Chapter 8 – A Conflict of Many Factions
At the top of a large complex of cloud buildings, a sky blue pegasus mare with a frosty white mane made a smart and sudden landing. The building was located next to a large cloud stadium, a regular training area for the Wonderbolts, and inside plenty were currently practising their latest routines. The mare did not stop to watch though, as she would normally have, since she had a different objective at present. Despite how well Fleetfoot knew Spitfire, there was something daunting about being called to the captain’s office. It was like being a schoolfilly again.
She made her way down from the roof to the level below. This floor was finely decorated, and was one of the most exquisite cloud structures that could be found in all of Cloudsdale. It was all for show of course. Fleetfoot knew that Spitfire cared little for the fine furnishings. The trophies and medals however, were a different matter entirely. Fleetfoot did stop to admire these, on display in their cabinet, as she would every time she passed them. Okay, so they were mostly self-awarded, by the Wonderbolts, for the Wonderbolts. They were given to the winners of events such as the regular Wonderbolt Derbies, which Fleetfoot had personally won more often than anypony else currently in the team.
Some ponies liked to take their trophies home, but Fleetfoot didn’t see the point of that. Why have them on display in a place where nopony else could see them, when they could be on show here? Here her name was engraved for any passing pony to see, next to trophies earned by legends of years gone by. One day she intended to be considered one of those legends, and she was confident she was well on her way.
But for now, well, she had to meet with somepony who was undeniably a legend already. Fleetfoot glanced at the row of paintings hanging on the wall beside her as she moved down the corridor that would lead to the captain’s office. There were portraits of Wonderbolts captains of years gone by, and at the end stood the newest portrait of Spitfire herself, looking entirely bored, which amused Fleetfoot for some reason.
She stopped as she reached the door and took a deep breath. She didn’t really think she was in trouble, but it must be something important, considering Soarin had been sent out to find her. She knocked.
“Come in.”
Fleetfoot entered, and looked around to try and evaluate the situation. Spitfire’s expression was giving nothing away, as usual, but her pose was tense, suggesting that perhaps this was not a conversation she wanted to have. There were no particular papers on her desk, so this was unlikely to be any administrative issue. More disconcertingly, sat in a chair opposite the captain was Wave Chill, and he was clearly nervous. Fleetfoot tried not to give anything away as she carefully glanced at him with all the casualness she assumed a flier would usually give to a normal teammate. Although if they had been summoned here together then it was likely too late for such pretences.
“What is it ma’am?” Fleetfoot asked, her analysis having taken a split second.
“Take a seat,” Spitfire replied simply.
That was a bad sign. Spitfire usually found it irritating when Fleetfoot called her ma’am, since they knew each other well enough and the orange pegasus had never been one for formality when she could avoid it. Fleetfoot still called her that of course, just to get a rise out of her, but the fact that she had not reacted this time was worrisome.
After taking her seat Fleetfoot stared straight forwards, diligently ignoring the blue stallion at her side, although she did flick her tail against his when she was sure Spitfire wasn’t looking. In her mind though, she was running through the options. She could deny everything of course, but that was unlikely to work against the perceptive Spitfire. If she admitted guilt however, the penalty for it being true… actually, she didn’t know what the penalty would be. Whatever it was though, she would do anything to remain on the team.
They both sat in silence, waiting for Spitfire to make the first move. The captain was unusually quiet though, as though she were unsure what to say, or whether she should say anything at all. Fleetfoot allowed herself a modicum of hope.
“I hear you had some fun recently,” Spitfire finally said, addressing Wave Chill.
His eyes immediately widened and Fleetfoot could detect the redness in his cheeks. Of course that idiot would never be able to hide anything. He wasn’t quick-witted enough and he was just too damn honest.
“Something about an imploding earth pony?” Spitfire prompted.
That stopped Fleetfoot’s thoughts in their tracks. What in Tartarus did that mean? Was it some euphemism she hadn’t heard before?
The blue stallion however, was visibly relieved. “Oh, oh yes. That’s right.”
“Tell me about it.”
Wave nodded. “I’m thinking to get the full picture I has to start from that morning. You see-”
“The short version.”
He chuckled sheepishly and restarted. “Okay, well I’m practising manoeuvres on the plains north of here when I sees a strange flash in the fields, and a pony appears out of nowhere. I figures it’s just one of those unicorn mages what knows how to teleport, but after a couple more passes I sees it’s not a unicorn, it’s an earth pony.
