Chapter VI: Ghost Town
Several days had passed since Twilight, Pinkie, and Flash had departed from the abandoned town of Shady Oaks. Their first major stop, Cloudsdale, lay on the road ahead. But first, the three had to cross the Unicorn Range, a mountain range that cut across northwestern Equestria, from the Whitetail Woods to the Ceres Ocean. Sheer cliffs and whipping winds made climbing directly over the mountains all but impossible, so the three had no choice but to follow a narrow road that slowly wound its way through the stony grey peaks.
Pinkie ran up to the guardrail lining the side of the road, and gazed out into the mountain pass before her, “Wow…” she said. “I can’t believe I forgot about how nice the view was up here!” She looked back. “Hey Twilight, can we stop for a minute? I wanna send some pictures of this to everyone!”
“We do not have time to sightsee, Pinkie Pie,” Twilight replied, as she continued down the road.
Pinkie Pie slumped her shoulders, and let out a disappointed “Aww…” but quickly caught up with Twilight and Flash.
As they walked, Flash leaned in towards Twilight. “Hey, Twilight…” he began, “…did we have to take this road?”
“This road is the most direct route to Cloudsdale,” Twilight replied flatly.
Flash looked up at the rocky wall lining the road’s right side. “…you sure it’s safe?”
“With the current state of the world, can any place truly be called safe?” She looked to him. “But I am aware of what truly concerns you, Flash Sentry. I take it that you are not fond of high places.”
Flash looked away. “That… would be putting it lightly. I just-”
Suddenly, Twilight grabbed Flash’s jacket and yanked him back. “Hey- hey what’s the big idea?” he protested.
Twilight shushed him, before pointing to the road ahead. “There.”
Up ahead, Flash could see something very unusual, even in respect to everything they had seen thus far: a small cluster of brown and grey stones, drifting lazily through the air, separate, but still seemingly bound together by some force. In the middle, he could see a small, glowing yellow crystal.
Pinkie Pie leaned forward, trying to get a better view. “What is that?”
“An elemental,” Twilight replied. “A living mass of magical energy, which manifests in the form of one of the eight elements of magic.” She stepped forward. “I must ask that the two of you stand back. You are not equipped to subdue a creature of this nature.”
Pinkie drew her katana, but took no further action. “Okay, Twilight,” she said. “We’ll let you handle this.”
Flash gripped his sword tightly. “We’re here if you need backup.”
Twilight stepped toward the rock elemental. “Your aid- and your concern- will not be necessary.” She snapped her fingers, flames igniting above her hand. She then pulled her arm back, and threw a ball of fire at the elemental. The fireball missed the creature by several feet, but somehow it noticed the attack, and began to fly towards Twilight, its stones spiraling around its core. One of the elemental stones suddenly rocketed towards Twilight…
Calmly, Twilight brought up a hand. The rock arced towards Twilight, transforming into a white streak, struck her… and vanished. Twilight closed her eyes, concentrating, before she held out her arm and snapped her fingers.
Suddenly, a cyclone of spiraling wind erupted from the ground beneath the elemental. Rocks were thrown from the cyclone until it dissipated, leaving behind the yellow crystal and a handful of its stones. They wavered in the air for a moment, before unceremoniously falling to the ground. Twilight- and the others- waited for several moments, but the elemental did not reform itself. Pinkie Pie then called, “…Is it dead?”
Twilight lowered her arm. “Yes. It is over.”
The three approached the fallen elemental. Pinkie snatched up its crystal core, shouting, “Mine!” But Flash paid her no mind. Instead, he picked up one of the stones that had made up the elemental. He turned it over in his hands several times, but he could see no sign that it was anything other than an ordinary rock.
“I don’t get it…” he said, dropping the stone. “How is this even possible?”
“With magic, many things become possible,” Twilight said. “Life is breathed into the lifeless, continents drift through the skies… even time and death itself can be undone.”
Flash looked up at Twilight. He found something unsettling about Twilight’s comment… but before he could say anything, Pinkie skipped up to her and asked, “Hey Twilight, what was with that bright light earlier? I thought that elemental was gonna get you for sure!”
