Chapter 21
I lay on my stomach atop the roof of one of Ponyville's (they'd still not changed the name) houses that ringed the center of town. The day was dreary and the clouds looked dark and heavy with rain that had been scheduled to fall later tonight, and given the mood of the town's citzens their color was rather fitting.
The newer citizens of Ponyville were outraged at the mayor allowing all the Boarborne Humans into their town to begin with, and the locals weren't too happy either. Unfortunately even the fact that a full-scale invasion was imminent did nothing to convince them it was necessary. Mere seconds after the announcement that they'd be joining them within the walls there was nearly a riot, and not all of the would-be rioters were civilians. Guards were against it, too, and they shook their weapons at town hall where the mayor stood by the side of the old man that I knew to be Jackylin's grandfather, whom stood a bit taller than her. Behind the two of them stood a man that was vaguely familiar, but I did not know whom he was.
For a time the town's center was filled with shouting and it took much patience and effort and time before the rowdy gathering of equines (and a handful of members from the other races)were once more near-silent again. Besides the two men standing with the mayor (and of course myself) there were no other Humans present. Given the rowdiness of those present, that was probably for the best.
I wish Twilight were here right now. She'd be the perfect voice of reason for this. If she were here she'd also be more out of harm's way. Though I didn't admit it to Spike at the time of her departure, her leaving for the sake of an invasion made me nervous. Not even Celestia was invincible, as her defeat back when the Changelings invaded proved, and Twilight wasn't even battle-trained. At least, not that I knew of. Though if she had been surely she would not have been living the life of a civilian in Ponyville.
Then again, who am I to judge?
When Jackylin's father (whom I'd been told was named Sampson) stepped forward to address the crowd, muttering that had been passing around became even softer. For all their dislike of those they'd been at war with, most of them seemed to be in a presence of mind to at least be curious as to what their perceived enemy might say to convince them that this allowance was necessary. I had to admit, I was a bit curious as well. The locals tolerated me without being hostile most of the time, but those from recent influx of refugees were quite the opposite.
“I am sure you have heard the phrase 'There is safety in numbers'. Surely, as a herd-oriented species, you have. Up until recently your kind have only fought small skirmishes and experienced the occasional raid.”
“Yeah we have, you monster!” One of those in the crowd shouted from somewhere in the sea of bodies. “Why don't you come over here and we'll show you what we can do right now?!” A chorus of approval echoed the challenge followed quickly by others shushing them. Pretending the heckler hadn't spoken up at all, Sampson continued.
“This means you've never had to deal with an army of our kind before. An army fights completely different from a raiding party, as my father” Sampson twisted his body to one side and pointed at his father. “could tell you much better than I.”
“We did pretty well against your kind in Manehatten!” Another shouted back.
“Really?” Sampson's father asked, raising an eyebrow and stepping forward to stand next to the mayor and his son. “From what I hear, you only won there because your king came to the city's rescue. In case you haven't noticed, he's not here right now. What will you do if we get attacked tomorrow? Or tonight even? You don't look ready for a siege to me.” Sampson turned his head to his right and looked down the street until his vision was blocked by a section of wooden wall a few feet taller than he was.
“I agree. Anyone with a half decent ladder could get over your walls, and even if the army's commander doesn't think to bring or make any, they can just burn their way in.”
“Not if we put out their fires with water! Pegasi can control our weather, you know!”
“Maybe regular fires, but what about grease fires? Grease floats on water, and can be hurled in water-skins from short range catapults. After that all it takes is one torch to light it. And what can your Pegasi do if they're dead? Grappling hooks and javelins work wonders on bringing them down. And once on the ground, a fishing net keeps them there just long enough. If they go down on the opposite side of your wall, they aren't going to come back over it again.”
“Unicorns have magic, moron. We can either pull them back, or cut the rope!”
