//------------------------------// // The Way to Canterlot // Story: Left Behind // by The Psychopath //------------------------------// Moon awoke in the middle of the night, surrounded by what seemed like the whole thestral village. She sat up and wiped some dust and errant leaves off of her coat and looked around: The forest had turned into a swathe of big 'ol eyes. "What is it?" She asked. The whole of the village cheered, stunning her. "What is happening?!" "You were passed out for several days," Sunny explained. "Um, nopony could move you. You were too..." He coughed into his hoof when Moon raised a brow. "Anyways, there seems to be some trouble regarding you..." "Killing the mare?" Moon asked. The stallion nodded, and Moon scoffed in response. "It was just a would-be assassin that tried to kill me. Who cares? No losses and can be easily replaced." She struggled to fully stand up and grunted as she stretched her body. "I'm pressed for time now, since it seems that whatever is trying to get rid of me knows where I am whenever I am." She pushed the unicorn. "Tell the locals I need to know where Canterlot is. It used to be south-west of here, but the geography of the terrain is wrong and it is throwing me off. I don't have time to waste anymore." Annoyed, the mare waited as Sunny talked with all of the ponies around, impatiently waiting for a response. She wanted to enjoy the festival a little more and the flavors that came with, although she was also glad the singing had stopped. She cursed her luck that some strange being was trying to gut her, but then, she would have nothing left to do. Without Celestia there seemed to be no point in life. Moon looked down. Why was she even fighting it? It was clear that this entity was just trying to kill her and nothing else, and her rage was still present, but there was nowhere for it to go. She felt everything narrow until Sunny shoved her gently. "Hmmm, what?" "They don't know anything about Canterlot. None of their tales mention it, or they were forgotten." The alicorn nodded. "Possible also that it might have been erased purposely since it's related to alicorns. It seemed that she needed to go to the other areas close to Canterlot and ask them. Moon turned to the thestrals. "Tell me of all pony tribes," she ordered them. "Already know of common, and yours, and Dullahan." "You don't know of all of us already?" a stallion asked. Sunny stepped forward. "She has been away for ten thousand years. She hasn't seen what happened to the world." Several of the thestrals looked at each other, concerned. "What's wrong?" Nightmare Moon asked. "Well, the thing is, there's at least two dozen tribes, excluding the ones you mentioned." The stallion sat down and started counting with his hoof, using every audible 'clack' as the number. "Off the top of my head there's us, the earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi, the dullahan, then there's the kirin, the eckan crue, the crancan, the--" Nightmare Moon cut him off by sealing his mouth with magic. "Do you have a book?" she asked. The stallion nodded in response. "Pass it. I will read while flying." "Are you going to stay? We can have another feast when we've cleaned everything up," the elder pleaded. Moon shook her head. "I might be iron-hoofed, but I will not have my new subjects waste their stores to celebrate my return a second time just because it was ruined." She cast a glance to the side. "Will be going southwest to the location of Canterlot. Assumed. Expectations?" "There's some griffins down there. They seem upset that they lost their mountains and are trapped there. You might have to-" The elder sat on his haunches and punched a hoof with the other. "Pummel them into submission." "Good enough for me," Moon said apathetically. "I'll have to ask them to give me information on where Canterlot is located. A legend for ponies could just be some ruins for other races." She grabbed Sunny in her magic. "And you're coming with." The stallion let himself dangle limply. "Of course I am." The elder stopped Moon, bringing forth the need for supplies. The alicorn nodded and waited patiently. She carried a large basket filled with enough provisions for Sunny to be fed and his thirst sated for at least a week. Without another word, Moon took off into the air, enjoying her wings once more. Her body still ached from the poison, but if she lazed about, waiting for the pain to go away, everything would atrophy. Every wing flap felt like she was pushing against a painful, frozen wall of flesh. Every movement tore at the numbed and stiff ligaments, but with every tear, her wings and the rest of her body would reinforce themselves. She ignored the general size of the green and continued south, passing by several massive trees with other thestral villages at work. To her amusement, they ceased all activity and stared at her in disbelief. Several tried to follow, but they were, unfortunately, too slow. "Do you know anything of the griffins?" Moon asked her dangling passenger. "Well, they hate ponies, that's for sure." "We beat them in a war?" Moon wondered aloud. Sunny tilted his head left and right. "Kinda. They conquered Equestria a century or so ago, then we fought them back. While we didn't manage to retake some of our old lands, we kinda stole most of theirs, and they lost access to the mountains of Griffonia," he explained. He rubbed the back of his head. "I think that most we see in pony territory are from the newest generation and so don't have such deep ties to the old lands. At least, that's what my teacher believes." Moon laughed silently. It was very much like the warlike griffins to declare war. Their obstinate and hard-headed personalities were always at odds with the softer, more loving personality of the ponies, something she wanted to work out of them. And by work she meant 'hard labor'. A little bit of that never killed anypony...important. The traveling took four days, and the unicorn was growing increasingly impatient with having to stay in the air beneath Nightmare Moon. Dangling like some kind of accessory felt demeaning to him, and it was very uncomfortable. At least the monotony was broken by him doing his best to teach Moon the