“Some time ago, I mastered a technique that allows me to absorb any spell cast within a certain radius of myself.” Twilight set off down the road, leaving Pinkie and Flash scrambling to catch up. “Once I absorb this energy into myself, I may then reshape and recast it in the form of a new spell of my choosing…”
The asphalt of the road ahead exploded, and a rocky creature crawled out of the hole.
Rainbow drew her shuriken. “I gotta admit- it was fun at first, but now I’m getting sick of running into these things all the time.”
Sunset brought up her hands, not even bothering to draw her sword. “Let’s make this quick.” A cold mist surrounded her hands, and a crystal of ice began to coalesce in her palm, before she thrust her arm forward; the crystal left her hand, lengthening into a long, sharp spear of ice. The icy lance pierced the rock monster’s shell with ease- it stumbled back from the force of the blow, before unceremoniously falling back.
Sunset blew into her hands, to warm them. “Well, that wasn’t so difficult.”
Rainbow was about to put away her weapon when she spotted something rapidly approaching from the corner of her eye. “Sunset, heads up!” Rainbow Dash threw her shuriken. Sunset ducked, and the weapon cut through a black condor speeding towards her. “You okay, Sunset?” she asked, as she caught the shuriken on its return.
“I’m fine.” Sunset looked to the fallen bird. “Thanks for that. Didn’t even see that one coming.”
“No problem.” Rainbow approached the body of the rocky creature, saying, “Alright, let’s see what you’ve got…” She pulled a few bit notes stuck to its carapace, muttering, “Thank you…” before she looked back and asked, “Hey Sunset, don’t you think it’s weird that these monsters always have money on them?” She held up the notes for Sunset to see.
“…I try not to think about that too much,” Sunset replied.
“Why not?”
Sunset began to head down the highway. “Well, how would a bunch of monsters who always attack people on sight get money on them?”
Rainbow was silent for a moment, before replying. “…I get what you mean.” She then stuffed the money into her pocket and hurried to catch up with Sunset.
Two weeks had passed since Sunset Shimmer and Rainbow Dash had departed from Canterlot. The two had remained on the highway in that time, encountering no cars and coming across only a handful of heavily-barricaded towns. Based on their progress, Sunset estimated it would take another month and a half to reach Manehattan.
Rainbow groaned and hunched over. “Ugh… we should’ve gotten a car before we headed out.”
“We never would’ve made it to Manehattan, Rainbow. You told me there was a… a gas shortage, right?”
“Well yeah, but it still would’ve been faster than walking. We could’ve reached Fillydelphia by now. Or at least Mustangia. But look at where we are now.” She pointed to a set of mountains in the distance. “We still haven’t even passed the Foal Mountains yet.”
“I know, Rainbow: we’re not even halfway there yet, we should’ve taken a car… I get it. You told me all of this already.”
Rainbow shrugged. “Yeah, I know I keep repeating myself, I’m sorry. It’s just really boring, you know? I mean, other than the monsters and us, there’s not much else out here.” Rainbow had a point- the highway was surrounded on both sides by the mostly barren foothills of Foal Mountain, and the one town they’d passed that day had already disappeared over the horizon behind them. “Hey, could you hand me my water bottle?”
“Sure.” Sunset dug through her bag to find Rainbow’s water bottle. But as she did, she noticed something rather… concerning. “Um… Rainbow?” she began, as she handed off Rainbow’s water bottle. “I don’t mean to worry you, but we’re almost out of supplies.”
Rainbow turned. “What!? What happened to all the stuff we picked up at that gas station we stopped at?”
“You ate all of it.”
Rainbow froze. “Oh. I… I guess I did, didn’t I?”
Sunset pulled a folded sheaf of papers from her bag. “Don’t worry. I picked up a map at that gas station. We’ll just make a stop at the nearest town.”
She unfolded the map and laid it on the ground, studying it carefully. “Okay, we switched from Highway 4 to Highway 7, and we’ve been going northeast ever since, so we should be right around… here.” She rested a finger on the map “It looks like there’s a town nearby. Some place called-”
“Hollow Shades,” Rainbow interrupted.