“Still I’m thinking I ignore her, but she starts coughing and I thinks, ‘she don’t look too good.’ So I flies over to her and she is real sick. Some strange disease what I never seen before, she looks half like a crystal pony. I asks her what the matter is, and she says something real strange about the future, I can’t remember exactly what. Makes me think she’s some sort of fortune-teller or something.
“But then next thing you know: CRUNCH! Shatters right into a million pieces, like she was never there. Weirdest thing I ever seen.” He stopped his tale and looked at the two mares in the room. “Course nopony believes it happened, and I started to doubt it myself…”
Fleetfoot, meanwhile, was trying her utmost to hide her relief. It wasn’t about the two of them at all, it was about the weird ponies they’d each seen! Although why Spitfire was interested now when she had all but ignored Fleetfoot the first time she mentioned it…
“You see the similarities between his story and yours?” Spitfire asked, addressing Fleetfoot now.
“Pony appearing out of nowhere, not looking healthy, mysteriously in pieces a while later,” she rattled off, recalling how when she had flown down to check on Fluttershy a few minutes after leaving her with the strange crystallising pony, she had found only a pile of shadowy fragments.
“Something’s going on,” Spitfire stated simply. “I went to see the princesses in Canterlot this morning.” The casual way she said it almost made Fleetfoot laugh. “Neither of them were there. I talked to some of my friends in the guard, and apparently they’ve been missing since yesterday morning. They were last seen heading out with the elements of harmony, none of the guards knew where to.”
Wave whistled in response to this, and Fleetfoot screwed up her nose.
“I don’t trust them,” the blue Wonderbolt mare grunted. “The elements, I mean.”
Wave groaned. “Not this again Fleets. They saved Equestria enough times, I’m thinking they’re not secretly evil.”
Fleetfoot waved her hoof irritably. “They might not be evil, but they’re always damn secretive about everything. Fluttershy was definitely hiding something from me when that stallion I saw appeared. She knew something about him, and where he’d come from. I don’t like it.”
Spitfire sighed and walked over to the window. “I trust them. Oh, they’re probably hiding something,” she added when it looked like Fleetfoot was about to speak up again. “But I’m sure they think it’s best if whatever’s going on isn’t public knowledge. A mass of panicking civilians would help nopony.”
She spun around to face the other two pegasi. “I don’t like being out of the loop though.”
Fleetfoot grinned. She knew what was coming.
“I want you two to have a look into it. Officially you’ll be on a short vacation. Let me know as soon as you find anything.”
“Yes ma’am,” Fleetfoot replied at once, saluting smartly. A split second later Wave Chill mimicked her clumsily, clearly a little surprised at how formal she was being. Obviously the big idiot hadn’t realised she was only doing it to irk Spitfire.
“Just get out of here,” the orange pegasus replied, almost impassive, but Fleetfoot could detect a twitch of a smile at the edge of her lips.
Fleetfoot allowed Wave to lead the way out of the office, feeling very pleased about how the meeting had gone compared to her original expectations.
“Oh, and one more thing you two,” Spitfire called after them. “For Celestia’s sake, please be more discreet in future? Or at least go back to one of your homes first? Honestly.”
Fleetfoot supposed she should have seen that coming, and she did her best to keep walking as though she was not concerned, grateful that her face was away from Spitfire. Wave Chill, of course, attempted no such deception and stopped still in horror at the captain’s words, causing Fleetfoot to walk right into him.
“You’re lucky I’m the one in charge here,” Spitfire continued, amused, as they disentangled themselves and continued down the corridor at a slightly faster pace. “If my old captain had ever caught me engaging in such proclivities he would have had a thing or two to say about it.” The two embarrassed pegasi were likely out of earshot by this point, but Spitfire continued anyway, mostly to herself. “Of course that’s why I made sure he never caught me…”
---
“Okay girls, I think it will go more smoothly if you all stay back and I’m the one to speak to whoever shows up. She or he might be a little overwhelmed to face all of us at once.”
“Sure thing Twi.”
“Right.” Twilight cast her scanning spell a final time and trotted up to stand in front of the area she calculated to be the arrival zone. Her friends all walked away to stand against a fence that ran along the edge of the path nearby. Discord was still with them, although he was laying in the air on a hammock reading a newspaper and did not seem to be paying attention.