current language of the ponies. "Watch out!" Sunny screamed. The mare was taken out of her daydream by a thick chimney of black smoke. She cough and used her magic to chase the soot off of her. Moon took a moment to regain her bearings, but her eyes widened the moment she saw the lands beneath her. Large craters had been dug into the land and hundreds of griffins were either working within them or living in them, or both. Immense convoys carrying tons of raw ore were carted out of large furnaces that burned away the regular, unusable stone debris. At least, that's how Moon understood it. Their angry, orange mouths brought in the attention from the dirty surroundings. Everything seemed to be covered in a thick, black layer of ash and soot. Only the shiny hulls of the immense ore convoys seemed to be mostly free of the surrounding contamination. They all led towards an immense city further away that Moon was more than happy to fly towards. There were griffins in the air as well, but they were few and far between. "An industrious little bunch, aren't they?" Nightmare Moon noted with amusement. "Are you sure it's a good idea? I told you that they hate us a lot!" Sunny asked nervously. He felt his heart skip a beat several times every time a griffin got closer to the pair. It was nerve-wracking, but he soon found himself staring in awe at the city. It looked very much like the griffins were trying to recapture the aesthetic of their old homes. The buildings were all lumpy and misshapen, clearly imitating mountains and hills. Doing his best, he could barely see platforms sticking out of the buildings, usually in front of the 'caves' leading inside. Unfortunately for the griffins, it seemed that their attempts had failed. It still had many aspects of the pony cities, although it felt more...primitive, somehow. Moon could see a plethora of wires running all over the place, and the griffins made no use of magic stones or spells. The signs all around the city, be they to advertise an establishment or simply to guide the griffins around relied on vibrant paint to garner attention. She landed on a platform floating between several of the buildings, startling the griffins around. "Several small flowerbeds here and there, large lamps, and these confounded wires dangling everywhere!" she shouted angrily. "What even are they? What are they for?!" She turned to Sunny who shrugged in response. A groan escaped Moon's lips, and she looked around. "Birds everywhere. Aggravating. I wonder if these idiots can even do anything except yell and snap at the air," she pondered. "Well, that's not very fair, your highness. They're still a people like ponies." Moon nodded. "Except they are properly aggressive. I could use more ponies like that for my future army and pacifying forces." Sunny blinked several times. "Excuse me, your what?" "Ponies, why are you here?!" a voice called out. A few dozen armored griffins landed around the pair. While they wore similar armor to the ponies, theirs was far smaller. There were multiple significant gaps in their armor, but they seemed to prefer offense compared to the ponies. They wore serrated, metal claws on their feet and a sharp, armored beak on their faces. It explained why they weren't wielding any weaponry. "I just need information, then I will leave," Moon explained. The same griffin from earlier laughed. "Oh, you hear that? She just wants information." He looked to the others who laughed in tandem. "I don't think so. I don't know what pony tribe you're part of, but you'll be imprisoned for violating our airspace, and then we'll see about giving you information," he threatened. "I don't want to be imprisoned!" Sunny cried. "We just got here!" He grabbed Nightmare Moon's leg. "Do something!" Her immediate death glare, bared fangs, and glowing eyes made the pony immediately regret his actions. He sat down next to her and stared straight ahead quietly. "Not interesting. Will be looking for... useful birds." The griffins tensed up, and Moon let crack a smirk she was quick to cover up. The birds were saying something to her in their native tongue after the first griffin shared what she had called them. It sounded like bird squawking and feline roaring mashed into some hideous, primitive noise. The alicorn eventually yawned and looked up towards the furious sun. It hadn't tried to burn her at any point yet during the trip. Still, she hid away just in case. You never knew what it might do. It didn't help that it seemed to be agitated all of a sudden. Several of the griffins, her included were burned by it, stunning everyone momentarily and causing the onlooking civilians to flee into their mountain buildings. "You made the sun angry," Moon said derisively. "I've had enough of you!" The griffin gestured to the others to move forward. She didn't know what he had said, but she could guess, from the actions of the griffins, that they intended to get rid of her and imprison her servant for questioning. The mare could feel the moons swelling her form with power, but she didn't use it. Moon simply sat next to a terrified Sunny frozen in fear, and gave the armored griffins her most disappointed expression. "Of all the things, you attack me." She scoffed. "Not this again." She cracked her neck and let her horn radiate with magic. The rings on its surface were quickly permeated with a blue and white light. "I'll just deal with this the simple way, so you know not to disobey me." The griffins working in the mines were climbing out of the hole to enjoy their lunch break when a massive plume of smoke suddenly appeared in the city. It almost looked like a volcano had erupted. Then came the bang and the violent gusts of wind that pulled away and threw all those that hadn't been able to run into the holes or hold onto something far away into the distance. Equipment and forges flew overhead and crashed into the ground or fell deep into the mining pits, damaging the paths along the inner walls for heavy equipment to move along. When the aftershock had ceased, the birds looked towards the city, many still trembling from the experience. Everything was still there, it seemed, but the tower of smoke remained. What was at its source, many wondered.