Sunset looked up from her map. “How did you…?”
“I’ve got a map too, you know.” Rainbow pocketed her phone. “It says Hollow Shades is ten minutes away off the next off-ramp. Let’s go.”
Rainbow began to head down the road. Sunset folded up her map, muttering to herself, “…you just can’t help anyone, can you?” before following.
Before long, the two arrived at a small town nestled in a surprisingly dense forest just off the highway. It was small, even in comparison to some of the towns they had passed through before- a gas station and a convenience store sat on opposite sides of the street, surrounded by a small handful of houses. Normally, Rainbow and Sunset would have been relieved by the sight… but there were two details about this town that unsettled them greatly. First, every other town had been surrounded by some form of wall or barricade, to keep monsters at bay; this town had no wall whatsoever. And second, even with monsters about, the towns from before had been bustling with activity.
It was the middle of the day, but the town was still, and silent.
Like a tomb.
Rainbow put her hands on her hips, irritated. “Gee, they sure know how to welcome travelers.”
Sunset’s hand drifted to her scabbard. “Something’s not right. Stay on your toes, Rainbow. I have a feeling-”
“Hey look, there’s a convenience store! I’m gonna go restock.” Before Sunset could stop her, Rainbow dashed over to the store.
Sunset sighed, her hand still hovering over her sword. “…I’ll check the rest of the town, then.”
A bell chimed as Rainbow pushed the door open. The inside of the store was dark, but Rainbow thought little of it- a few of the towns she and Sunset had stopped at had lost power, plunging them into darkness. Just like the town outside, the store was seemingly deserted.
“Uh, hello?” Rainbow called. “Ding-ding, you got a customer.” There was no reply, and the front register was unmanned. “Man whatever.” She wasted no time in winding down the aisles, picking up everything she thought she and Sunset would need. As she wandered, a devious thought came to Rainbow’s mind: if no one was manning this store, what was stopping her from simply walking off without paying for anything? Sunset said it herself- they needed all the money they could carry. And they couldn’t afford to waste even one bit by always stopping to buy supplies-
Those thoughts were immediately silenced when Rainbow rounded a corner and spotted someone standing in the aisle ahead of her. His back was turned, and he didn’t seem to have heard her at all.
“Hey, you work here?” No reply. “Hey!”
The man began to turn upon hearing her shout. But Rainbow immediately regretted getting his attention- the man staggered as he turned towards him, and his eyes glowed a bright, unnatural red in the darkness. He regarded her for a moment… before lurching toward her with a bestial snarl.
Rainbow dropped everything she was carrying and grabbed her shuriken. There was no time to throw it, so instead, she pulled back her arm, and drove it blade-first into the man’s face.
The man stumbled back… but suddenly gripped Rainbow’s arm tightly, seemingly unaffected by the blades jammed into his skull.
She wrenched her arm free from the man’s grasp, making him stagger, before punching him with her shuriken again. And again. And again. Her hand became slick with blood, but she held onto her weapon firmly.
It took six more blows before the man finally collapsed to his knees, and fell back. Rainbow gasped for breath as she looked down at her fallen foe, looking for any sign that he might rise again… but there was none. Unwilling to release her weapon, she pulled out her phone with her free hand, and shone its light on the man’s body.
In the light, she could now see that the man’s skin was a pale, ashen grey, and in places his body appeared to be… rotting. And that was before she took note of deep gouges she’d ripped into his face. She knelt down to get a better view, sure that what she was seeing was merely an illusion. “There’s no way…”
But suddenly, Rainbow heard the convenience store bang open. “Rainbow we have a serious problem!” Sunset called. Footsteps rapidly approached, before the grating screech of shoes sliding against the linoleum floor met her ears. Sunset approached Rainbow and the man, slowly. “…what happened back here?”
Rainbow looked up. “…I… I think I just killed a zombie.”
The sound of shattering glass met their ears. “That came from the front,” Rainbow said. They moved to the front, though not by choice- the front door was the only way out of the building. Sure enough, another zombie had smashed through one of the store’s front windows- this zombie was once a woman, with ashen grey skin and a missing arm. Outside, the two could see several more zombies slowly shambling towards the store.
