When we arrived upon the wall, we saw Applejack and Rainbow Dash out beyond, in the thick of the fight. A good chunk of the enemy forces were still holding back, but there was enough making up the vanguard that they posed a threat to my friends, and the few Dragoons who had joined them on the battlefield and were still standing. I counted seven dead, and the rest were steadily getting beaten back. Looking over at Pinkie, I gave her a quick nod before grabbing onto Twilight, who teleported us both out to where Rainbow Dash was.
It seemed the pair had also learned the power of combining their strengths and fighting alongside one another, making them a deadly combo for the enemies who they made slick work of. Seeing us appear behind them, Rainbow Dash shouted to Applejack to hold the line a moment before backing up to where we stood.
“What’s the news?!” she asked, having to raise her voice over all the fighting. “I heard there was a monster!”
“We took care of it!” I called out. “Rainbow, you have to retreat behind the wall!”
“What?!” Rainbow shouted back before turning to throw her spear like a javelin through the head of one of the Children trying to flank Applejack. “Why would we retreat?! We’re kicking ass out here!”
“You’ve lost almost half your men!” I pointed out. “And we have a plan, but we need them to think we’re throwing in the towel!”
Rainbow considered it for a brief second before nodding and turning to Applejack and her remaining forces. Rainbow Dash held out one of her hooves, her silver gauntlet glowing bright, in response her spear which was still impaled in the pony’s head, retracted into itself before flying over to her as if magnetised.
“Retreat!” she shouted as she tucked the silver rod into her belt. “Everypony behind the wall!”
Her soldiers looked confused for a brief moment, but obeyed none the less. Turning, we all galloped towards the wall where the gate was opening up to let us in. Once the Dragoon soldiers and my friends were safely inside, they started to close the gates.
“Stop!” Pinkie ordered. “Leave them open.”
The militia ponies who had been about to close them looked at Rainbow Dash in confusion.
“Do as she says,” Rainbow instructed.
“And everypony needs to get off the walls!” Twilight added to the few Dragoon soldiers and militia ponies who were armed with short bows.
Once everypony was off the walls and away from the battlefield, I ran up to the open gates and poked my head around the edge. I smiled when I saw that the rest of the enemy force was charging forwards, seeing their opening to take the town while the defenders attempted to flee.
“They’ve taken the bait,” I informed Pinkie, who appeared out of thin air next to me. “It looks like they’re all coming.”
“Good stuff!” Pinkie declared before turning to Rainbow Dash’s troops. “Alright, we need at least three ponies on each gate, ready to close them as soon as the enemy get close. Twilight, are you ready?”
Twilight nodded as she teleported to the walkway over the gate, ducking down behind the short wall so she wouldn’t be seen by the Children of the Earth as they got close to the wall.
“What exactly are we doing?” Applejack asked, stretching her legs and neck.
“We’re going to trap them all in an enclosed space,” I informed her. “Then Pinkie’s going to slip into their ranks and start cutting throats. Once they’re panicked, we jump down and finish them off.”
Rainbow positioned her own troops and the town’s militia under the wall, instructing them to mount it and take up arms the moment she gave the signal. I poked my head out around the gate again, seeing that the enemy were close enough that we could spring the trap. I could hear them unleashing battle cries, and calling for death to be brought to the abominations.
“Now!” I shouted to the ponies manning the gate.
They quickly shoved it shut with all their might, before another several ponies began barricading it with crates and wagons and just about anything heavy they could lay their hooves on. Pinkie whistled up to Twilight who stood up straight, her horn glowing bright as she erected a force field similar to the one she had used to protect her and Pinkie from the wrecked ship, only this time she placed it around the Children of the Earth, effectively trapping them between it and the town wall. Pinkie ran up our side of the wall, literally running up it as if it were the floor, before leaping over it and landing on the other side amidst the enemy units.
I could hear the shouts of distress and panic, calls from commanding officers to remain calm and kill the attacker, and cries of terror and agony as Pinkie began claiming victims.
“Alright everypony!” Rainbow shouted as her and Applejack led the charge up the wall. “Let’s give them everything we’ve got!”
