//------------------------------// // Northward // Story: The Sword of Harmony // by milesprower06 //------------------------------// Starlight Glimmer had never been on such a crowded train, and for how many ponies surrounded her, it was eerily quiet, save for murmurs of worried and scared citizens, and one could easily hear the wheels chugging forward as the train pushed north. The fear and worry in the train car seemed to increase the closer ponies were to Princess Twilight Sparkle, as they watched the exhausted alicorn lay in the seat directly next to Starlight. Her breathing was labored, dried tears matted her cheeks, and she seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness as the unicorn did her best to comfort her. The past two hours had been tense, and entirely uncertain... The few townsponies of Ponyville that had not taken shelter stood still in the streets, their eyes glued to the pillars of smoke that were beginning to rise from the capitol of Canterlot some 40 miles away up on the tallest mountain in the region. They might have felt relief that they didn't reserve a spot for the Friendship Festival in time, had they not been so shaken at the events unfolding before them, with the sun and moon darting through the sky unpredictably. Day becoming night, and vice versa in a matter of seconds. Their uncertainty only rose further as a speck against the burning city grew more detailed, and moments later revealed to be Princess Twilight Sparkle as she unstably descended towards the town. Her front hooves touched down near the front of the castle, and her landing had quickly deteriorated into a rolling crash. Ponies rushed to help her as she came to a halt. "Princess, are you alright?" An earth pony asked as three others helped her to her hooves, and they saw just how exhausted she was. "S... Starlight. Where's Starlight?" She asked, her voice soft, tired, and hoarse as she was helped towards the front stairs of the Castle of Friendship. "Starlight, Princess Twilight is here! Starlight!!!" Caramel screamed towards the castle. It was then that Twilight saw dozens upon dozens of ponies watching from inside the stain glass windows of the castle. The large front doors of the castle opened, and out stepped Starlight Glimmer and Trixie Lulamoon, two of the only ponies who had made it off the mountain after the attack had occurred, and they had immediately started coordinating the sheltering of ponies down here. "Twilight!" Starlight exclaimed, her voice full of concern as she galloped to meet the Princess of Friendship at the bottom of the stairs, who was struggling to just stay on her hooves. She looked like she had had the life sucked out of her. "Are you alright?" She asked, coming up to her. She wearily shook her head. "We... We need to go. Right now. Get everypony you can to the... To the trains. Get as far away from Canterlot as possible. Bring food... Starlight, please..." Twilight rambled, turning away from the castle as she leaned on Starlight to stay up. "Twilight I don't understand, what's going on?" Starlight asked as Trixie came to help keep her up. "The... They're gone... They're all... All gone... The princesses... Our friends... We have to get away..." Twilight choked out as it seemed like she was just barely able to stay awake. Starlight felt her blood go cold as she felt Twilight's hot tears against her coat. "Everypony out of the castle, right now! We're leaving town!" She shouted back to the open doors, as townsponies now glanced up at the silhouette of Canterlot with fear. Starlight's horn lit up, and she quickly cast an amplification spell on her vocal chords. "Attention Ponyville, everypony grab as much food as you can reasonably carry and get to the train platform. Again, everypony get as much food as you can carry and get to the train. We're leaving! Now, go! Go! Go!" The quiet aura around town quickly gave way to sounds of galloping, panicked voices, and doors opening as the crowd did their best to follow Starlight's announcement as they made their way through town with the Princess towards the train platform on the south side of town. A couple minutes later, word had evidently reached Town Hall, and the civil defense siren on the roof of the building started going off. "Get to the train platform!!!" Starlight's amplification spell said over the siren. "Trixie, stay with her." Starlight said, putting all of Twilight's weight on the stage magician before using her horn to wink out, and materialized on the train platform. She immediately spotted two conductors for the currently idle train. "You and you, anything in the baggage car that isn't food, blankets, or medicine, dump it, now!" She commanded. The conductors treated her panicked tone of voice very seriously with the