//------------------------------//
// Aftermath 
// Story: Fizzlepop's Wish 
// by milesprower06 
//------------------------------//

Canterlot, Seven Months Ago...

When he had noticed that the sounds of fighting had died down in his immediate area, and had moved up towards the castle, Grubber finally risked a peek out from under the cart where the giant cake had been a few minutes ago. Chunks of cake and gobs of frosting covered the immediate area where the ambush had started. There was a pirate parrot or two still scuffling, but for the most part, the storm guards who hadn't been knocked out, incapacitated, or otherwise engaged by the pirates had given chase to the castle courtyard.

Silently slipping out from under the cart and taking cover behind the right wheel, he wondered what his next move should be. He didn't ponder the options very long, because when he noticed the sun and moon start to rapidly fling across the sky from one horizon to the other, the best option seemed to be 'Run'.

Darting around a group of guards who had been bound together with a giant ribbon, he paid them no mind and instead focused on the ground ahead of him. His jog turned into a run when he risked a peek behind him and saw a lightning storm begin to form around the castle. When the clouds started to slowly rotate, the stormships hovering over and around the city also started to take the hint, and began to put the city to their rudders.

In a matter of minutes, the hedgehog had reached the outskirts of the city, and a retreating stormship passed overhead as he ran for the main gates, which now sat unguarded. There came a sudden gust of wind that made the overhead ship lurch to port. There were ear-splitting creaking and splintering sounds as the airship collided with the cliffside and quickly lost speed and altitude. A dull thud resonated from inside the hull of the ship, and a split second later, flames erupted from the starboard thruster, and this was the tipping point as the vessel capsized and careened down the mountain, but not before crashing through the arch bridge that connected the southeast entrance of the city to the mountain roads below, leaving the Canterlot Falls as the hedgehog's sole choice of rapid escape.

'So much for not swimming an hour after eating...!' Grubber thought, steeling himself for the leap that he made two seconds later, looking behind him for a last time to see a cyclone begin to ravage the castle courtyard.

He took quick gasps of air when his head poked above the rushing river as it carried him over the 1,000-foot waterfall, and he took one last breath and held it, waiting for either death or wetness. The splash was muted to his water-filled ears, and when he realized he hadn't hit any rocks, he spread his limbs and swam for the surface. Managing to claw his way to the shore, he blinked several times to see clearly, noticing that the river had already carried him nearly 200 feet from the falls, and that the currents had stripped him of the shirt that had prominently displayed the Storm King's emblem.

As the sun continued to dip below the hills to the west, he craned his neck up to see that the lightning storm and cyclone had dissipated, and now arcs of sparkling energy were swirling around the towers of Canterlot. As the night sky continued to encroach and the last airship disappeared over the horizon, he watched as the city looked good as new in a matter of moments, before any of the storm legions had touched down.

Unsure of what had just happened up in the mountain city, and unwilling to find out, he took another deep breath, before turning around, and ran alongside the riverbank as it snaked into the hills and valleys below.