I ran up after them, reaching the top of the wall just in time to see them both land in the middle of the enemy and began tearing into them. Some Dragoon soldiers followed them to fight melee, although most remained on the walls where they took back up their bows and began taking easy shots at the enemy as they scurried about in their enclosed pen. I myself stayed on top of the wall, levitating my three knives and throwing them into the crowd and summoning them back repeatedly. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were absolutely decimating their ranks, while Pinkie appeared all over the show, stabbing and slashing before vanishing in the blink of an eye.
Before long the battle was won, as Twilight brought down her forcefield, the defenders all cheered. I let out a relieved breath, returning my now blood soaked knives to their sheaths, with the mental promise that I would clean them later after I’d rested. Really it was only the adrenaline still flowing through my body that stopped me from feeling the pain of what happened during our fight with the sea monster. I walked over to where Twilight was leaning on the wall, she looked equally exhausted before I put my hoof on her shoulder and she smiled wearily up at me.
“It was a good plan,” she admitted with a little yawn.
“Do you really mean that?” Pinkie asked as she appeared behind us, throwing her hooves over our shoulders and poking her head between our; I noticed she looked just as energetic as always.
“Yes… I suppose I do Pinkie Pie,” Twilight said as she shrugged Pinkie off and turned to face her, her hoof outstretched for a half reluctant shake.
“Aw, come here you!” Pinkie exclaimed as she batted Twilight’s hoof away and dragged her into one of her infamous bone crushing hugs.
I raised a hoof to try and hide my laughter when I saw how Twilight’s eyes almost bulged out of her skull. I looked back down to where Applejack and Rainbow Dash were laughing about something; they gave each other a quick hoof bump before making their way back towards the gate.
“Okay everypony!” Rainbow began, addressing all the gathered ponies who were either chatting merrily or sitting down and getting their breath back. “Great work today. We lost some good ponies today, but thanks to everypony here, they can be returned to their homes and remembered as the heroes they were. Now first order of business is getting some rest, we’ll all have to take it in shifts to keep watch, but I promise everypony will get the break they deserve.”
There was appreciative murmuring from among the soldiers and militia as Rainbow Dash and Applejack made their way up to where we three stood over the gate.
“I should stay here for a bit,” Rainbow told me. “Just in case there's any more hidden, waiting to take us by surprise. You’re still going to Brine, right?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “I can leave tomorrow.”
“That would be great,” Rainbow said. “We’re gonna need more troops down here, so if the mission there is going well or nearly finished, round up a bunch of guys and bring them back this way, would you?”
“Sure, I can do that,” I assured her.
“Ah’ll stay,” Applejack said. “At least until you get back with more swords.”
“So will I,” Twilight added. “I can ask around for Blueblood on my own while you go see Fluttershy, and if there is another attack I can do my part.”
“Well in that case, Pinkie, do you want to come with me to Brine?” I asked. “It will just be a quick trip there and back again to see how Fluttershy is doing, and if we can’t bring some more soldiers back with us.”
“Of course I’ll come!” Pinkie agreed. “I need my daily dose of Fluttershy.”
“Alright, thanks for that,” Rainbow said. “I’d like to make sure Anchorage is in good hooves before I go back to Olympus, and you know how much I want to get back to Olympus and get this bloody cape off my back… uh, metaphorically.”
“Of course Rainbow Dash,” I replied with a little roll of the eyes. “We’ll have it all sorted in no time and you can go back to being a soldier again.”
“Sweet, anyway, you girls should go get some rest,” Rainbow went on. “We should have enough ponies here to keep watch, and you’re not even my soldiers, I couldn’t order you to stay anyway… actually, I’m pretty sure you’ve all ordered me about more than I have today.”
After sharing a brief laugh, we departed from the wall and made our way into the town, finding a small inn quickly enough. We were barely in the door before we were being offered a free room and dinner, it seemed word of how we helped with the monster and the invasion spread quickly. As we settled down to a large thank you platter we didn’t even realise how much we needed, we filled Applejack in on what happened at the harbour.
“So do you girls think this was another one of the monsters you’ve been hearing about?” Twilight asked at the end of it all.
“Could very well be,” I muttered. “It’s not like we’ll be able to drag it up from the lough to get a closer look at it.”
“I think it was,” Pinkie said confidently. “Just a vibe it gave me.”