Rainbow gripped her shuriken. “What should we do, Sunset? Run or fight? These things are tougher than they look.”
Sunset drew her sword with her right hand, a fire lighting itself in her left. “We kill them,” she replied flatly. “A monster’s a monster. No matter what it looks like.” She brought up her hand and threw a fireball at the closest zombie.
The zombie stumbled back with the fireball’s impact, its flesh coming alight… but it once again began to lurch towards the two. What’s more, some of the zombies outside began to enter the store as well. Sunset slowly began to back up. “Okay…” she began nervously, “…I guess fighting’s out of the question.”
“Normally I’d hate to run from a fight, but I’m with you on this one.” Rainbow then threw her shuriken at the burning zombie, severing its other arm. “Let’s get out of here!” She rushed past the zombies, with Sunset racing to keep up- they felt several hands brush against their limbs, their clothes… but the two were too quick for any of the zombies to gain a grip. Rainbow and Sunset reached the middle of the street…
…but their relief was short-lived. They could see that both ends of the street were blocked by rapidly-approaching walls of zombies- two dozen of them in total, at the very least. There were far too many to fight, and they were too tightly packed together to slip through. Sunset began to hyperventilate. “What do we do, what do we do?”
Rainbow forced her breaths to slow and looked around quickly. An 18-wheeler was parked at the gas station across the street- it would be tricky, but they could climb up the truck and onto the awning above the fuel pumps. Rainbow pointed. “We can climb up to there! Come on!”
Rainbow dashed towards the gas station, with Sunset following close behind. With ease, Rainbow climbed onto the truck cab’s nose, then to the top of the cab. She looked back- Sunset was still struggling to climb onto the cab’s nose. And a zombie was rapidly closing in…
Rainbow climbed back down and pulled Sunset up. “Sunset hurry up!” Rainbow climbed atop the cab again, pulling Sunset up behind her. Then, the two jumped up from the cab onto the station’s awning. Sunset looked back- one of the zombies tried to climb up the truck to follow, but it could only claw futilely at the cab’s nose, unable to find a grip on the smooth metal.
Sunset looked away from them, to the street below. Zombies were already gathering at the sidewalk beneath the awning, reaching up as though their arms would somehow stretch and grab them. And still even more came- from the houses, from the surrounding woods, from seemingly everywhere.
Rainbow sat down, and stared out at the horde in disbelief. “Oh man…” she muttered. “How are we supposed to get ourselves out of this one?”
“Are you sure we should stop so soon, Spike?” Rarity asked. “We could still make some progress before the sun sets.”
“That wouldn’t be a good idea,” Spike replied. He flicked a lighter, and the camp’s fire roared to life before him. “Without any landmarks, it would be too easy for us to get lost. And that’s not even getting to the monsters. They’re hard enough to fight as it is in the day- you can’t imagine how much harder it is when you can’t see them.”
“Trixie agrees with Spike,” Trixie said, sitting down in front of the fire. “Trixie doesn’t think her feet could last even one more minute of walking.”
Rarity, Spike, and Trixie had just finished setting up their camp alongside a highway leading westward. The sun rapidly sank toward the horizon toward them, and soon, the land would be covered by an impenetrable veil of darkness.
Rarity sat down next to Trixie, and watched as Spike threw a few dry scrub brush plants into the flames. The young man had pointed them out to her and Trixie earlier, saying that they were an excellent source of tinder, and that they would become more common as they drew closer to the San Palomino Desert. Rarity couldn’t help but marvel at the seemingly endless amount of information Spike possessed- it had proven invaluable thus far, and she had little doubt that it would continue to serve them well on their journey.
For several moments, the three sat in silence, staring into the blazing campfire. But eventually, Rarity cleared her throat and said, “…you know Trixie, you never did explain to us how you got lost in the first place.”
Trixie puffed out her chest in pride. “Ah, so you wish to hear a tale of the Glorious Trixie, do you? Very well- Trixie shall indulge you. It was not long after Trixie discovered her talents. She went to a police officer and demanded directions to Applewood. He told her to follow the highway, and Trixie set out on her way.” Trixie beamed as she finished her story.
