Preview
It was saddening. It wasn’t his hometown; that title was reserved for the Canterlot palace where he lived with Luna. But seeing Ponyville in such a state was enough to make his heart sink.
‘Such a state’ being on fire.
The German Shepherd stood seemingly lost in the chaos sprawling all around him. Plaster and brick crumbled all around. Shattered glass lay over the cobbles. Carts were upturned, gardens uprooted and thatch ablaze in an inferno that brought a bright glow to the night air.
Bungee took a deep sad sigh, the overpowering smoke choking the air burning in his nose and cutting out all other scent.
“So ends the reign of oppression,” a warm voice bellowed out into the night – though dripping with enough malice that Bungee felt like it had left a sticky residue on his fur. “The trespassers fall as we did in the beginning.”
Looking up over the blazing Ponyville rooftops, Bungee saw his home fall. The Canterlot palace broke in two with a fiery explosion clawing at the sky. Rubble bled down the mountainside as the city’s outskirts crumbled away.
The scream of a foal drew Bungee out of his daze. Jerking his wide eyed gaze from the crumbling capitol, the dog’s ears swivelled to hone in on the sound ringing out somewhere across the soot carpeted streets.
His whole body followed suit as he leapt into action.
“No longer are we confined to the Everfree Forest. Our birthright – our home – is returned to us.”
The foal wasn’t sure what happened as the whole wiorld seemed to tilt and sway around her. Her hooves kicked for purchase but met only air as her neck felt taught.
A mare screamed and cried as Bungee erupted from a burning building, through the smouldering door hanging half open. Some embers clung to his coat and the black panels of the tac-vest protecting his torso. Gripped in the dog’s maw was a foal, held up by her neck like a puppy carried by a mother.
Running to the sobbing ponies, Bungee placed the child at their hooves. They wasted no time in embrasing the young pony, unsure exactly how to thank the dog. Bungee didn’t need any thanks.
He just needed to know what was happening… and why.
But something told him he was about to find out, as a heavy footfall caused the ground to shake. The building he’d pulled the scared foal out of crumbled, collapsing in on itself with a distinct crunch of white hot wood, spraying billions of dancing fireflies that extinguished into the night sky.
“The oppressors scatter like embers over sand. Yet you stand unmoved, guardian.”
Another heavy stomp shook the ground. Bungee looked down, then at the nearby ponies. They were looking up past the dog, eyes widened in terror as they scrambled away. Gathering what they did they joined the ranks of other panicking ponies running through the ashen streets of Ponyville as it fell.
They ran away. And soon it was just Bungee on his own, turning to see what had spooked them.
It wasn’t hard to identify, a massive hulking beast stood in the middle of the street, framed by a pair of burning buildings. A body made of wood, fur made of splintered bark; nature’s canine towered high above bungee and most of the higher buildings that still stood n Ponyville. Whole trees and their evergreen foliage made up some tufts of fur on the shoulders and the tail, with thick ferns acting like eyebrows hanging over the glowing green eyes.
A mist of death wafted from the maw of wood containing countless teeth sharpened to vicious looking spikes.
“Come then faithful dog,” the voice challenged, projected through the giant timberwolf’s gaping jaw. “Have your resolution.”
Bungee didn’t need any more invitation. His expression twitched, snapping into a fierce growl before he launched himself forward; teeth first into hell.
CANIS FIDELIS
Reclamation