Apple Bloom
It is nearly impossible to sleep on a train. The constant bouncing, and whirr of the engine just kills it for me. I got up, and opened our train car, and walked down the aisles.
Strange... there was almost no-pony on the train. I reached up and straightend my bow, because it was falling in my face. The train was eerily silent. I looked out the window and saw nothing but deseret rushing by.
Looking down, I sighed. What shouldve been a good day turned out to be horrible. Not only was Equestria under attack, but one of my best freinds got hurt! Fillydelphia was under seige, and we didnt even know who was doing this! And we STILL don't have our cutie marks!
I sighed again. All of this worry was making me feel sick..
I curled up on the floor. The moonlight fell on the railing outside. I tried to remember the days of when nothing bad happened... "Like last year?" my mind stated. I gave a weak chuckle at how short that time had been. Of course, it wasent really that peaceful. Everyday, gettting together with my friends and trying a bunch of rediculos things that almost got us killed several times.
"Cant sleep either?" said a farmiliar voice in the doorway. i turned to see my sister walking toward me. She sat down next to me. "Beutiful night aint it?" She said, looking out the window.
"Yeah.." I replied. " Ah just wish...." I stopped. Applejack looked down at me.
"Whats that sugar-cube?" she said soothingly.
" Ah just wish there was somethin Ah could do to help! Ah'm so small, and dont have any talents, and dont have a cutie mark! Ah'm sick of all the big important ponies doin all the work! They need help too! Ah just-" I was forced to stop my rant because my sis shoved her hoof in my mouth.
" Whoo.. slow down there. You do a lot to help! Dont sell yourself short. You do a lot more than you think."
"Like what??" my voice was trembling.
" You help me every day honey. Help me with all of the stress of running the farm bah mahself. You also help your friends coming up with very.......um.... interesting ideas to find y'alls cutie marks." At that I chuckled. " And you have lots of talents!" She stated this with enthusiasm." You can catch an entire trees worth o' apples with a bucket. On your head no less!!" She smiled down at me. " So cheer up. Who knows? Maybe there is a way for you to help in this whole thing."
"Thanks sis." I smiled. We hugged.
We were suddenly thrown to the side of the car as the train rocked on its side.
" What in tarnation!?" we both said at once.
The train luched back on its wheels again. We ran to the other side of the car. I gasped.
Several pegasi were flying close to the train. The were covered head to toe in body armour. Only their wings protruded. They had red visors that I couldnt see through. A big pegasus had some sort of cannon attached to his back. He turned, aimed the cannon at the railway beneath us, and fired some sort of white ball at the tracks.
Almost instantly the train rocked, flinging both of us across the car. We struggled to our feet just as the door flew open, and Twilight and my firends ran in.
"Whats going on!?!" Twilight yelled over the screech of the train wheels.
"We're under attack!" AJ yelled back." Twilight help me to the emergency exit!"
The emergency exit was at the top of the train car. A small trapdoor led to the roof, so passengers could abandon the train if neccisary.
Twilight flared her horn just as Applejack jumped, giving her a boost that got her out of the trapdoor easy. She then lowered down a rope. She called out" Young'ns first!" Twilight help them to hold on!" Me and my firends dashed at the rope. Me, being the strongest, put my leg around Scootaloo's shoulder, since she only had one leg to hold with. Sweetie Belle was on her own.
"Ready!" Twilight yelled over the wind.
The rope started accending, and we were lifted off the ground. We were almost out as the train was hit again. We swung as Applejack lost her balance, then regained it. As soon as we were out of the car, the wind hit us like a brick wall. We were thrown backward, as the noise threatened to destroy our ear-drums. We crawled back to my sister, Scootaloo slightly whimpering. Applejack lowered the rope back down to Twilight, and soon had her out as well.
As soon as the purple unicorn was with us, she exclaimed "The train shouldnt be going this fast! Something must have gone wrong with the engine!"
We all turned to look at the frint of the train, squinting to partially sheild our eyes from the winds onslaught. And sure enough, a steady colmn of smoke was rising from the front of the train.
I was amazed at how much smoke there must be. At this speed, the wind should have blown it away. 'Something must be seriously wrong with the engine', I thought.
I saw a bright flash and shut my eyes. When I opened them, Applejack was standing at the edge of the train, head down. 'She must be looking at something off the train' I thought. Then I saw that she was not looking down, she was looking out, in a very agressive posistion. I could see four pegasi flying in just over the roof of the train.One was looking at her, with the cannon aimed right at us. We all froze.
He kept eyeing us for a moment. Then his cannon fired, right at my sister.
"NO!!!" I screamed. But I shouldnt have worried. This was my sister Applejack remember?
In the instant he had fired, she rolled out of the way, and was instantly back on her feet. She ran at the enemy, slowing only enough to turn and buck in his direction. I heard a disgusting crunch, as the armour around the pegasus buckled. He fell, screaming, until the rest of his armour shattered off of him when he hit the ground.
She turned to the other three. They eyed her for a moment, and fired.
Apparantly, pegasi dont learn. They had just seen what happened when you angered an Apple. They had just seen the power those orange back legs housed. Yet they fired anyway.
Of course, by this time Twilight had recovered, and threw up a sheild the instant they fired. As soon as they contacted the shield, the orange cow-pony was leaping at the nearest one. She landed on its back, and clapped her hooves together, on both sides of its neck, snapping it. She landed on the train with the body. And, picking it up with her magic, Twilight flung it into another soldier. He vaporized it in midair with his back cannon.
That was all the time AJ needed. She ran underneath his floating hooves, and sliding underneath them, she unleashed a visuios kick, that threw him off the train.
The last one, hesitated for a moment, then turned tail and fled.
"Oh no you....DON'T!" AJ yelled. She jumped, catching him when he was off the train.
They both disapeared.
"C'mon!" Twilight yelled. I looked at her like she was crazy.
"You want us to..... jump??" Sweetie Belle's voice cracked.
Twilight moaned. I saw a sheild materialize in my peripheral vision, as Twilight ran, and tackled us of the edge.
I braced for impact. at the moment we were floating, but the second the sheild hit the ground, we were all goners.
But the moment never came. I slowly opened my eyes to see us rolling. Twilight was at the bottom of the sheild, trotting, rolling us in the direction that AJ had landed.
"Help me move this thing!" She yelled, droppping us. We scrambled up, and ran with her to find my sister.