“…And you didn’t bother to ask which highway you were supposed to follow?” Rarity asked.
“Trixie was certain that the highway she chose would take her to Applewood. Because Trixie is always right.”
Rarity sighed- she really didn’t know why she expected anything different from Trixie. Still, she said, “You could’ve used your phone to get directions. I know it’s old, but I’m pretty sure it still has GPS.”
Trixie crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at Rarity. “Trixie doesn’t trust GPS. It’s how they track you, you know.”
Rarity raised an eyebrow. “And who are ‘they?’”
“Exactly.”
Rarity was uncertain of how to respond, so silence fell once more. As they sat, Rarity became aware that Spike had not spoken at all yet, and in fact, had barely spoken over the last few days. So she asked:
“Spike? Is everything alright? You’ve been awfully quiet these past few days.”
Spike jolted ever so slightly when Rarity addressed him, but he replied calmly, “Everything’s fine.”
“Why don’t you come over here and sit next to us?”
Spike was silent for a moment. “…I’m just fine over here.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” He pulled his legs up to his chest, and wrapped his arms around them. “…I’m sorry. I’m just not used to being around so many people.”
Trixie and Rarity looked to one another, then back to Spike. “…There’s only two of us,” Trixie said.
“Well, back home, it was usually just me and Twilight. As sad as this is going to sound, this is probably the longest I’ve ever spent with someone other than Twilight.”
Rarity could only stare in disbelief. “You can’t be serious. Don’t you have any friends?”
Spike shrugged. “Not really. Taking care of Twilight is pretty much a full-time job for me. If I wasn’t around, I’m pretty sure she’d forget to eat. That’s how seriously she takes her studies.”
“Wait, doesn’t she have any parents? Or any other family? She can’t be much older than us…”
“No. It’s just us, now…”
Spike fell silent. His face was lowered, but from his body language, she could tell it was a sensitive issue. So, she didn’t press the issue any further, and silence fell between the three once again.
Rainbow and Sunset sat across from each other in silence. Night had finally fallen over the town, but they did not sleep. How could they, with such a great threat so close?
After several moments, Sunset said aloud, “We can’t stay up here forever.”
Rainbow stood and looked down at the street below. The zombies had finally lost interested in them, but continued to mill about near the gas station. “Well how are we supposed to get past all of them? …Well, I could probably jump them and make a run for it, but what about you?” She suddenly snapped her fingers, as if she’d had a sudden realization. “I got it! Do you think you could burn all of them with your magic?”
Sunset approached the awning’s edge and counted the zombies gathered below- roughly forty in all. “No way. Not that many. But…” She peered down under the edge, to the fuel pumps below. “…If I can hit those fuel pumps, the explosion might be able to get all of them in one shot.”
Rainbow looked to Sunset in disbelief. “The fuel pumps? Sunset… okay, let’s assume that there’s still gas in those pumps. Do you have any idea how big that bang is gonna be?”
“I know how it sounds. But we don’t really have any other options. We can’t fight all those zombies head-on, and there’s no way we can sneak past them all. And we’re out of supplies. If we’re gonna do something, we need to do it soon. As in, now.”
Rainbow was silent for several moments, before she took a deep breath. “…Listen. I’ve heard a lot of bad ideas, Sunset. But this is the worst idea I’ve ever agreed to.” She approached the edge, near the truck cab they’d climbed earlier. “I’ll go down first. Wait until they’re all chasing me before you head down. Then, I’ll lure them back to the pumps. I’ll let you handle the rest.”
“Alright. Make sure you’ve got a good lead on the zombies. I don’t want you to get caught in the explosion, too.”
“I will.” Rainbow walked to the edge of the awning. An abandoned car sat at the side of the road beneath the awning, easily within jumping distance. So, Rainbow jumped, and landed hard on the roof of the car.