“Is that your Pinkie sense telling you that?” I asked with a wry smile to which she nodded eagerly.
“And you girls think these robed ponies are somehow responsible for the monsters?” Applejack asked.
“It’s a possibility, we won’t know for sure until we find out more about who they really are,” I stated. “But… priorities, we can’t go chasing phantoms so long as the very real threat of the Children of the Earth remain.”
“Agreed,” Applejack responded, nodding sagely. “While we were fightin’, one of them grabbed Dash and tried to tear her wing off with their bare hooves. Another called me a ‘traitor to all things natural’, and called my ‘love for abominations’ ‘perverse’.”
“They’re mad,” Twilight said, shaking her head despondently. “And I’ve known Pinkie for years, so I know what I’m talking about.”
“Damn straight!” Pinkie agreed, thumping her hoof hard on the table. “Wait…”
“I’m a bit confused by their motivation though,” Twilight went on. “And their constant use of the word ‘abominations’, I mean… we’ve literally fought abominations, if we’re correct in believing the robed ponies are making these monsters.”
“Well earth ponies have a connection with nature,” Applejack muttered thoughtfully. “But really, so do unicorns and pegasi when you think about it.”
“Earth ponies were the first ponies, right?” I pointed out uncertainly. “I think I heard that once, that before unicorns and pegasi evolved, there were only earth ponies.”
“Well yeah, but that was millions of years ago,” Pinkie reminded me. “There’s plenty of less stupid things to build a cult around… like chaos.”
“And I think it’s time for bed,” Twilight stated firmly as she stood up from the table. “Whatever the Children of the Earth might think, we’ll not let them do to anypony what they did to the citizens of Pivot.”
“Here here!” Applejack cheered, raising her glass and downing it before standing up herself. “And you’re also right about hittin’ the hay, I’m all tuckered out.”
I nodded and followed them away from the table, turning around to ask Pinkie if she was coming, and catching her shovelling all our leftovers into her mouth. I stared for a moment before shutting my mouth and walking away, she would go to bed when she was ready. The innkeepers showed us to our rooms, I ended up sharing with Twilight while Applejack got Pinkie Pie as a roommate. Once we were both cleaned up and in bed, I could hear Pinkie Pie giving off on the other side of the wall.
“Racially segregated rooms!” she exclaimed. “And I thought we lived in a progressive society.”
I went to sleep with a smile on my face, and slept soundly until well after the sun had risen, no nightmares of Wights to speak of which was a nice change of pace. When I finally did come around, I cracked my eyes opened slightly to see if Twilight was still asleep in her own bed or not. What I saw instead was a stallion standing between our beds, staring down at me. I sprung out from under my covers, giving a high pitched scream of terror.
“Damn it Stranglethorn!” I bellowed at his once I realised who it was. “Why are you watching me sleep?!”
I would have kept my voice down for Twilight’s sake, but my scream had already woken her up, and I could hear my other friends hopping out of bed and hurrying to my rescue. Indeed it was only a few more seconds before Applejack bucked the bedroom door clean off its hinges and stormed in with her claymore drawn, a threatening, if not slightly ridiculous sight considering there was hardly any room to swing the great sword in the tiny rooms.
After everypony managed to calm down and the innkeepers were placated with some bits for the door and a few extra for the stress, we all headed out to the café we had stopped in at the night before. Once we were sat down, Stranglethorn began writing out a lengthy note to explain what was going on; while he did, Rainbow Dash came by and stopped to join us. Stranglethorn passed me the finished note and I read over it, my eyes growing wide before passing it to Twilight.
“What’s it say?” Applejack asked in a worried tone after seeing the look on my face.
“There’s a good possibility Blueblood was at Arclight very recently,” Twilight informed her and the others. “This… this seems promising; I need to follow up on this.”
She looked up, biting her lip as she looked over us all.
“Oh… I guess this’ll be goodbye for a while,” Applejack muttered, understanding the implications.
“I can’t ask any of you to come with me,” Twilight said with a slow nod. “Not when the Children of the Earth might show up again.”
“Don’t worry Twilight, I’ll stay with you!” Pinkie declared.
“No Pinkie,” Twilight said firmly, although she didn’t sound spiteful. “You already said you’d go with Rarity to Brine, getting soldiers for Anchorage is just as important.”