“So…” Rainbow began, turning to the orange earth pony next to her. “Wanna take bets on what species they are?”
“Really RD? You’re in the mood for that now?”
The pegasus shuffled uncomfortably for a moment, but soon regained her confident expression. “Yeah, why not? I know the situation is more serious, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have any fun.”
Applejack nodded. “Fine. Then Ah bet it’ll be a zebra.”
“Aw, I was going to say that.” Rainbow tapped her chin thoughtfully for a moment. “Fine, I go with donkey.”
“Ooh, can I play?” asked the excitedly bouncing pink mare next to them.
“Sure.”
“I bet buffalo. Ooh no, wait, I bet a dragon. Ooh, no actually I reckon it will be a hydra! Or maybe it will look like a pony, but it will actually be a changeling in disguise!”
“Just pick one Pinkie.”
“Am I allowed to join in?” Discord asked innocently.
“You already know who it is!”
It was then that the flash of light they had been waiting for burst its way through their conversation.
“Okay, I choose griffon,” Pinkie said quickly.
“Huh. For some reason Ah was expectin’ we would know ‘em,” Applejack muttered to herself.
Twilight examined the creature that had appeared, sprawled on the ground in front of her. It was a griffon, but he didn’t look anything like she would envisage that a griffon should look. His hind legs and tail were entirely crystallised, as Twilight had unfortunately grown used to seeing, and the shadowy blotches were spreading up the rest of his tan body. More horrifying though, were the griffon’s wings. Surely they had once been magnificent and golden, but most of the feathers were missing and the wings looked diminished, almost skeletal.
Strangely, his front claws and head seemed fine. Twilight immediately started speculating to herself. Perhaps the Infection worked differently for griffons? His feline hindquarters had been affected as she would have expected, but since the front half of his body looked normal, maybe the disease was unable to affect the avian parts of his body? But then why were his wings so decrepit? Or perhaps… It was possible that they hadn’t been affected directly, but that the Infection had removed the griffon’s internal magic, as it had done to ponies, and that meant he was unable to fly, and so the wings had become diminished due to lack of use. Did that make sense? Did griffons even need magic to fly? They could stand on clouds…
“You’re Princess Twilight, yes?”
Twilight jumped in shock and then flushed. She had been so caught up in her thoughts she had forgotten that he was even there.
“Eheh, yes, that’s me!”
The griffon didn’t even attempt to stand up. “This is how you do things, eh? I’ve been waiting weeks to see you, but you are always too busy. So, bam, send me into the past to meet when you are less busy. A smart plan, no?” He coughed into the ground.
“No, I…” Twilight scrambled for something to say. This was like her encounter with Trixie all over again, and she didn’t really want to waste so much time on this occasion.
“Ha! I kid, I kid, do not worry.”
“You… Should I know you?”
At this point the griffon did pull himself to his feet, or at least to his claws, his back legs remaining slumped and uncooperative, the Infection disabling them. “Probably not, this is a long time ago, yes? I am, or was, or… hmm… will be?” The griffon slowly rotated his head in its socket while he tried to find an appropriate tense. “I will have been the griffon ambassador to Equestria.” He held out a claw. “Ragnar.”
Twilight hesitantly placed her forehoof in Ragnar’s claw and he shook it. “I suppose I know you in the future?”
“Eh, not you so much, mostly the pink one. As I said, you were too busy to see me.”
Twilight had to admit that, listening to Trixie, the ponies her friends met, and now this griffon, the picture she was being painted of herself in the future was not the prettiest. “So what happened? You got the Infection as well?”
“Worst time to be the ambassador, eh? The Griffon Kingdom sent me to see if we could ‘help out’. Then when I got infected they would not let me come home. Would not want me to ruin the Kingdom like Equestria was, eh?” He started coughing again. “I feel no loyalty to them anymore, so I give you this warning. I was never supposed to ‘help’. We wanted to see if an invasion would succeed, and it probably would have done. Would be good to avoid that this time round, yes?”
This was interesting to hear. It seemed the conflict in the future was bigger than Twilight had imagined. She looked over the griffon’s shoulders to her friends who were standing in the distance, although they were within earshot and listening intently.
“So you met with the other princesses in the future?” Twilight asked, deciding upon a new approach.
“Once or twice. Otherwise I just got drunk. Not much fun, knowing you are to die and have no job to do anymore, eh?”