If the metallic bang from her impact didn’t alert the zombies, the car’s alarm almost certainly did. And the chorus of snarls that followed told Rainbow that she now had the zombies’ full, undivided attention. She drew her shuriken as she watched the zombies stagger towards her- it would have been easy to outrun them… but she had a plan she needed to stick to. As the zombies closed in, she waited until the last possible moment, before she leapt from the car and took off running down the street.
From the awning, Sunset watched as Rainbow ran into the darkness beyond the reach of the car’s flashing headlights, with the zombies in tow. There were a few stragglers, but after a minute, the street was empty. Quickly, she climbed onto the truck, and down to the ground- she had no way of knowing when Rainbow would return, so she needed to move, quickly.
Sunset ran across the street. She hid herself along the side of the convenience store, positioning herself so she was close enough to hit the pumps, but far enough away that she wouldn’t be spotted by the zombies, or caught in the explosion… or, so she hoped. She waited- the car’s alarm finally went silent, covering the town with an almost suffocating silence- for a few moments, Sunset feared the worst for Rainbow Dash… until she heard footsteps rapidly approaching. She saw something dart between the gas pumps- Rainbow Dash, she assumed- before it hid behind the truck. A few moments later, a dark mass moved between the pumps in pursuit.
“Do it now, Sunset!”
Sunset heard Rainbow’s shout. A fire lit in her hand, and she threw it toward the gas pumps with all her strength. For a brief moment, her fireball illuminated the zombies- a mass of grey-skinned, dead-eyed bodies. But the light was extinguished when the fireball struck the pump.
A brilliant light shone from the pump, one so bright that Sunset was momentarily blinded. The earth trembled, and a deafening roar filled Sunset’s ears. She tried desperately to form a magic barrier for protection, but it wasn’t enough- there was a sound like shattering glass, and Sunset staggered back as a wave of burning hot air suddenly washed over her. Sunset pressed herself against the wall, trying to protect herself as much as she could, until finally she could hear her own breaths, and her vision returned- slowly, but surely.
The gas station was gone. Before her, there was now only a towering column of black smoke wrapped in flames. The roar of flames filled the air… and Rainbow was nowhere in sight. “Rainbow!” Sunset shouted into the inferno… but her voice was drowned out by the flames. “Rainbow!” She shouted as loud as her lungs would let her, but she could barely hear herself- there was no way anyone else would have been able to hear her.
Suddenly, there was a tremendous bang, and the flames flared brightly.
“Gah!” At that moment, something struck Sunset’s leg with enough force to knock her on her stomach. She struggled to roll herself over as pain pulsed through her leg and chest, and she looked down at her leg.
A large piece of twisted metal had embedded itself in her shin.
Sunset stomach fell, and she breathed rapidly… before she managed to take a deep breath to calm herself. The wound looked bad, but there wasn’t that much blood- the shard must have been holding it in. Sunset gripped the shard with one hand, a soft white glow forming around the other. She could heal this sort of injury- she knew that. She just needed to stay calm and stay-
From the corner of her eye, she spotted a dark figure approaching through the smoke. Sunset’s hand shot to her sword; she wasn’t in any shape to fight, but it wasn’t going to stop her from trying. But the figure that emerged from the smoke was not a zombie, as she’d expected it to be. Her skin, hair, clothes were blackened by soot, and patches of her skin were colored an angry red from burns, but she was still unmistakably Rainbow Dash.
“Oh man Sunset, that was awesome!” she shouted over the flames. “I can’t believe that actually worked! That was-”
Rainbow fell silent when she saw the gleaming shard of metal embedded in Sunset’s leg. Without another word, Rainbow ran to Sunset and pulled her to her feet, slinging one of her arms over her shoulder. “Come on Sunset…” she said. “We need to clear out. There’s no way that-” She pointed to the column of smoke. “-isn’t gonna get us some unwanted attention.”
Rainbow began to walk Sunset down the road, away from the gas station, steering her way around various pieces of still-red-hot debris that littered the town- navigation proved easy enough, as the column of flames illuminated the entire town. Sunset gasped in pain with every step. Rainbow was hurting too, but she grit her teeth and tried to keep quiet. “Rainbow…” Sunset gasped. “Put me down. I have to… I have to… heal my leg.”