“Oh yeah,” Pinkie said in a sad voice before brightening up. “In that case, I’m with you to the end Rarity!”
“No Pinkie,” I said, not even intending to repeat Twilight’s words. “If Twilight is leaving, then you should stay here in her place.”
“Alright then!” Pinkie said with a heavy sigh. “Rainbow Dash and Applejack, I won’t let you down!”
“No Pinkie,” Rainbow said calmly, shaking her head.
“Oh come on!” Pinkie exclaimed in frustration. “What now?!”
“Nah, I’m just messing with you,” Rainbow said with a chuckle. “Of course you can stay here.”
“Will you be going with Twilight to Arclight Sufferthorn?” I asked, to which he nodded. “That’s good; I hate the idea of her going up against Blueblood without any backup.”
“When do you want to head?” Twilight asked him.
Sufferthorn glanced silently up at the sky, gauging the time before glancing down at me and conveying his response through a look.
“He’s suggesting midday,” I informed Twilight, the others at the table sharing a confused look.
“Well if that’s everything decided,” Rainbow began. “I’ve arranged a boat for you Rarity; it’ll get you right up beside Brine, just a short walk to its western side.”
“When is it leaving?” I asked as I sipped my tea.
“About twenty minutes I think,” Rainbow replied casually.
I choked on my mouthful of tea; after forcing myself to swallow it rather than spit it out, I looked up at her with an incredulous expression.
“Twenty minutes?!” I repeated in disbelief. “When were you going to tell me?”
“In about ten minutes,” Rainbow replied, clearly not seeing the problem. “I don’t see what the big deal is; I can fly from one end of this town to the other in ten seconds flat.”
“I can’t fly!” I growled before calming down and looking over everypony. “Alright, Pinkie and Applejack, I’ll be back soon, but good luck if anything happens. Twilight and Sufferthorn, I hope you catch that weasel. Rainbow Dash, I’ll have your troops in no time.”
With that I stood up, turned and sprinted for the docks, hearing Pinkie shout after me.
“Tell Fluttershy I miss her!”
I reached the docks with time to spare, but because I had rushed off so quickly, I hadn’t stopped to ask Rainbow which boat I was to be boarding or who I should be on the lookout for. I spent all my remaining time asking everypony in sight if they knew anything about a boat to Brine commissioned by the Dragoon Marshal. After cutting it very close, I finally found the pony.
“Yeah that’s me,” a mare told me, gesturing to her tiny fishing vessel. “You got here just in time, I was literally about to set off.”
“My apologies,” I said breathlessly as we both hopped on board. “The Marshal didn’t inform me of our departure until twenty minutes ago.”
“No worries,” the mare assured me as she set about shipping out. “I suppose if you hadn’t showed up I could have waited, I’m not in any real rush, but I was told there would be two of you.”
“Yeah, my friend had to stay,” I informed her.
“Well, make yourself comfy,” the mare offered. “We won’t reach the shore until after night fall.”
Brine was well inland, but because of the shape of the Neptune we would be able to sail adjacent to it, from where we landed it would only be a short walk to the outskirts of the town. The trip was… particularly uncomfortable, since waking up that morning I could feel every bone in my body aching. Twilight had prevented any lasting damage by slowing me down before I hit the roof, but now that my body had plenty of time for the adrenaline to flood out of my system, I was finally starting to feel the still devastating effects.
I practiced my fighting on the boat while we sailed, I discovered that I was slower, stiffer, and couldn’t keep up a decent pace before my joints began to seize up too much and I had to stop. My magic was still reliably functioning, but I would much rather avoid any conflicts until I had time to recover properly. I took solace in the fact that there probably wouldn’t be any more issues at Brine, that Fluttershy and the Dragoons had taken care of everything since I left them about a week earlier… don’t look at me like that, I always tried to keep an optimistic outlook, despite how often things went wrong.
True to her word, the mare managed to deliver me to the coast west of Brine shortly after nightfall. We said a quick farewell and I was on my way, I wandered through the night and didn’t catch sight of the tell-tale crop fields until a couple hours past midnight. As I slowed my pace, keeping my eyes locked on the ground so I didn’t accidentally wander beyond the scorch line, I heard the distant sound of hooves shuffling through the grass. Glancing up and peering into the dark of the night, I just about made out a patrol of two Dragoon soldiers.
