//------------------------------// // Cataclysm // Story: Beyond Horizon's Edge // by Broseph_Stalin //------------------------------// Chapter XI. – Cataclysm Twilight awoke with a start as the clang of the grandfather clock broke the morning silence, setting off an avalanche of pillows cascading down off the bed. The soft white wall crashed down silently onto Spike, who jumped awake. “Aaah!” he screamed, buried in pillows. He wiggled his way on top of the fluffy pile with a gasp. “Twilight!” Spike said, his eyes smoldering in tired annoyance. “Sorry, Spike,” Twilight apologized tiredly. She looked at the clock, which read seven am on the dot. Spike grumbled, pushing pillows aside as he got up to get ready for the day. “At least it stopped raining…” Spike commented darkly as he trudged downstairs. Twilight glanced outside to see that it had, indeed, ceased raining. The sun lay perched in a brilliant blue sky that was populated with small, white clouds that danced about the broad expanse. She stretched out her body as she awoke, and ended up lying splayed out in bed, not in any hurry to get up. She found herself smiling as she glanced again out the window: a memory of Ento had popped into her head. Her smile widened as she concluded that she would get to spend yet another day with him, and today was a particularly gorgeous day. Right now, she figured, he’s probably up sitting in the study reading about some scrap of pony history he found. Or maybe he’s bustling in the kitchen again. Oh, Celestia, I really hope it’s not another Ba family recipe she added with a giggle. This little secret she had hidden away in her home- the one that made her laugh and which her friends found so remarkable- it was all hers. And she felt as though she could take on the world. This inexplicable ecstasy seemed to stem from her elated thoughts of a stranger she had come to find to be so incredible. Her private fantasy was shattered as she heard Spike shout out to her from downstairs. “Hey, Twilight! Do you know where Ento is? I can’t find him!” Spike waddled in, a look of worry etched on his scaly face. “I looked everywhere: in the kitchen, the study, the basement... He’s not here, Twilight!” Twilight's overactive mind panicked for a split second, but calmed as her logical reasoning took over. “Well, Spike, maybe he’s wandering the garden, or outside looking around, I’m sure that…” She trailed off as her eye caught movement outside. Ponies of various sizes were running towards the direction of town hall. Off in the distance, she spotted a crowd beginning to form around the stage; her half-cocked ears could pick out the vestiges of angry shouts and frightened screams in the distance. “Oh, no…” she gasped, her face sinking as realization hit her. A lead weight dropped to the bottom of her stomach. The weight was her heart. “Oh no!” she shrieked, fear fueling the fire of blind panic in her mind. She shot out of bed, and, grabbing Spike, galloped downstairs at full speed. . . . . Twilight reached the edge of the mob that had surrounded the stage. It seemed to throb and pulsate with the movement of the angry and frightened ponies that it was made up of. Twilight jumped around, trying to see over the heads of the ponies that blocked her view. As she glanced over the head of a shouting yellow mare, she spotted a large, horned creature up on the stage, shackled in heavy iron chains and looking as terrified as any creature could ever be. Blood oozed out of his nose, coating his muzzle and neck. Various things were being thrown at him, and two menacing-looking stallions stood next to him, shooting disgusted stares at their prisoner. Along with them was a handful of other ponies that were screaming and carrying on, pointing to Ento and building up a frenzy from the crowd to destroy the “beast” they had found wandering their lovely streets! He recoiled as a shower of rotting fruit and glass bottles were catapulted at his manacled form. “Ento!” Twilight screamed, the pain of anguish stabbing white-hot shards into her heart as she saw her friend in such a reprehensible state, fresh cuts glistening along his body. “Twilight! Twilight!” came Rarity’s piercing voice from the enraged crowd. Twilight looked over to her left, where Rarity and Applejack, who held tightly to Applebloom, were huddled in the crowd, looking for all the world like survivors of a shipwreck clinging to rocks in a churning sea. “Wait here, Spike," Twilight commanded to the dragon, and pushed her way through the crowd towards her friends. “What happened?! What in Equestria is happening to Ento?” Twilight screamed over the din of the mob as she reached the three. “Some ponies found Ento wandering around town earlier. The last thing I know, the whole town has raised a mob against him! They think he’s some sort of demon, Twilight!” Rarity yelled back through the shouts. “Where is everypony else?” Twilight shouted to the pair. “Rainbow Dash is tryin’ tah hold off the pegasi from attackin’ Ento, Pinkie Pie’s up at the front ah the crowd tryin’ to wrassle the mob, and Ah dunno where Fluttershy could be,” Applejack yelled, a concerned look glancing to the skies as a pack of pegasi flew over, cut off bodily as Rainbow Dash streaked past with a shuddering sonic blast. Applejack’s gaze came back down, falling on a frightened looking Applebloom that stood at her hooves. “Ah found Applebloom here stuck in the crowd, tryin’ tah tell everypony she could that Ento wasn’t the picture of evil they put him out tah be.” “Twilight, what’s gonna happen to him?” Applebloom shouted anxiously to the unicorn. “Applejack told me 'bout Ento. He’s not a bad guy, no matter what all these ponies are sayin'.” Her face grew taut as tears spread down her cheeks. Applejack gazed back up at Twilight, her face just as scared and uncertain. “Twi… They’re gonna do somethin’ tah Ento… Somethin’ bad.” Twilight’s mind wrestled in agony and spiteful grief. Stinging tears welled up as she realized the reality of what was happening: a beautiful thing that had walked into her life was going to be gone, snapped up from her forever. “No,” she said, shaking away tears. She couldn’t tell if the statement was towards her thoughts or to her friends’ fears. “We’re not going to let this happen to Ento. He’s our friend, all of ours. We need to get up on that stage and do something!” Her face was set in a determined look. Gears crashed and collided in her mind as she concocted an idea to save