“Really? How many of you have ever been in a fight? A real fight? Because from what I've seen, when you ponies panic you can't use magic at all.” Sampson commented, to the grumbling of the crowd before them. “You lot fled when only twenty of our number raided this town, and we weren't trying to cause unnecessary damage. When our kind build an army, we do it with the intent to destroy whomever and whatever we invade. In all honesty you would be better off fleeing this place than staying.”
“If that's true, then why are you still here?”
“Honor.” Sampson answered. “We made a deal with your mayor not to harm this town or its citizens. If we left you to your doom, we'd be breaking that deal.”
“But we don't want you here!” Most of the newer Ponies shouted in unison.
“That's irrelevant; you weren't here when the deal was made, so you have no say in the matter.”
It was at this point that I chose to leave. This was an argument that could last for hours, and from the uproar of objections to this latest statement filled the village square I floated away, my telekinetic powers gripping my belt. I flew past three buildings and the inner wall, and then descended down to the nearly empty street. Though the vast majority of the town was in its center, most Ponies had livelihoods to tend to or else were cleaning up their homes or the areas around them. Some were also building new homes for the refugees. When they'd fled their homes they'd brought almost nothing with them save a little food, perhaps a few knickknacks, and most of the time a few family members.
On occasion I received a wary gaze or the rare greeting, but most of them either did not notice me or pretended not to.
I hate waiting. I knew what was coming, and as far as I knew there was nothing I could do to prevent it now. Destroying the Gateway wouldn't do any good. I knew that from my first experience with my home world's version and I'd forgotten where the Transfer Stone (that is, the rock that transferred me to this twisted little reality) was, which meant that until things calmed down again (if they ever did) it would not be safe to make a sweep of the woods for it. Not that it was ever really safe in Everfree anyway. Unless I was invisible.
I stopped walking down the street and glanced at the outer wall. Invisible...if nothing else, I could do some scouting work. It'd be better than moping around here or hiding out in Twilight's library until she got back or we got attacked or Fluttershy or Rarity wanted some company not looking to mooch off them.
Fluttershy hadn't voiced many complaints, but then, she rarely did. Rarity, on the other hand...well, if you've read some of my journals from my younger years, you already know how long she can go on. As much as I liked my Rarity, I discovered yesterday that other than being abducted by carnivores and having 'her' horn reattached, and, you know, not being dead, this one was exactly the same personality (and goal) wise. If she wasn't trying to convince me to let her try new styles designed with Humans in mind with me as a mannikin (she'd sold a vest to one of the HH that had been visiting frequently over the last few weeks) she was talking my ear off. Granted, there was more to Rarity than just that, but more often than not, I didn't get to see it.
A single day away from town couldn't possibly hurt. If Faltos' army were really that close by we would have noticed them. Or at least the HH would have.
I pushed a leafy vine out of my way with my right hand and then a slender branch with my chest, which broke away from the trunk and landed amongst the rotting leaves, mosses and more dead branches of the forest floor.
Leaving town had been easy, and getting to and entering the forest just as easy. What wasn't easy was remembering which direction Fluttershy and myself had come from my first night here, so I stopped by the home Fluttershy was staying in before I left and asked her if she could recall which direction I needed to head. She was (understandably) reluctant to bring such a painful memory to the surface, but I explained that if I never found it again I might never be able to return home to my world.
“I'm not going to just abandon you all after having come this far already, but I don't want to spend the rest of my life in a world where I'm not wanted.”
“And you probably miss those you've left behind. I understand.” she nodded. “I don't recall all the details, and to be honest, I don't really want to, but I'm sure that if I came with you I could find that spot again.”
“Fluttershy, you lost a wing there and nearly died!” I stated, aghast at her offer. “I couldn't ask you to come with me!”
“And what kind of Pony would I be if I didn't help the person that saved my life and escorted me to safety find his way home again? Please, let me come with you.”
