Her Eyes Reflect The Stars

by Lynwood


Day 27—

Day 27—

Princesses save us. It's all fallen apart.

It was horrifying. I don't know how to begin. I saw my own mother

We wouldn't have made it if not for Steady. I don't know what tipped him off, but instead of going to work two nights ago, he jumped out of bed and woke all of us up and began telling us to grab anything important. I could see something had scared him, but he wouldn't say what. We stuffed our saddlebags with food and hit the streets, headed northwest.

I think I only really understood how crowded the city had become then. The streets were full, even in the dead of night, and we needed to shoulder past dozens of ponies to even travel a block. I held on to Symphony so tightly that she kept saying her hoof hurt, but I wouldn't let go. I was too terrified of losing her.

We could see the wall when it happened. There were these loud, screaming sirens, and all of a sudden the sky was filled with Royal Guards. Everypony was shouting and crying and Steady threw Symphony on his back and told her to hold on as tight as she could. And then I saw it crash through the wall.

It was wider than a city block. It groaned and made horrible shrieking sounds and then it began to wade through buildings full of ponies. Just like that, it was chaos. I saw fire leaping from building to building. I tried to cover Symphony's eyes when burning ponies ran out of a house, but she saw.

All I could do was follow Steady and make sure Mother was behind us. Those gray beasts were everywhere, and monsters that looked almost like ponies. I saw them grabbing ponies and throwing ponies and crushing ponies and stabbing and then the air was so hot and ashy and I could barely breathe, but Steady just kept pushing through it all. I'd say it was a miracle that we made it past so many of the beasts, but my mo

We were so close. We were so, so close. The air was getting clearer, there were fewer beasts, fewer ponies. I could see a treeline that we could disappear into, and Steady was leading us right for it. The beast appeared out of nowhere. It teetered on two legs, standing high above us, with a tendril sprouting from its faceless body. It whipped it around and grabbed my mother. She was screaming and crying for help as it lifted her up into the air, and then it opened up like a flower bud and it was full of yellow crystals and it lifted my mother up and

Next thing I knew, I was running, with Steady's foreleg around my neck. Symphony was screeching and crying as we ran into the trees. We ran for a long time before Steady found a hole under a tree. He shoved Symphony and I in and then huddled on top of us, dragging dirt and leaves over our bodies, and then we laid still.

Symphony tried to cry sometimes. I held my hoof over her mouth when she did. Aside from that, I closed my eyes and pinned back my ears, trying not to listen to the sounds.

We haven't made it much further since that night. We're in a little gorge now, eating canned food for breakfast. I'm going to tell Steady I think we should keep moving.


—Silk Stream