“Halt stranger!” one of the soldiers called out as I began approaching them. “Access to Brine is off limits, you should turn back the way you came.”
“It’s alright, I’m here at Marshal Rainbow Dash’s request,” I informed them; they immediately lowered their weapons and brightened up slightly.
“Word from the Marshal?” the second soldier said. “No doubt you’ll wish to speak with Sister Fluttershy.”
“Yes I would,” I agreed, following after them as they took the lead around the town outskirts to the most southern end. “So how has the operation been proceeding?”
“Very good, the Marshal will be most pleased with the progress we’ve made in retaking the town,” the first soldier reported.
We arrived at the main campsite and my escort led me over to one of the larger tents, just as the front flaps opened and Fluttershy walked out, mid conversation with an officer.
“Fluttershy!” I called out to her.
She glanced up, surprised at first, but smiling when she saw it was me. After quickly relaying some information to the officer who saluted and marched away, she made her way over to us.
“Rarity, it’s good to see you,” she greeted. “I’m glad to see that you’re alive and… oh, Rarity, you’re in pain!”
“How could you tell?” I asked in amazement.
“I’ve learned to see the signs,” Fluttershy replied as she closed the gap between us and began feeling me all over. “What happened?”
“Long story involving sea monsters,” I replied as she poked and prodded at me.
“You’ll have to fill me in on what all’s happened,” she said with a disapproving look as she squeezed aching shoulder muscles and received a hiss of pain. “The soldiers have finished rounding up the remaining stragglers in the northwest portion of the town; I was on my way to take care of them. You can stay here and rest, we can talk about what’s happened when I get back.”
“It’s alright, I can come with you,” I assured her, pulling out of her groping hooves. “Besides, I need to talk about how your mission has been going. Rainbow needs extra troops in Anchorage, so I need to know if you can spare any.”
“Extra troops, oh my, this is sounding worse by the minute,” Fluttershy murmured. “But of course she can have more soldiers… they are hers after all. I’ll see if I can’t find Squadron Leader Gale and have her round up some.”
“Are you sure you don’t mind?” I asked as I followed her through the camp.
“Of course I don’t mind,” Fluttershy replied confidently. “We’re making excellent progress here, it won’t be long until we’re completely finished. As such, we can afford some loss in numbers.”
We found the Squadron Leader looking over maps in another large tent; it was the same officer I had seen Fluttershy talking to when I arrived.
“Sister, is something the matter?” she asked in formal tone.
“We’ve received orders from the Marshal,” she explained. “She needs more soldiers at Anchorage.”
“How many would you like me to dispatch?” Gale asked without even blinking at the news.
“I need to go take care of some walkers further north,” Fluttershy explained. “Can you review our current numbers against the progress we’ve made and figure out how many we can spare? I’ll review it when I return.”
“Right away Sister,” Gale said with a curt nod.
With that, Fluttershy and I left the tent, making our way out of the camp.
“Um, walkers?” I repeated.
“It’s just what the soldiers nicknamed the monsters,” Fluttershy explained. “Like, because they are the walking dead, you know? Anyway, tell me everything that’s happened since I saw you last.”
“Well I made it to Glean without any trouble,” I began. “But that’s when things got complicated, I’m sure I don’t need to remind you who Blueblood is…”
Naturally Fluttershy was very alarmed at the news of Blueblood’s escape, but she stayed quiet until I was finished telling her about the encounter with Spike, the fight between Twilight and Pinkie, returning to Pivot and finally everything that went down at Anchorage.
“So I’m fine really,” I said again. “Just a bump compared to what would have happened if Twilight hadn’t slowed me down.”
“Just because it could be worse, doesn’t mean it’s not still bad,” Fluttershy argued. “Hold on, we’ll discuss this later, we’re here now.”
Fluttershy had been leading us through the now actually deserted streets of Brine using the light of her mace. Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to see more than a few inches in front of my face, cloud cover was completely blotting out the light of the moon and stars. But as Fluttershy said that, I noticed the flickering lights of burning torches in the distance. It was at the very edge of the town, constructed between two buildings at the end of a street which led out to more farmland; it was a large metal cage, within which were just under a dozen of the walkers.