“How were they? What were we all up to? I assume you meant Cadance when you said you knew the ‘pink one’? Did something happen in the Crystal Empire? Did you…” Twilight swallowed. “Did you spend much time with Luna?”
Ragnar clasped his head in his claws. “Argh! One question at a time please Princess! You would not like to be interrogated with a headache like this, I think.”
“Oh, eheh, sorry.” Twilight had never spent much time with a griffon, and she had always found them quite intimidating. Ragnar was clearly not at full capacity, but she couldn’t help but notice how big he was, and the sharpness of his talons. She resolved to be more patient.
“So firstly,” the griffon began, “Princess Luna is dead, no? She died years before I came to Equestria, is this not so?”
Twilight balked at this, glancing over at her friends once more, who seemed equally surprised. “You mean she was dead in your future too? But she can’t have died in the same way, can she? What happened?”
Ragnar shrugged. “I remember the funeral. You were there, no? I did not know I would be ambassador yet, so I was not really listening. I used to find ponies boring.” He stopped to cough some more. “I still do,” he muttered.
“But I thought all four of us princesses were alive in the future? I’m pretty sure Trixie said that.”
“I do not know who ‘Trixie’ is, but he is right. There are four princesses.”
“She,” Twilight corrected automatically, before what he had said sunk in. “Wait, there are? Who? There’d be me, Celestia, Cadance… Who else?”
“Princess Pie,” he said simply.
“What.”
Twilight looked up at Discord and her friends, and, as one, they all turned to face Pinkie.
“I’m a princess? Oh how fun, I didn’t know I was a princess!”
“Ah’m pretty sure he means you will be in the future.” Applejack frowned. “Somehow.”
Discord snapped his fingers and a pair of fluffy wings and a floppy horn appeared on the pink earth pony’s body. “Hmmm… No, I don’t see it,” he said, after evaluating her potential appearance. The additions vanished in a puff of pink smoke.
Twilight, still wide eyed, turned back to Ragnar.
“How in Equestria could that have happened?”
The griffon had not moved, and she couldn’t tell if he was even aware that there was anypony behind him. The back half of his body was almost completely crystallised now, but oddly enough the front part of him still seemed fine. He was clearly not feeling fine though, breathing heavily as he was.
“I don’t know how you ponies do things. I think you had a part in the ascension. You probably thought she’d make a good replacement for Luna, yes?”
The lavender princess didn’t respond. Was the Twilight of the future even the same pony as she was?
Another even more pained bout of coughing from Ragnar broke Twilight out of her thoughts. He may not have long left, and once again she hadn’t learned anything that was particularly helpful. Interesting, certainly. But not useful.
“Ragnar, can you tell me where everything started? If we are trying to avoid the future, what should we do?”
The griffon gave no indication that he had heard her, instead continuing to cough at the ground.
“Ragnar?”
One of his forelegs buckled and he slumped to the ground, but he did look up at the alicorn in front of him. “I think the downfall was when you lost the north. The Shards came from the Crystal Mountains. Many of the ponies in the cities near the mountains got infected.” He started rotating his head again, clearly pondering. “If you evacuated all the northern cities you could avoid this, no?”
Twilight blinked. “Evacuate all of the northern cities? So, Vanhoover, the Crystal Empire… maybe even Manehattan? That’s ridiculous!”
The griffon choked into the earth, and the shuddering that the movement sent through his body caused ominous cracking sounds to erupt from his crystalline hindquarters.
“You are the princess,” he conceded. “I only suggest what I think.”
“Well there’s no way we would just abandon the north of Equestria like that! We can attack the threat head on. We’ll go to the Crystal Empire,” she looked up to her friends to make sure they were listening, and also because she was hoping she would see similar determination and agreement on their faces. “We’ll search the Crystal Mountains. We’ll find the Shards and whatever magic is creating the Infection, and we’ll destroy it.”
The griffon’s eyes had shut and he looked to be in unbearable pain, but he actually smiled at those words. “Ha! So not all ponies are weak and bending. I am glad to meet you, Princess Twilight Sparkle. You think like a griffon, I like you more than the others.”
Twilight felt a strange surge of pride at this, despite the fact that the griffon had just insulted her entire race. “I am sorry for everything that happened Ragnar. You did not deserve this.”
