’ stance.
They stood there with the silliest expressions they could muster. Cyprus had crossed his forelegs, crossed his eyes, flopped his left ear down, and turned his head to the right. Prism merely stuck his tongue out, giving Ruby the impression again that something was upsetting her friend. She made a point to ask him about it after her official business. Nonetheless, the faces made her giggle as they always did.
“Anyways, what’s the official business?” asked Cyprus, returning to a normal expression.
“Princess Twilight will be making a statement to the town tomorrow and wanted to make sure the town heard.”
“I’ll let the captain know,” Prism stated, leaving before anypony could say another word to him.
“Who pissed in his appleflakes?” Ruby asked. She really was becoming worried about her friend. He wasn’t acting at all like himself today.
Before Cyprus could reply, a guard came sprinting through the door. He put a hoof to his chest as he tried to catch his breath. Before the guard spoke, Ruby felt a sinking in her heart; she knew that something bad had happened.
“Ms. Ruby. The princess needs you in the Council room, immediately!”