//------------------------------// // The News From Canterlot // Story: Little Choices // by Skijarama //------------------------------// “This is bad, this is bad, this is bad!” Twilight Sparkle repeatedly told herself the obvious as she galloped frantically down the streets of Ponyville for the train station. Not long after the fires had started up in Canterlot, she had caught sight of a train heading down the tracks on the mountain, making its way for the Ponyville train platform. By now ponies were out in droves on the streets, watching their capital city smothered in smoke and emerald flames with shock and horror. Many of them were whispering to each other, speculating about what was going on up there. The sound of the train whistle blaring silenced most of that chatter, all eyes turning towards the vehicle itself as it pulled to a stop at the station. Twilight arrived at about the same time, sliding to a halt on the wooden surface of the platform just as the train doors were forced open by frightened, near panicking ponies. They spilled out of the train, some of them breaking into a hard gallop for shelter somewhere in town, while others sought out specific individuals from the crowd of ponies surrounding the station. “What’s going on up there?” Twilight urgently asked the first pony to pass her way, a stallion who looked to be a little more composed than the others, albeit only a little. He still looked frightened and anxious, and when he looked at her, it was with tired and weary eyes. “I-I have no idea, miss. I just saw p-ponies burst into fire, green fire, then transform into… into monsters!” he shook his head in exasperation and put a hoof to his temple. “They… th-they started attacking everypony in sight! It was absolute chaos! Even some of the guard just… changed... We… we g-got lucky. The train was already pulling out of the station when the, uh… when everything started. I guess those things thought we weren’t worth the effort… eheh” he laughed half-heartedly, took a shaky breath and then shoved past Twilight on unsteady legs. “N-now excuse me, I h-have to find my family…” Twilight watched him go, her ears going flat against her head. She had no idea what to think about this. Ponies bursting into flames? Monsters appearing in their place? She’d never heard of something like that, before. Sure, transfiguration magic could have such an effect, but on such a scale that the entirety of Canterlot was in chaos in a matter of minutes? It didn’t make any sense! “Twi! There ya are!” Relieved at the familiar voice, Twilight turned to face the speaker and spotted Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rarity all galloping towards her. It had been Applejack that had called out to her, though they all looked relieved to see her unharmed, and horrified by the situation in the mountains. Twilight opened her mouth to say something back, though opted to remain silent when Fluttershy tackled her with a tight, fearful hug, one which Twilight returned. “Oh, thank goodness you’re alright, Darling!” Rarity sighed with relief, joining in on the hug. “We were worried that whatever’s going on up there might spread down here.” she then backed out of the hug and eyes Canterlot with apprehension, biting her lower lip. “Whatever in the wide land of Equestria is going on up there, anyway?” “Ah’d like to know, too. It looks like Canterlot’s become a gosh darned warzone,” Applejack noted tensely, her eyes narrowing in thought. “A war zone?” Pinkie echoed, looking at Applejack, appalled. “But there hasn’t been a war in Equestria in, like, a really long time!” “From what I just heard, it is a war zone,” Twilight replied while giving Fluttershy a reassuring squeeze. She then removed herself from the embrace and also looked up at Canterlot. “Somepony told me that ponies up there were just bursting into flames and transforming into monsters of some kind.” Fluttershy quivered, refusing to move away from Twilight while cowering under her mane. “M-m-monsters?” she jittered out. None of the others looked much better than the panicking pegasus, either. Twilight sighed heavily and closed her eyes. “I don’t know any details, and these ponies look way too shaken to be of much help here.” “We should tell Dashie about this, right?” Pinkie asked suddenly, her hooves fretfully shifting under her. “I mean, she is a princess. She should know about this, right?” Twilight winced somewhat but nodded. “Y-yeah… yeah, you’re right. Let’s go,” she said, hesitating a little before rising back to her hooves and stepping off of the platform towards the Ponyville clinic with the rest of the group following closely behind her. Rainbow Dash had been aware that something was wrong for a