And Hell Followed

by BaeroRemedy


Clipped

Spitfire groaned and let her head hit the surface of the solid oak desk in front of her. Each day, if that unit of measurement was even valid anymore, seemed longer and longer than the last. Each day also brought a new problem or problems, ones she had to solve.

“So what should we do, Captain?” The voice of one of her lieutenants, Fleetfoot, came from across the room. Raising her head only reminded the veteran Wonderbolt of the ugly reality of the situation they were in.

Fleetfoot, Lightning Dust, and Silver Zoom all stood across from her. Where at one point they might have worn the iconic yellow and blue flight suits, now they wore something of a mix between that and royal guard attire. The jumpsuits were covered by the golden plates of Equestria’s finest, hastily painted with a blue lightning bolt pattern to better mimic the colors of the Wonderbolts.

“We can’t have ponies rioting everytime they miss a meal.” Spitfire concluded with a heavy sigh. “I know it’s rough outside, but we can’t let Cloudsdale fall into chaos. Not like the world down there.” She pointed a hoof at Lightning Dust. “Take who you need and shut it down. Knock some heads if you have to, I just don’t want this happening again.”

“Gladly.” The sadistic grin that the turquoise pegasus gave before leaving didn’t release any stress from Spitfire, instead it only added to the pile. Doing these things wasn’t easy and compromising one's own values and beliefs for the greater good was not good for the spirit.

When the terror started somepony needed to take control and in lieu of a governing body with a spine, the Wonderbolts had restored order to the third largest city in Equestria. Keeping that order meant needing more bodies, which meant drudging through the retired members of the team and washouts. The quality had dropped, same with the attitude of the group, but Cloudsdale was safe.

Celestia, she missed Soarin so much.

“Fleetfoot, organize more scouting parties. Start sending them out further; Ponyville, Sire’s Hollow, Appleloosa. I don’t care, just get us more food however you can.” Spitfire received a nod and a salute before she flew out of the room. “Silver, go help her.” The last of the three commanders of her force gave a salute before leaving. She was left alone again, like it seemed she was more often than not now.

The Captain of the Wonderbolts got up from her desk, assuming that a view of the city would help lift her spirits a little. Making her way over to the window and dropping her shades over her eyes, she looked out over the domain that had become hers.

From the highest office in the Cloudisseum, she could see everything. There were spots in the cloud city that were becoming a bit thin. The near constant sun was taking a heavy toll on the unique architecture of Cloudsdale and without the ability to move around Equestria to get more water there was only so much they could replace. It was worrying, but not as pressing as the food situation.

Pegasi had almost always relied on the surface dwelling races, specifically earth ponies, to supply their cloud cities. So while it offered them a sense of security from most threats, right now that just happened to be the rampant unicorns on the ground, it also left them dependent on others. Their fortress was under siege and supplies were running low.

About two weeks ago the intense rationing started. Before then they had focused on limiting purchases of certain goods, but now they were in full lockdown. No more buying food, it was given to families by armed guards in the city square and nopony except her Wonderbolts were permitted to fly...not that the ponies of the city liked that. The riots were becoming more common, just the common pegasus tired of eating once a day and having a limited supply of water.

Spitfire understood, she just didn’t care anymore. This needed to be done or else the whole city would starve, they would be left with a city of bones like so many others they had found on the surface. She wasn’t about to let that happen to her city.

“I deserve to fly…” She concluded, cracking her neck and launching herself out of the window. She had been cooped up in the Cloudisseum for so long, either training her new recruits or organizing things for the city. She deserved to get out and spread her wings, enjoy the fruits of her own labor.

The sun baked cloudscape shone beneath the omnipresent star above. If she shut off her brain and focused on the wind beneath her wings she could almost imagine it was any other summer day. Just getting out brought a smile to her features.

“Finally come down from your fortress, Hurricane?” An insult was hurled at her from the ground.

“Oh so you can fly but we can’t?” Another.

“Tyrant!”

Spitfire screwed her eyes shut and clenched her jaw. None of those ponies understood what she was doing, they were more concerned with being comfortable and happy. Right now those things came second to safety. Rationing, restricting airspace, cracking down on these riots and protests, they were all to keep them safe! The ponies of Cloudsdale may not like it or realize it now, but they would in time. They had to.

She would talk with her lieutenants about making some posters and reading material to pass around town to better explain things. They needed the populace to understand that they needed to cooperate with the Wonderbolts to survive.

She couldn’t lie to them and say they just needed to hold out, though. They needed to be honest with themselves and admit that there was no help coming, there was no hope for the outside world. They needed to find their own solution, maybe create an annex on the surface below Cloudsdale to grow their own food…but that would take time. Time that was already running out.

‘Ponies need hope.’ That’s what Soarin told her when this all started, when he was still around. Look where holding onto that hope and deluding themselves had gotten them...with starving foals and an angry populace.

“I don’t need this…” Spitfire muttered to herself as she banked hard right to turn around and head back to the Cloudisseum. She might just stay in her office for the rest of the day, focus on one of her books or further plan out the annex.