“You can worry about all that later,” Rainbow replied. “Right now, we need to get somewhere safe. Maybe we can hide in one of the houses until-”
Then, the earth suddenly shook. For a moment, Rainbow thought it was another explosion from the gas station… but then the earth shook again, and then again. Rainbow realized the shaking was coming from the wrong direction- it came from the woods to their left, rather than from behind. And its steady rhythm meant it could be only one thing:
Footsteps. Big ones.
And it didn’t take long to find the source- a massive beast emerging from the forest ahead. It stood on two massive legs, and its coppery scales gleamed in the flickering firelight. One, two, three… four pairs of glowing eyes were fixed on the two as it approached, and a full set of sharp, flesh-rending teeth glimmered in its four mouths, each set atop a long neck that towered over even the tallest of the forest’s trees.
Rainbow recognized the beast before her as a creature from Equestrian mythology: a hydra.
She sat Sunset down, muttering “Stay here,” before she began to walk towards the massive beast, pulling out her shuriken. “So,” she began. “You want some too, huh?”
Three of the hydra’s heads roared at her in reply, joined by the fourth a moment later. Then, one of the heads lunged at Rainbow, jaws wide.
Rainbow leapt to the side, and threw her shuriken at the beast’s neck with all her might. Sparks flew from the point where the shuriken struck… but that was all- Rainbow could see no sign that her attack had left even the slightest scratch. Another head snapped at her before her shuriken could return, but Rainbow again evaded the attack.
As soon as her shuriken returned to her hands, Rainbow threw it again, but again, it had no effect on the beast’s scales. Another of the hydra’s head’s lunged at her seeing she was unarmed. Rainbow evaded it with ease… only to see a second head lunging at her from the other direction. It was already too close to be avoided…
But before it could bite down, a white flash struck the head, freezing its jaw under a thick sheet of ice. The head pulled back, and after a moment, bit through the ice. Rainbow- and the hydra- looked to the source of the flash: It was Sunset Shimmer, slowly approaching.
“Sunset?” Rainbow said, incredulous “I thought I told you to stay put!”
“I told you, I just needed a moment to heal myself,” she replied, and readied her sword. “So, what’s the plan?”
“Uh…” The hydra roared and snapped towards them, forcing them to dive in opposite directions. “…I was kinda hoping you would have a plan!”
Sunset thrust out her arm, hurling a bolt of lightning at the hydra; there was a great flash as the bolt spread across its body, but had little effect otherwise. She scrambled to remember her education under Princess Celestia- most of it was focused on magic, as she’d intended to become the next Princess… but she did remember something from one of her magical creatures classes. “Well, hydras are reptiles! And their scales are metallic, so they’re especially vulnerable to low temperatures!”
Rainbow looked back at the column of smoke and flames. “…Not sure how much that’s gonna help, Sunset!”
That was all Sunset could remember. But… “Go for soft tissue! Eyes, the inside of its mouth, places like that!” Sunset had no way to know if those places were even vulnerable, but eyes were almost universally weak spots for any creature that had them.
Out of the corner of her eye, Sunset saw Rainbow leap to the side, and throw her shuriken again. “Got it!” she shouted. Sparks again flew from her weapon’s impact.
Sunset looked back to the hydra- two of its heads glared down at her in return. The other two were turned away, focusing on Rainbow Dash. A head roared and snapped towards her, but Sunset leapt back out of the creature’s reach. She focused, a cold mist forming around her free hand, before she threw a long shard of ice at the hydra’s head. The shard shattered against the underside of the hydra’s chin. It shook off the attack, but before it could strike again, Sunset threw another icy shard. She threw shard after shard, ignoring the pounding pain that grew in her temples. Most of the shards shattered harmlessly against the hydra’s scales, but its movements grew more sluggish as its temperature dropped, just as Sunset hoped it would.
Finally, Sunset stopped her barrage. The hydra’s head snapped towards her again… or, it tried to- its movement was so slow that Sunset calmly sidestepped the beast long before it reached her. The head withdrew slowly, its eyes staring blankly at her, as if only vaguely able to comprehend its situation. But she felt no pity for the beast as she focused once more, and threw another icy spear directly into the hydra’s eye.