I hadn't been happy about it, and I could tell from the slight twitch around her eyes at every other snap of a twig beneath our shoes (horseshoes in her case) that she was probably on edge since we first arrived at the trees. Fortunately, however, we had yet to run into anything alive besides plants and a few small bugs, although as a person that had been in the Everfree forest on and off for a good portion of the last thirty years, I found it unsettling. I knew the most likely reason for it, of course, but when you're expecting to at least see the occasional squirrel and your instinct is screaming at you that it's just too quiet, reason doesn't really carry much weight for reassurance.
Fluttershy paused and looked around, so I stopped too and listened.
“Hmm...”
“Something wrong?”
“No...I mean, don't think so. We might be a little off course, though. The air doesn't smell quite the same as I remember.” She smells the area rather than looking for landmarks to get around? Interesting.
“Should we backtrack a little?”
“No, I think we're going the general correct direction...hold on.”
Fluttershy began walking away from me first in one direction, and then she would come back and walk in another. Every few seconds she sniffed the air, and then took a few more steps. Wouldn't she need to go much further than that to get more of a reaction? Then again I've never really dabbled in transformation magic very much. Perhaps she just has that sensitive of a nose. I mentally shrugged and continued to wait, enjoying a cool and gentle breeze that blew through the trees, bringing with it the smell of decaying leaves and wood, and a few others things that were less than pleasant to inhale if one stopped top think about what caused them.
Briefly she wandered out of my sight (which made me a little nervous) but called me over to her shortly after.
“Here we go! This place is around where I- I- where I first crashed in the woods that day.” She trembled a little and I placed a hand on her back, to which she jumped and looked at me as if reliving the scene in her mind and fearing I was her attacker. Perhaps she had been. She relaxed a bit, then swallowed and nodded, pointing in a vague direction. “Th- this way.”
“Fluttershy, if this place makes you afraid, you don't have to come any further.”
“Didn't you kn- know?” She gave me a nervous and weak smile. “I- I'm afraid of- f many things! I'll be fine, really!” She replied, sounding more like she was trying to convince herself than me. “Besides, how will you find that exact place without me? I don't think even those Hunter Humans have as good a nose as a pony.” I shook my head, but pressed onward, her still leading. Fluttershy might have been the easiest to scare, but she could be as stubborn as Applejack when she decided she was going to do something, and if someone ever made her seriously angry...well, I'd been told once by my Twilight that Flutters had beat down a grizzly bear. I still find that a little hard to believe to this day, to be honest.
__ __ __ __ __
“Have the last of our first wave arrived, commander?” Faltos himself asked whilst standing before Gaea's Gateway. It stood wide open with his third-most trusted minion awaiting orders on the other side.
Their forces numbered a little over a thousand at the moment, not including those that had been drafted from the area surrounding the Gateway, which added some three hundred plus people, men and women.
“Yes, sir. Our scouts have confirmed that your plan to destroy the army of the darker Alicorn was a complete success, and at the moment the majority of Equestria's forces are busy rebuilding the city known as Manehatten or else are assaulting the Gryphon nation's capital city.” He looked over his shoulder a moment and frowned before turning back to face his king. “Or at least this is what your Unicorn spy claims.”
“When she is in her element, she does her job well. Ready the conscripts and head for Lady Yishna's former base of operations within the forest. See if you can dig up any of those Unicorn horns that they had been stockpiling for the war effort. In the meantime take the actual soldiers to the edge of the forest and wait for nightfall. When it comes have the green Unicorn distract the gate guards. Once you've killed them off it should be easy for you to get inside and take over. Leave no survivors. I don't want Mythica alerted to our presence just yet.”
The commander grinned and bowed.
“With pleasure, my king.”
Yeaaahhh, this is one of my shorter ones, but hey- at least I did it in less than five months, right? I'll be putting up the next section of deleted stuff sometime between now and the next chapter. Totally not me trying to distract you from the fact I was a writer's blocked bum for the last few months.