while now. Between the occasional voice of a distraught nurse or doctor talking outside of her room and the subtle almost imperceptible tremors that occasionally ran through the building, it was pretty clear that something was going on and that it was the opposite of good. At first, she had optimistically thought that, maybe, it was something Ponyville dealt with on a regular basis. Some wild creature wandering out of the Everfree Forest, like a manticore or parasprites, maybe a wild storm, or perhaps even a stampede of cows that Applejack would now be furiously trying to redirect. But as time went on, those suspicions crumbled away. Now, with the last of her patience wilted away, Rainbow Dash decided she was done sitting around. Pushing away the sheets, Rainbow slipped off of the clinic bed, careful not to bump her wing, which was still in a cast, on the way down. She wasted no time and cantered for the wooden door of the room. She put an ear to it, hearing more uneasy and anxious whispers on the other side from the staff. With a huff of indignation, Rainbow pushed the door open and stepped out. “What’s going on out here?” she asked loudly, her voice echoing in the sterile room and drawing the attention of every single pony present. Several nurses and doctors looked at each other, unsure. “Well?” “Rainbow!” the voice of Twilight Sparkle cut through the tense silence. Rainbow looked over and tensed visibly when she saw Twilight and the rest of their friends cantering towards her with expressions ranging from terrified to determined. “How’s your wing?” The lavender mare asked more gently once she was closer. “It’s… better,” Rainbow half-lied, glancing back at the appendage. In truth, the doctor’s healing magic had done wonders to speed along the healing process, though she was under doctor’s orders to not use her wounded wing for anything for at least another day. “But that’s not important right now. What’s happening? Why is everypony so… scared?” “Didn’t you look outside?” Pinkie asked, her eyes widening a bit. “Canterlot’s on fire!” Rainbow blinked and looked at Pinkie with a blank stare for a few seconds. A crooked smile appeared on her face. Then she laughed. “Heh… yeah, sure it is. What’s really going on?” she asked between giggles, that lopsided grin never leaving her muzzle. “She isn’t kidding, Rainbow,” Twilight said sternly, a harsh frown appearing on her face. “There’s green fire and smoke pouring out of the city. Monsters are attacking every pony in Canterlot, according to some refugees who just got her by train a few minutes ago.” Rainbow’s grin persisted for a second. It then slowly melted away to a dawning look of horror and dread. “Oh shoot, you’re serious…” she choked out in a trembling voice. “Why would we lie about somethin’ like that?!” Applejack asked incredulously, marching up a little closer. Rainbow’s ears folded back and she looked down at the ground. “S-sorry… I…” she stuttered before falling silent. Silence dominated the room for a few seconds before Twilight gestured for Applejack to back off a little, which the farmer did with an apologetic look on her face. After a moment, Rainbow Dash turned and gestured for the door she had just stepped out of. “Come on. We can talk in here.” Twilight and the others followed her in, the door closing behind them with a small flick of Rarity’s magic. Rainbow Dash sat down heavily on the edge of her bed and looked at the rest of her friends with a serious expression. “Okay. Hit me. What are we dealing with here?” Everypony looked at each other anxiously for several moments, nopony really sure what to say. It was Twilight who spoke, naturally. “We don’t know, not for sure,” she began. “All we know right now is what I managed to get out of one of the refugees. He said that ponies in Canterlot suddenly burst into green fire and were replaced by monsters, which then started attacking everypony they saw. He didn’t go into much detail about said monsters, though, stumbling off to find his family once he told me about that.” “Turning into monsters?” Rainbow echoed, her eyes shifting erratically while her brain worked to think of an explanation. “...maybe transfiguration magic? Could somepony be turning ponies into monsters from the inside?” “Possible, but highly unlikely,” Twilight replied with a shake of her head. “Transfiguration magic typically requires visual contact and a significant amount of power to transform even small inanimate objects, like a salt shaker or a teacup. It would take an insane amount of power to perform a full transfiguration on a living pony. It also doesn’t typically manifest as green fire, or fire of any color for that matter. Plus, changing something’s shape via transfiguration