The griffon’s voice was weaker now, and Twilight had to bend down to hear. “You do not know what I deserve… But you…” He choked harshly. “You ponies… never deserved any of it…”
As Ragnar let out a final breath, the inevitable fracturing sound came and Twilight closed her eyes, not wishing to witness another unavoidable death. She heard the sound of the shadowy fragments falling to the ground, and then a hesitant silence. But then came some unexpected sounds. Firstly, a scream from a distance that sounded like it had been made by Fluttershy, and then, from chillingly close by, a hideous screech.
Twilight snapped her eyes open and stared in horror at the abomination in front of her. What had once been the griffon Ragnar was now little more than a head, with only the front of his chest remaining, claws extending from legs that were now merely strips of flesh. His tattered wings were still loosely connected to his body, looking more skeletal than ever, although how they were supported was a mystery to Twilight, since the entire back two-thirds of his body had disintegrated as expected.
But what drew her immediate attention were his eyes, which had lost any sense of personality and were now just glowing a horrible red, locked on her. The atrocity of a griffon opened its beak and let out another screech, and then, somehow, flapped its wings and launched itself towards her.
Twilight teleported away instinctively, appearing next to her friends. Turning back she was able to see, although not understand, how the creature was able to fly. The shadowy mist that seemed to mark the Infection was swirling where his body used to be, as though it were magically keeping his remaining parts together. He swooped around in the air and directed himself towards them, screeching once more as he dove.
To either side of the shocked alicorn, the other element bearers were readying themselves for a fight. Twilight recovered and immediately cast a shield spell in front of them, before turning to wonder where Discord had gone. It appeared that the enigmatic draconequus had simply vanished, although at what point he had left she had no idea.
“Okay girls,” she began, as the unnatural griffon started clawing at the immovable magical barrier. “Any suggestions?”
“We have to take him out Twilight,” Rainbow said, as though it were obvious.
“But that’s still Ragnar, right? The avian part of him at least.”
“He’s attacking us! So what, you’re saying that half of him wanted to kill us?”
Twilight shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know! I barely know anything about this disease, and before today we had no idea it could even affect non-ponies. It clearly didn’t fully infect him.”
“Maybe not Twi, but RD’s right. Ah think it did kill him. And that ain’t him.”
Looking closer at the abomination that was still clawing away ineffectively at the barrier, Twilight felt she had to agree with her friends. It did not look like a conscious being.
“Okay then, we’ll have to take him on. Get ready. Three… Two… One…”
Twilight dropped the shield spell and immediately sent a concussive blast directly at him before he would be able to react. The creature was launched backwards through the air, most of his remaining feathers falling from him, but he was still able to catch himself in the air and remain aloft. Twilight wondered if he even needed his wings to fly, or if the dark magic keeping him animated could just do as it pleased.
“Take this, Badnar!” Rainbow screamed, flinging herself through the air towards him.
Applejack groaned. “Is that the best you could do? ‘Badnar’? Really?”
Despite his appearance, the mockery of a griffon was still deceptively quick, and dodged out of the way of the screaming rocket flying at him. Rainbow was quicker however, and instantly re-angled herself and bucked him in back of his head.
“Hmm…” Pinkie tapped her chin thoughtfully. “I think I’d have called him Ragnot, because it’s not really him, or maybe Smognar, because of the weird smoke.”
Twilight flew herself over to the dropping creature and let loose another blast of magic, but as the griffon fell he contorted himself into a dart-like shape and dove more quickly, avoiding the beam. Twilight cast the spell a few more times, chasing after him as he flew back towards Rainbow.
“What about Ragnarok?” Rarity asked, stepping past Applejack and Pinkie.
“Ragnarok? How's that a good nickname?”
As the corrupted griffon was about to reach Rainbow, Twilight finally connected with a spell, stunning him in place. Rainbow reacted immediately, pouncing on the immobile form and launching him towards the ground.
“Because,” began Rarity, lighting her horn. “Ragnar.” She pointed at the falling shape. “And rock.” She launched a stone like a missile at him, connecting with the side of his head and causing a resounding crunch to echo through the air. The lights in his eyes went out and he crumpled to the ground.
Rainbow, who had been zooming towards the ground after the griffon, levelled out and landed over beside the smug looking unicorn.
“Wow Rarity! You’re being pretty awesome today.”
The white mare raised her nose and sniffed, but couldn’t hold back a smile. “Thanks darling. You know me, I may not like to get my hooves dirty, but I can handle myself if I need to.”
