//------------------------------// // Machine // Story: Her Eyes Reflect The Stars // by Lynwood //------------------------------// It walked on unsteady legs. Some battle decades ago had torn out its side, but it still staggered forward. The countless runes covering its hide glowed with a sickly light. It had the eye rune right on its front. I could feel it staring at me. Once it came through the wall, we'd be swallowed by the wave of Children. "Retreat!" I shouted as I used my pike to shove back a Child who had scrabbled up the blood-slick palisade. "Light the wall! Retreat to the town!" We struggled off the wall-walk and back through the gap that would return us to the town. By the time I had crossed the ridge, a half-dozen Children had already scrabbled over the flaming palisade, smoke pouring from their skin and eyes. "Flitterwing!" I called up to the skies as we ran. "Where're Evergreen and Storm? We can't stop the machine without those zappers!" "Evergreen's gone!" she shouted down at me. "I don't know where Storm is! Should I look?" I had no guarantee that Storm wasn't dead too. "Don't bother!" I told her. "Pick off as many as you can before they reach the town, and be listening for me!" I thundered through our little streets at full speed and nearly smashed down Willow's door with my knocks. She yanked it open. "What's wrong?" she said, her face nearly white. "Willow, where's the zapper?" "Right here," she said. She hoofed me the magic-tech machine, loaded with its crystal payload, and I slung it on my back. When she glanced over my shoulder her eyes grew wide and her breathing quickened. "It's coming over the mountain!" "Stay inside! Barricade the doors, put out the lights. Don't let them find the foals." I shouted before running for the town square. All around me my friends and my neighbors fought for their lives. Fire lit the streets and houses belched smoke into the sky. I knew if we wanted a chance, we had to take down the machine. "Flitterwing!" I shouted when I spotted her hacking off three of a pegasus Child's wings. Seconds later she skidded to a stop in the slushy mud in front of me. "Pick me up!" I shouted. She started to protest. "Just do it!" "You got it!" she panted. I'm no small pony, but she was our strongest flier. She got me off the ground as I strapped my front hooves into the heavy zapper. "The machine!" I shouted over the wind. "Drop me onto it!" She banked towards it, letting go at just the right time. I felt myself in free-fall for less than a second before I smashed into the machine's carapace zapper first. Every crystal discharged into its body and launched me back into the air. I heard my foreleg snap. If it hadn't been for Flitterwing grabbing my hind leg and slowing our fall just enough, my impact with the mud would have killed me. Instead, I got to see the machine burst into flames, laugh in a broken imitation of a mare's voice, and collapse onto my home. Its eye rune flickered. After it was over, there were barely two dozen of us left in the shattered remains of a place that had been home to five times that many. Myself, Flitterwing. Willow and half the foals. A hoofful of stragglers. There was nothing to do but gather what little we had left and head down the pass. I'm sorry, but it's getting very late. I'm afraid the troubles of our journey west is a story for another time.