magic doesn’t necessarily change its inherent qualities, especially if it’s a living thing, so all of the ponies that transformed suddenly becoming aggressive doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. They’d still have the same mind, just a different body.” “What other explanations do we got, though?” Applejack asked in exasperation, sitting down on her haunches and punching the smooth floor. “Ah doubt we can fix somethin’ we don’t know anythin’ about.” “Wait, you can’t?” Pinkie asked with a raised eyebrow. “If something’s broken I can just fix it by slapping it with a fish. Works every time.” “What about mind control magic?” Rainbow pressed, leaning forward a bit. “Something could be- wait… a fish?” she looked at Pinkie, bewildered. “What? It’s true!” Pinkie groused indignantly while folding her forelegs over her chest. “Focus, please!” Twilight interjected with a frown, making Pinkie clam up with an apologetic smile. Once she was sure that that was done, Twilight continued. ”Rainbow, mind control magic is just as unlikely as transfiguration in this case. It is an extremely sensitive type of magic, requiring intense focus and energy to bypass a pony’s natural mental defenses, and if they’re a unicorn, those defenses can be reinforced with magic. Not to mention that mind control magic has a habit of being an absolute power-hog. To hit enough ponies to send Canterlot into that much chaos goes well beyond what even the Princesses can do.” Rainbow was nodding along with Twilight’s explanation, not fully grasping most of it but getting the gist. However, when Twilight mentioned the princesses, Rainbow’s eyes snapped wide open and a gasp tore its way out of her lungs. “Mom! Aunt Luna! Oh my gosh, they’re both up there! Are they okay? Have we heard from them?! Please tell me that they’re okay!!” she began asking in rapid succession while hopping off of her bed and looking to all of her friends in a near panic. “They might be hurt!” “Now, now, I’m sure they’re fine, dear,” Rarity tried to assure her, putting her hooves in front of her in a placating gesture. “Princess Celestia raises the sun, after all. I have every confidence that she’ll have this whole situation resolved in short order.” “We don’t know that,” Rainbow countered, sweat appearing on her brow. “We don’t know what we’re up against! What if she got hurt?! What if… Wha… W-we have to do something! We need to get up there and help!” she turned and began moving for the door at a brisk canter. Twilight was quick to put herself in Rainbow’s way. “Rainbow Dash, calm down,” Twilight advised her softly, reaching a hoof out. “We’ll figure this out, we just need-” Rainbow recoiled away from the touch as if it burned. “No! I’m not calming down! My mom and my aunt are up there and they need my help! They need our help! They need the Elements of Harmony!” “How are we even supposed to get there?” Twilight asked seriously, straightening up her posture and narrowing her eyes. “It looks like you’re still in no condition to be flying, and I don’t think that the trains are going to just take us up there! And besides, it’s too risky!” “I can’t lose them!!” Rainbow shouted, tears appearing in her eyes. She moved forward and tried to shove past Twilight. “I won’t lose my family! Not again!” “And we can’t lose our friend!” Twilight countered, holding firm against Rainbow’s shove before reaching out and yanking her into a tight hug, eliciting a startled squeak from the pegasus. Everything fell silent when Twilight nuzzled the side of Rainbow’s head affectionately. “I can’t lose my friend, either… not when I just got her back…” Rainbow Dash froze, her ears standing perfectly straight. Slowly, ever so slowly, looking like she didn’t believe what she had just heard, she leaned back and looked Twilight in the eyes. “...Wha… huh?” she whispered, her voice cracking with emotion. With a soft smile on her face, Twilight reached one of her hooves down to Rainbow’s, touching it very gently. She then guided Rainbow’s hoof up and held it in both of her own. “...I told you I was really there, didn’t I?” Rainbow’s eyes widened in shock and her jaw gaped open. She looked Twilight up and down for several seconds before a small sound escaped her throat. It was a peculiar noise, sounding like something between an agonized sob and a joyful laugh. Twilight pulled Rainbow in again, and this time, the cyan mare eagerly returned the embrace, burying her face in Twilight’s shoulder, quietly crying. Except these tears weren’t of regret, sorrow or guilt. Everypony else looked on, not entirely sure when the two of them had made up but pleased to see the tender moment all the same. “Awwww,” Pinkie’s voice cut through that silence