“You don’t say?” Applejack was still staring wide eyed at the crumpled shape on the ground.
Twilight cautiously walked up to the figure that had once been Ragnar. The mist that had formed the creature’s body had dissipated, and there was no sign of any movement. It really did seem like a corpse now. Nevertheless, she didn’t want to take any chances. Flaring up her horn once more, she focussed on a teleportation spell. With a flash, the body had vanished, and she knew it would now be a few feet underground.
“Sorry we couldn’t do more Ragnar,” Twilight muttered, feeling some sort of eulogy was in order. “But with any luck we can stop this all happening.” She paused, recalling all he had said. “I guess I might see you in the future if you still become ambassador.”
Meanwhile, Fluttershy had walked back over to the others, having instinctively retreated a distance from the impromptu scuffle when it had kicked off.
“Oh, well done everypony,” she said despondently. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be any help.”
“No worries Fluttershy,” Rainbow replied, nudging her gently. “We had it covered!”
Fluttershy nodded, but still seemed somewhat disappointed in herself. Everypony else gathered around as Twilight walked over to join them, determination etched across her face.
“Okay then girls. To the Crystal Empire?”
“To the Crystal Empire,” they agreed.
---
A rough wind rolled in from across the Badlands as the sun continued its descent towards the distant horizon. A pale earth pony mare with voluptuous crimson hair paused on her walk back to her house. It looked like it was going to be a rough evening. The grit in the air suggested there had been a sandstorm out in the wasteland, and with the wind like this, it was likely her orchard would be getting a battering all through the night.
A few years ago she would have immediately turned back around to check on all the fences to make sure they were secure, strung up protection over the more vulnerable newer trees, and made sure all the windows and hatches on the ranch’s buildings were jammed tightly shut. That was the standard procedure for a situation like this, and although it would take time and be a tough job, she would not have allowed herself any rest until everything was safe. A second’s hesitation could cost you your entire crop if you weren’t careful.
But that was then, and this was now. Now Cherry Hill Ranch was well known and successful. Now Cherry Jubilee was a famous name, even outside Dodge Junction. Now she had ranch workers aplenty, and they would get everything done for her. It was still a lot for her to get used to. Her business’ rapid growth was amazing, but somewhat unexpected. Did ponies really love cherries that much?
It still did not seem natural to leave important work like this to other ponies, but recently her ranch overseer Amarelle had been getting on her case about it more and more. She had said that Cherry needed to trust that others were capable of keeping the ranch successful without her, or she’d never be able to move up in the world any further. Cherry wasn’t sure how much higher she wanted to go. She had never aimed to create a name for herself, it just sort of happened. Nevertheless, she could see that Amarelle had a point. She should be more confident in her workers.
Although… She would at least stop by at Amarelle’s place on her way home, just to make sure the young overseer had noticed what needed doing. That wasn’t too overbearing, just common sense.
A few ponies greeted her as she made her way home, and she smiled back pleasantly at each of them, but inside she was barely paying attention. She wouldn’t admit it, but she had a terrible memory for faces, and the more ponies that knew who she was, the fewer ponies she seemed to remember. She had been doing a lot of empty smiling and waving recently, since she found it less depressing if she didn’t even attempt to recall who each pony was.
It wasn’t long before she reached Amarelle’s house, near the northern edge of Cherry Hill Ranch. She knocked on the front door, and waited patiently for a response from inside. The keen earth pony mare who lived here usually had boundless energy, so Cherry was surprised when she didn’t hear anything even after a few minutes. Perhaps she had already gone out to fix things up? That was probably it.
Still, despite telling herself that, Cherry pushed the door open to look inside. It was just to check Amarelle wasn’t asleep or something, not that she was spying or anything like that.
A quick glance around the small interior told her that nopony was downstairs. She knew there was one bedroom upstairs, but she suddenly felt very guilty about the fact that she had just snuck into Amarelle’s home. Convincing herself that everything would be okay, the ranch boss turned to leave, but then hesitated. She had just heard a strange noise from upstairs.
Cherry perked her ears and listened carefully. She heard the noise once more, and it sounded like a muffled voice along with a high pitched buzzing. Cherry could not imagine what it could be, but that hardly mattered to her. She had only been looking for an excuse to continue her search, and an excuse she had found. Even so, she tried to make as little noise as possible as she took the stairs. Ideally she should be able to take a look into the room and then slip out without anypony inside noticing, if that were necessary for whatever reason.
