Rook yawned as he walked along the lonely rampart. The setting sun warmed the unicorn’s cold body. The small stone fort took on an orange glow from the sunset, as did the surrounding snow-capped mountains.
The royal guard sat down on the parapet and carefully scratched the back of his neck with the spear he carried. Rook watched the partly cloudy skies to the north. The look of boredom was upon his face. In the distance to the northwest stood the grand mountain, Mount Reindeer. It towered above the surrounding hills and gave the guard an impressive view to look at on every sunset.
Another unicorn guard stationed at this remote fort climbed up the steps to meet him. Rook saw that the other guard carried a newspaper with levitation magic.
“Last month's paper finally arrived,” the other guards said as he handed it to Rook. “Has Blades come back yet?”
“Nope,” Rook answered. “That foolish pegasus likely got lost.” He unfolded the newspaper and read the month-old headlines. The unicorn wished that the military budget could afford a faster paper delivery to their remote fort.
“Huh, did you read this, Bill? It looks like Debon Aire lost the election by a hair’s width,” Rook said with interest. “Too bad, I rather liked his idea on building a magic school in San Anponio.”
Bill shrugged. “I don’t read much other than the funnies,” he replied.
“You ought to,” Rook scolded. “It says here San Anponio elected their first Zebra mayor. That must have stirred up some of the folks back in Canterlot.”
“You’re not going to get all political on me, are you?” Bill asked.
The two unicorns heard shouts from the northwest. They looked up and saw the pegasus Blades diving quickly for the fort. The winged pony appeared to be very agitated about something.
“Blades, where have you been?” Rook asked angrily.
“The changelings, they’re moving!” Blades answered quickly. The pegasus landed hard against the fort’s rampart. Blades scraped his legs, but scrambled up to his hooves in a hurry. His dark blue mane was completely disheveled.
“They’re all moving out of the mountain!”
“What?” Bill asked in disbelief. “The entire hive? Why?”
The three guards heard a deep explosion from the northwest that rolled into a loud, approaching rumble. They turned their attention to Mount Reindeer and saw that a colossal wall of dark gray matter hurled itself down the mountainside towards their tiny fort. Smaller mountain tops were engulfed by the titanic wave of destruction that sped down towards the guards.
“Avalanche!!” Bill shouted as he jumped to the stairs.
Rook and Blades raced behind him down into the storm cellar. The three guards nearly tumbled down the last flight of steps as the air above them began to fill with hot ash. They reached the small basement and Rook slammed the cellar’s sturdy wooden door shut behind them. Bill and Rook cast light spells upon their horns as Blades ensured the cellar’s door was locked tightly in place.
The ground around the three guards began to violently shake. The stacks of barrels and crates around them shifted around and fell over. Cracks formed in the walls and sundered the wooden shelves off their brackets. Chunks of ceiling fell upon the ponies and Bill’s light went out as a large stone struck him hard on the head. A barrel of water burst open and gushed out its cold contents along the ground.
Rook rushed to Bill’s aid and protected the injured guard from falling debris. Blades leaned against a stack of crates to prevent them from collapsing. Another water barrel splintered and leaked its contents on the already soaked ground.
And then, the rumble died down as the wave of destruction continued on its unstoppable path further down the hills.
Rook tore strips off a blanket and wrapped the bleeding wound on Bill’s head. The senior guard let off a painful grunt as he stood up. Blades unlocked the door, but found it difficult to open. The stairwell partly collapsed in front of the door.
“I think we’re buried,” Blades stated worriedly.
“Stand back,” Rook warned. The unicorn focused his horn on the door and blasted it apart with several bolts of magic. Blades pulled the broken planks aside and dug through the partly caved-in stairwell.
“What was that?” Bill asked Blades.
The pegasus didn’t respond at first. He crawled up the tunnel he dug to the surface. After a long pause, Rook and Bill heard Blades let out a whistle of surprise.
“Guys!” the pegasus shouted back to them between coughs. “It’s gone!”
“Well yeah,” Rook answered as he helped Bill climb the tunnel. “I figure this little fort wouldn’t stand up to an avalanche like that.”
“No,” Blades countered as the two unicorns climbed out of the hole beside him. “I mean Mount Reindeer. It’s gone!”
The small stone fort had been nearly leveled by the landslide, but it spared the three guards from being buried alive. The unicorns stood in awe with Blades as the sky above them was completely blackened with clouds that rained ash and soot. The air was thick with dust and hard to breathe. To the northwest, the once majestic Mount Reindeer had been reduced to a partial crater filled with still glowing lava. Bill let off a small cough from the ash.
“It… it exploded?” Rook asked in disbelief. “How is that possible?”
“Well, Mount Reindeer is an active volcano despite its quiet nature,” Bill commented.
“No, was a volcano!” Rook argued. “Volcanoes erupt and eject lava. This one… vaporized.”
Blades heard a soft cry nearby. The pegasus carefully walked down the thick ash-covered hillside and located the source of the meek voice. He found a badly injured changeling buried under the rubble. Blades stepped back in fear, but he tripped over the leg of another changeling. Blades fell over and met face to face with the dead body he stumbled upon.
“Blades, you alright?” Rook called out as he and Bill slowly made their way to him.
Blades nodded. “I think we need to alert the capitol,” he said grimly.
Rook and Bill looked around as other badly injured changelings sputtered and cried from under the rubble. The three guards were surrounded by dozens of dead and dying insect-like creatures. Blades walked up to them and stretched out his wings.
“This wasn’t an ordinary eruption,” Blades said frankly. “The changeling hive has been nearly wiped out. This is a cataclysm.”