like a serrated sword, thoroughly ruining the mood and drawing extremely annoyed glares from the two hugging mares. She put on a big, cheeky grin and shrugged her shoulders innocently. “What? It’s sweet.” “Ah get the feelin’ the rest of us are missin’ some context, though,” Applejack pointed out in confusion, though still with a warm smile on her face. “Does one of y’all wanna fill us in?” “We’d love to,” Twilight nodded before looking at Rainbow with a question in her eyes. Rainbow hesitated, then nodded with a smile appearing on her muzzle as well. “Sure…” that smile then melted away, replaced by a tense grimace. “But, can it wait until later? We still have the attack on Canterlot to worry about.” “Fair enough,” Pinkie chirped with a shrug and perky smile before looking out the window. “Soooo… what is the plan for that, exactly?” Rainbow took a moment to think, her expression hardening with thought. “Well… if Canterlot is under attack, then obviously we need some way to figure out what’s going on and who we’re up against. But… until then…” she looked up to all of her friends gathered in the room, looking to each one individually. All of these ponies that she couldn’t bear the thought of losing… that thought only grew stronger when her gaze rested on Twilight. “...We… we should evacuate Ponyville.” Twilight blinked, and everypony else vocalized their own surprise at that very unexpected statement. “That’s… not what I thought you were going to say,” Twilight managed to reply with a raised eyebrow. “Look, Ponyville doesn’t have its own security force, alright? No guards, no soldiers, and barely any law enforcement. It’s never needed it before, given how small and peaceful it tends to be. But if we’re dealing with a hostile force of any kind then Ponyville is going to be a sitting duck, and the ponies that live here aren’t exactly fighters,” Rainbow explained her reasoning while getting back to her hooves and pacing around the room. “I don’t know what we’re dealing with, and until I do I am not going to put anypony in harm's way…” she then looked to everypony else in the room. “Especially not my friends.” “Wait… you mean we’d be evacuating too?” Pinkie asked in surprise, lifting a hoof to her chest. “Who are you and what have you done with Rainbow Dash?! There is no way you’d ever run away from danger! You’re Rainbow Dash for pony’s sake!” she demanded, pointing an accusatory hoof at Rainbow. Pinkie was shot deadpan frowns from everypony else in the room before Rainbow deigned to answer her. “I never said we’d be running away from the danger, Pinkie. We all need to stay close to the city anyway. We need to find out what we’re dealing with and get the Elements of Harmony. The ponies that live here need to be taken someplace safe, though. Safer than here, at least…” “Where would be safe for them, though?” Rarity pondered aloud, touching a hoof to her chin. “And how would they get there?” Fluttershy added, finally gaining the courage to speak. Rainbow hummed in thought for several long moments before shrugging helplessly. “Ugh… I’m open to suggestions, here,” she said with a small, fake smile. “What about Manehattan?” Twilight suggested, perking up a little. “The city is enormous, and it has a pretty tough lifestyle for its population. Ponies there are tough and would be better suited to defend themselves and their town than anypony in Ponyville, and the train tracks go right to it. Plus, Manehattan has a pretty large security force to deal with the higher crime levels that city has to deal with.” “Twilight, you’re a genius,” Rainbow complimented with a big grin splitting her muzzle. “I like it. And we can head to the Castle of the Two Sisters as our hideout until we can get to the Elements.” “Isn’t that in the middle of the Everfree Forest?” Fluttershy squeaked tensely, hiding in her mane again. “That’s the point,” Rainbow nodded along. “One of Equestria’s most dangerous primal zones surrounds that castle for several miles in every direction. Any road that goes there is going to include Dangerous creatures, unpredictable and extreme weather, and that’s not to mention that the castle is pretty well hidden, to begin with. It would be a good deterrent to anything trying to follow us, which would buy us some time, and we know we can make the trip. We’ve done it.” Twilight slowly nodded in agreement. “I think she has a point. If nothing else, it’s remote and hard to find without a guide.” “Right. So, any objections?” Rainbow to the rest of the group, looking for ideas and input. Nopony spoke up, and despite looking uneasy and anxious, they seemed determined and ready to get to work. Rainbow’s smile grew. “Alright. It’s decided, then. Let’s get to work, ponies!"