She soon reached the top of the stairs and slipped along the corridor to the entrance to the bedroom. The noise was clearer now, and Cherry paused in confusion. The muffled voice now sounded like it was trying to yell out. What was going on?
Taking a deep breath, Cherry peered around the doorframe. There were two occupants of the room, apparently struggling together on the bed. Cherry was just about to make a rapid departure from the room and try and forget everything, with alcohol if necessary, when she noticed something strange about one of the forms on the bed. It did not seem to be a pony.
Intrigued, Cherry peered closer. The creature was shaped roughly like a pony, but it was completely black and seemed to have both a horn and wings. They were not the wings of a pegasus though, seeming insect-like, mostly translucent. It was them that had been making the buzzing noise as the creature flitted around the bed. Cherry then noticed that its tail seemed unnatural, it had holes in its legs and, when it turned so its face was in view, she could see blue glowing eyes and fangs.
She stepped back in horror. She’d heard about beasts like this.
Unfortunately, the creature must have heard her move, because it suddenly spun around to look at her. As it did, Cherry was finally able to make out the other occupant of the room. It was Amarelle, but not in a good state. The rosy earth pony was incapacitated on the bed, half covered in a disgusting mucus like substance. Across her mouth and around her legs, the horrific substance looked to have solidified into a rigid black material, binding her in place. It was as though the creature had been intending to completely encase her. Her eyes were still wide open and she looked absolutely terrified.
Without warning the insect-like creature suddenly buzzed towards Cherry, and she threw herself aside, tripping and stumbling down the stairs. After a dazed shake at the bottom, she pulled herself back to her hooves and fled out of the house. She knew she needed to get help, and resolved to go and find the sheriff.
She burst out into the quiet streets of Dodge Junction. There were no ponies around now, and for once she wished there had been. The emptiness was incredibly disconcerting. She broke into a gallop and headed towards the sheriff’s office. Why did it have to be all the way across town?
After a few minutes she heard the sound of pounding hoofsteps behind her. Chancing a glance over her shoulder, she saw that a pony was chasing after her. She half expected that she would not be able to identify them, but a glance at the rose body colour and cherry blossom cutie mark told her exactly who it was, causing her to slow down, stunned. It was Amarelle. But how had she escaped?
Only when the chasing mare was within a few feet, and the hungry expression in her eyes became visible, did Cherry remember the other talent the creature she had just seen was supposed to have. Ah.
The next second Cherry Jubilee was punched across the face, a crack echoing across the quiet town as she crumpled to the ground. Her jaw was on fire, and she half-heartedly wondered if it had broken. The hostile pony, or imposter if she understood the situation correctly, walked calmly up to her and smiled, fangs visible. It appeared its transformation was not perfect.
Some deep-rooted survival instinct kicked in at that moment, and Cherry sprung back to her hooves and bucked her opponent hard in the side of its body, its skin feeling a lot more rigid than it should. Despite Cherry’s less than great strength, it was clearly caught off guard and was launched to the ground. Cherry did not waste another second, the earth pony mare immediately turning and continuing her gallop through town.
The sheriff’s office was within sight when the tiring Cherry heard thundering hoofsteps behind her once more. She did not even turn to look this time, instead she found some heretofore untapped reserve of energy and closed the gap to the office door faster than she had ever moved before in her life. As soon as she reached the entrance to the office she blasted inside, the door slamming against the wall in her haste.
“Sheriff Star!” She scanned her eyes rapidly around the room. “I just saw one of them evil insect creatures here in Dodge Junction!”
There was a creak from behind the desk and an earth pony stallion got to his feet and walked towards her calmly.
“Did you?” He seemed unconcerned.
“Yes! It got my overseer, and then it started chasing after me.” She glanced at the door behind her, but it did not seem like the creature was planning to follow her inside.
“But you got away?”
“For now at least.”
The stallion smiled, and a sudden flash of green flame erupted around Cherry, trapping her in place. In front of her eyes a similar flame spread over the sheriff. His brown fur turned black and carapace-like, his eyes became green and threatening, a ragged mane and wings burst from head and back, and his form grew larger and more feminine. The newly visible monstrosity then grinned menacingly.
“Well we can’t have that.”