There was a spray of blood. The hydra roared in pain and stumbled back. But then, it shook itself, and its heads turned their attention back to Sunset. All four of them. Hydras couldn’t breathe fire or use any magic as far as she remembered, but they didn’t need to- their powerful jaws and massive size were usually enough to deal with any threat they may have encountered. All four heads shot towards her, jaws wide, ready to crush Sunset’s small body with ease. In a panic, she held out an arm, forming a protective bubble around herself. The heads crashed against the barrier- massive cracks spread over the bubble, and Sunset fell to her knees. Her head pounded, but she focused as hard as she could, trying to keep the barrier up.
But the hydra reared back, and rammed its head through the barrier again, shattering it like glass.
Rainbow ran around the hydra, arriving just in time to see the beast smash through Sunset’s barrier. Sunset was sent sprawling by the impact, and she slowly rose to her feet, the hydra stomped toward her. “Sunset!” Rainbow didn’t throw her shuriken- instead, she charged the hydra, spinning her shuriken around her fingers until it was nothing more than a blurred grey circle. Then, she pulled her arm back, and swung with all her might.
There was a shower of sparks and a spray of blood as the shuriken cut through the hydra’s scales like a sawblade. But Rainbow didn’t stop- she sliced into the beast again and again, drenching herself in showers of the hydra’s blood. The beast roared in pain again and stumbled back, as Rainbow was too close for its heads to reach her. But Rainbow pressed on, refusing to let the beast escape, cutting deep into the hydra’s belly with every swing.
Rainbow leapt back. The hydra did not retaliate- it fell to one knee, breathing heavily, blood falling from her wounds like rain. But Rainbow wasn’t about to let the beast recover enough to retaliate- she was going to end this, here, and now. She pulled back her arm, preparing to throw her shuriken as hard as she could directly into the hydra’s belly, seemingly unaware of the bright red arcs of electricity that gathered at her feet. With one last spin, she hurled her weapon.
The shuriken struck the hydra…
…and exploded in a brilliant light.
The explosion ripped into the hydra’s body, tearing it to pieces. The ground shook as massive chunks of hydra rained down from the air. One of the heads landed nearby; it snaked across the ground towards Rainbow, snapping its jaws and roaring in silent fury. But soon, it succumbed to its wounds, curling up and falling still.
Rainbow looked on the fallen hydra, breathing hard, watching carefully for any sort of movement. But there was none. Soon, Rainbow bent over, and let out a pained sigh- the adrenaline was finally wearing off, forcing her to become aware of just how much pain she was actually in.
She heard footsteps approaching, and looked back. “Hey Sunset,” she said. “Are you alright?”
“I’ll be fine,” Sunset replied. “But you should be more worried about yourself.” She pointed to Rainbow. “You look terrible.”
Rainbow looked down at herself. “Don’t worry about me. I’m pretty sure most of this blood isn’t even mine.”
Sunset looked around at the various hydra body parts scattered across the town. “Rainbow…” she began, in disbelief. “…how did you even do all this?”
“Hey, you’re supposed to be the magic expert here. You tell me. But hold on just a sec.” Without another word, Rainbow ran up to the mess of blood and organs ahead, where the hydra had been standing. She looked around for a few moments, before she reached down and pulled out her shuriken… or rather, half of it. “Oh man…” she said as she held up her broken weapon. “Pinkie’s gonna kill me when she sees this.”
“It’ll be fine,” Sunset replied as she approached. “We can fix it. In the morning, we can look for all the pieces. For now, let’s find some shelter before something else finds us.”
Rainbow put her shuriken away. “Yeah. That’s a good idea.” She began to limp towards one of the houses, and Sunset followed.
For several moments, there was silence between the two. But then, Sunset said, “I guess I owe you one now, don’t I?”
Rainbow looked back, and gave Sunset a wide- though pained- smile. “Hey, don’t worry about that. We’re friends. We’re supposed to look out for each other.”
Sunset’s jaw dropped in surprise… but she quickly shook her head to compose herself. “Yeah. Yeah, I… I guess we are.”