their friend. Her eyes hardened as she constructed a plan she knew would work. “Applebloom, go out of the crowd, left. Find Spike, and have him write a letter to Princess Celestia. Have him tell her that we need help here, and it’s really bad. Can you do that for me sweetheart?” Twilight forced as much maternal comfort as she could into her words in the heat of the moment. Applebloom nodded, wiping tears away from her cheeks. Twilight smiled gently. “Go off then, find him and stay with him when you get the letter sent. Girls, you two stand next to me!” she shouted. All three obeyed their orders. Rarity and Applejack moved next to their friend as the crowd pushed at them from all directions. Applebloom ducked and dodged, disappearing into the crashing collective of ponies. Twilight’s eyes screwed shut as she focused all her power into another realm of existence. She brought her friend’s presence in with her own, and felt the sharp crackle of teleportation take them across the plane of their surroundings. The three ponies materialized onstage, and gasped as they looked over what seemed to be a fierce sea of enraged and furious ponies. Their beam of pure animosity seemed to pull away from Ento and attach onto the three. Twilight shot a glance behind her, and saw that Ento’s normally fiery eyes were smoldering in excruciating agony. Summoning up every bit of confidence she could draw, she exuded as much assurance as she possibly could to him, and turned back around to face the crowd. Stepping forward, she saw Pinkie Pie attempting to have an ersatz wrestling match with the sea of ponies that crashed up against the stage like the fierce waves of a storm. “Back! Back I say! Get back, you crazy ponies!” Twilight heard Pinkie shout to the crowd, alternating between pushing against the crowd and the stage. “Stay away from him, you maniacs!” “Pinkie!” Twilight shouted to the frantic pink pony. She turned around, and jumped up on stage to join her friend as the tide of the crowd pulled in to break up against the stage. Pinkie Pie took position as the four ponies surrounded Ento, faces set in fierce defiance, ready to defend their friend with their lives, if need be. The outraged gang of ponies that had been on stage earlier had shuffled off to join the angry crowd, leaving only the five of them on stage. Rainbow Dash, dripping fresh blood from gouges in her legs, alighted next to her friends, having handled the situation that had occurred in the skies above. Twilight spotted Fluttershy trying to console Ento safely behind her friends, tending to his most grievous wounds. "Hey, you six! You're the ones who probably brought that thing here!" shouted a furious stallion from somewhere off in the crowd. "Yeah! Everything bad's always happening when you six are around!" Another vicious reprimanding was echoed with several shouts from ponies all around the sea of anger. "It killed Mother of Pearl! And it's all your fault!" a shrewd-looking mare screamed near the front of the stage. As more and more cries and condemnations flew from out of the crowd, frightened and hysterical ponies began to climb on stage, determined to get rid of the beast themselves once and for all. Twilight, Pinkie, Rarity, Dash and Applejack held all the ground they could, but they were outnumbered twenty to one. This fight seemed to be getting more hopeless as the minutes went by. Although the five ponies were doing as much as they possibly could against the fierce crowd, it simply wasn’t enough. This isn’t working! Twilight thought severely, as she shoved a large brown stallion away from her. Time was losing its grip as moments turned to minutes. Adrenaline surged through Twilight’s body as she bucked at a particularly crazy mare. I have to do something, anything! she added desperately. Suddenly, a spell rose from her mind, a perfect hex that would get these mad ponies to back off. Twilight focused, energy building, until she felt the breaking point. She let loose with a roar of magic, knocking ponies off the stage, and forcing everypony else in the immediate proximity to cover their ears and howl in pain. Twilight groaned at the effort, and heard a multitude of gasps sound throughout the crowd as every voice fell silent. Catching her breath, Twilight returned to her original fighting stance, ready to deal with any threat that dared to harm Ento again. “Twilight Sparkle!” an imperialistic voice sounded behind Twilight. She jumped violently at the command, and whipped around to see where the voice had come from. She found the imposing figure of Princess Celestia before her, with an equally-commanding Luna standing just behind her sister. An assortment of Night and Day guards were marching behind and about, awaiting commands from their princesses. A murmur ran through the crowd, which was now far more sedated than it had been several moments earlier. “Princess! I’m so glad you’re here, I—!” Celestia cut Twilight off abruptly. “Get in the carriage. Now, please.” “What? B-but, Princess—” “I said get in the carriage. Now, Twilight,” she ordered, her voice bordering on polite. Twilight knew there was nothing polite about the thoughts that were rumbling in the Princesses’ thoughts, though. The unicorn paused for a heartbeat, looking at her friends. They nodded slightly at her to go- they would be with her as soon as they possibly could. Twilight trudged over to the open-topped carriage and got in. Meanwhile, Celestia and Luna had started a lengthy explanation of what had occurred here. Yet for all the diplomatic words they used, not a one hinted at any detail as to what Ento was, nor about what had actually just happened. As their long-winded speech proceeded, the guards rounded up Ento, still bound in heavy iron chains. They escorted him callously to Luna’s carriage and placed him down harshly in his seat. Twilight didn’t dare try to look over to Ento, for fear of being further reprimanded by either princess. Eventually, Celestia and Luna loaded up in their respective carriages with only a guard apiece. A hoof-full was left behind to see to it that the crowd was dispersed and sent on their way. Before they took off, Twilight risked a glance over to Ento, who glanced back. The most dejected look she had seen in her life painted his features visibly. She winced as her heart screamed in agony yet again, tears welling up unbidden in her eyes. She sobbed silently next to Celestia through the entire ride to Canterlot Castle.