BA-WOOOO

Well honed instincts kicked in, a reaction to the warning horns sounding. Spitfire slammed on the breaks and hovered, spinning in place and looking for the source. There were horns in the four cardinal directions to warn of any incoming threats. Once or twice a herd of those monsters had passed below the city and fired a few volleys from below. There was supposed to be one horn, signalling the direction where the herd was coming from.

Instead there were horns from all directions.

Spitfire sped off towards the nearest edge of the city, just wanting to get a glimpse at the ground below. All across the city her Wonderbolts were taking to the sky and heading to the fringes of their home, all ready to defend what was theirs. She was halfway towards the horn on the eastern side of Cloudsdale when she first saw what the warning was about.

Two specks were on the horizon and rapidly approaching the city. They were both massive. One was a harsh white, like a sheet of snow under the sun, and the other was jet black. They were flying and chasing a squad of her Wonderbolts right towards Cloudsdale.

“What is that?” When Spitfire’s hooves hit the clouds she was joined by Fleetfoot. Her de-facto second in command squinted her violet eyes to try to parse out what the UFOs in the distance were. “Is that Surprise and Blaze? They shouldn’t be back from Canterlot so soon-”

“From where?” Spitfire rounded on her subordinate, pushing her to the ground. “What did I say about sending anypony there?!” She roared down at the other pegasus, only turning her head to check on the threat. They were gone. Whatever they were had disappeared in the few seconds it had taken for Spitfire to yell at Fleetfoot.

“It’s closer than bucking Appleloosa!” Fleetfoot got up from the clouds, straightening out her armor and glaring right back at Spitfire. “You might be too scared to send ponies there, but it needed to be done! It’s better than risking ponies by sending them out into the middle of nowhere! Distance means danger!”

“I was scared for a reason!” Spitfire shouted back. “I-”

Spitfire was interrupted by a howl that shattered the sky, the weaker pieces of cloud around the immediate area falling away from the violent roar. Her reason for not sending ponies towards the capital became ever more apparent as it shot from below the city and hovered overhead.

The beast was well over twenty feet tall as it hovered before them, what looked to be a pure white coat in the distance was now revealed to be dusty and spattered with dark red, almost black, stains. A mane of literal fire trailed down the back of the thing, an acrid black smoke trailing behind it. Dark red, almost black, eyes with bright yellow pupils studied the ponies before it with a disdain Spitfire had never seen before. Its mouth was filled with sharpened enamel, the front fangs well over six-inches and dripping with a black slime. The horn that erupted from that plume of fire it called a mane was well over five feet long and sharper than any sword in existence.

“Sweet Celestia…” Fleetfoot commented. Only one of those words seemed to be correct.

A blinding golden light built at the spear that poked from the monster’s head.

Spitfire moved, Fleetfoot didn’t.

Where one of her oldest friends had just stood a moment ago, now there was nothing. No ash, no cloud underneath, no remains. A pillar of corrupted fire had wiped Fleetfoot from existence, and there was another building.

There were no coherent thoughts surging through Spitfire’s mind, nothing she could say or call out to her underlings. For the first time in her decade long career, she was panicking. Spitfire’s wings pushed her through the city, just wanting to put distance between herself and that thing that was once the princess of the sun.

The clouds underneath the mare burst open, a pitch black horn being the first thing through. It clipped Spitfire, leaving a deep vertical wound from her sternum up to her back. It sent the veteran flier into a tailspin as she hit the ground and tumbled.

The thing that clipped her was a few feet shorter than the monstrous Celestia, but it was still giant nonetheless. Its coat was as black as night, her long mane and tail a field of stars. A pair of enormous leathery bat wings whipped up fierce winds as they propelled the monstrous princess of the night through the very foundation of Cloudsdale. That was the only glimpse that Spitfire got of it before it dove down straight through the clouds again.

The screams of ponies rang through the skybound fortress, dozens of pegasi taking off from the doomed island in the air. But as soon as they took off, a golden lance of pure fire swept through the air and left none of them behind.

Spitfire tried to stand, blood slowly turning her golden coat red, but was forced back down from the pain. Breathing was hard, that horn had definitely done more than scratch her. It wasn’t the best position to be in, not in the slightest.

Some ponies tried to fight back, batter their bodies or makeshift weapons against the colossal bodies of the twisted sisters. Some were lucky to be swatted away by powerful hooves on the end of the spindly legs, others were caught in the jaws of the two and disappeared into a fine red mist.

Another pass through the city by Princess Luna fractured the already strained foundation of the once proud home of the pegasi of Equestria. Chunks of Cloudsdale fell away, drifting off through the sky away from the main bulk. It was coming apart at the seams and there was nothing left to do.

One of Celestia’s beams of light passed by Spitfire, missing by only a foot or so. The pure heat of the blast burned away some fur and feathers from her toned and well-worked body. She screamed in agony as every nerve in her body felt like it was on fire, screaming was the only thing she could do now.

The bit of Cloudsdale she had landed on fractured and started to fall. With the last bit of her focus and consciousness, Spitfire clung to it. As the newly liberated cloud drifted away from the city, Spitfire drifted away from the waking world. A cacophony of howls, screams, and the sound of magic ripping clouds and ponies asunder sung her to sleep.