alarms going off, and set to work, opening the sides of the baggage car, and began unloading what Starlight had ordered. A portal opened right next to her, and she jumped back, horn lighting up defensively. A moment later, a light gray unicorn stepped out onto the train platform, wearing a royal blue cloak and mage's hat. "Starswirl!" Starlight exclaimed, letting her guard down. "Get everypony on board, and get them to the Crystal Empire as fast as you can." The conjurer told her as he immediately began heading for the end of the platform towards the forests. "What about you?" She asked as ponies began to arrive from all corners of town. "I will join you when I can. Go, hurry!" He ordered, before breaking into a gallop as the sky switched from day to night and back again. "Put any food you can spare into the baggage car before getting on! Again, any food you can spare, into the baggage car before you get on!" She shouted as more and more citizens arrived at the platform. A couple minutes later, she saw Trixie and Twilight come up to the platform, and they immediately helped her on board the closest passenger car, which was becoming more crowded by the minute, and the commotion outside was becoming softer. "Starlight, I think that's everypony!" She heard Caramel shout. She glanced out the window, and saw the empty Ponyville streets, luggage scattered on the platform as the baggage car doors were slid shut and locked, and the conductors boarded. "There's no one else on the platform, ma'am." The closest one announced to her. She nodded, and went forward, crossing into the locomotive, where the engineer was currently unsure what to make of watching his train being rushed and boarded in an incredible hurry. "North. Get us to the Crystal Empire as fast and safely as you can!" She told him. He gave her a nod, and immediately started shoveling lumps of coal into the boiler. A minute later, Starlight, with nearly all the worried and frightened eyes on her or Twilight, heard the train whistle give a mighty blow, and they felt all the car couplings compress with metallic clanks, and the train pulled away from the platform. She glanced once more at the empty streets of Ponyville, remembering how nearly all of the population had been in Canterlot for the festival... "Does anypony have a scroll, or parchment? Something to write with? I need to warn them that we're coming." Shining Armor stood at the Crystal Empire's train platform, looking out at the endless arctic tundra and snowfall in front of him. The sky had shaken his entire populace. It would shift from day to night several times in a minute, then it would be one or the other for over an hour. It was completely unpredictable. Then the hastily written scroll had come. On our way with refugees from Ponyville. Canterlot has fallen. Twilight is with us. -S.G. That had been six hours ago, and any train travelling at full speed took about that long to get here from the central regions. As the minutes passed, he had to continually reach back to his soldier's discipline to keep his emotions in check, and remain ready and waiting to help anypony coming down those tracks. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of howling wind and snow, he saw a single headlight break through the snowstorm, and heard a train whistle overtake the wind. His heart pounded against his chest as train brakes started to scream as it closed in on the platform. Once it had come to a halt, the doors of the passenger cars opened, and tired, scared ponies started filing out. "Citizens of Ponyville!" He shouted. "Head into the city. Our citizens are ready and willing to take you in. If there's not enough room, you'll be staying in the castle. Please remain calm and head towards the city." He announced as guards came to show the way to any first-time visitors. He then saw Starlight come out with Trixie, levitating an unconscious Twilight at her side. "Is she alright?" He asked. "She was fading in and out for two hours. Whenever she'd fall asleep, she'd wake up minutes later in a terror. I put her under a dark sleep spell so she can get some rest but stay cut off from the dream realm." She told him as Twilight was laid gently into one of the many waiting open-air chariots. Shining's head counting was a bit rusty, but it seemed that less than 200 ponies had gotten on this five-car train. Ponyville's population was over 1,500. Nearly all of them had been in the capitol for the festival. "Starlight." Shining called as she and Trixie boarded the chariot on both side of Twilight. The unicorn mare looked back to him as more Ponyvillians filed past. "Cadance...?" He asked, swallowing a lump in his throat. No words coming to her, she merely shook her head somberly as the chariot started towards the castle.