Five Dragoon soldiers were standing guard, seeing Fluttershy approach, they all snapped to attention and saluted her; it was a rather surreal sight.
“So this is all of them?” Fluttershy asked as she peered into the cage even as the dead ponies snapped viciously at her.
“It should be,” one of the guards said confidently.
“Alright, let’s get started,” Fluttershy commanded in a tone of weary resignation.
I stepped back and watched as the guards began corralling the walkers out of the cage, one at a time, into a small pen where they looped a noose around their necks. The nooses were attached to the end of long poles so the guards could restrain them without having to get close. Once the first walker was held in place, Fluttershy entered the pen, drawing her mace. She muttered something under her breath that I couldn’t make out, it might have been a quick prayer or words of apology. With that, she quickly put the creature down with a single decisive blow to the skull.
“So did you ever find out more about what’s causing this?” I asked as the soldiers dragged the now still corpse away. “Before Pinkie left, she found out alchemy might have been involved.”
“I still can’t believe she ran off again,” Fluttershy muttered while waiting for the next walker to be brought out. “I’ve been searching all over Brine for her, to think she wasn’t even here and I was panicking for nothing… but no, we haven’t discovered anything. We haven’t even set hoof inside the church, it will be the last area we tackle.”
“Pinkie didn’t mention where the secret room was,” I replied. “But there’ll be plenty of time to investigate once these creatures are all dealt with.”
“Actually, the town will still be off limits,” Fluttershy pointed out while the next pony was led out. “There was… an incident a couple days ago, two soldiers got into a fight while in the outskirts of the town, things got violet and… one of them was killed. The walkers weren’t even involved, and yet the soldier who died came back as one of them anyway. It looks like whatever is causing ponies to turn, is linked to the town itself, and that scorch line that’s keeping both them at bay, and the cause contained.”
“Well that’s certainly an interesting thought,” I mused as Fluttershy caved in the skull of the second walker.
“Indeed,” Fluttershy agreed before turning back to her soldiers. “Alright, ready the next one.”
It was then that I heard a soft clunk mixed with fizzling, and we all followed it to see a small clay orb with a burning fuse had just bounced and rolled up next to the cage. I recognised it instantly for what it was, and quickly threw myself on top of Fluttershy as the bomb exploded and fragments of the metal cage shot outwards. We barely had time to think before we heard loud battle cries, we glanced up to see several ponies in dark green robes and stone like armour charge in, swinging their weapons and screaming for blood.
Fluttershy and I scrambled to our hooves, she picking up her fallen mace and I drawing my sword, trying my best to ignore the pain in my foreleg as I did. The Dragoons all snapped into battle formation in an instant and turned to defend against the surprise attack, but even as they fought valiantly against the Children of the Earth, they failed to notice the walkers leaving the confines of their cage and approaching them from behind. Fluttershy gasped as one of them attempted to tear into a Dragoon soldier, it couldn’t hope to bite through his armour, but the enemy the soldier was duelling with, pressed his advantage and drove his axe into the stallion’s face while he was distracted trying to throw the walker off.
It was a complete bloodbath, and we were on the losing side. The Children of the Earth attempted to kill the walkers as well as our allies, and even though they couldn’t be killed, they were beaten down with such ferocity that they couldn’t have picked themselves up even if they had the mental capacity to want to. Fluttershy stood, frozen in fear; I ended up having to drag her away back the way we came.
“We can’t do anything for them now!” I told her as we ran. “We need to rally our forces and form a proper defence.”
Fluttershy looked up at me with a pained expression, but then her eyes went wide with horror and she cried out in warning. I spun around in time to raise my sword in defence against another Children of the Earth soldier who had followed us. I was knocked off balance by the strike, and he immediately moved in for a second while my guard was down, but Fluttershy struck him in the side of the head with her mace, quickly grabbing me and pulling me after her before he could retaliate.
We were only able to make it a few dozen metres before we rounded a corner and came face to face with another half dozen enemy soldiers running our way. Instinctively I threw Fluttershy out of sight behind a stack of crates before they noticed us.
“Brothers! Sister! Behold this abomination!” one of them cried out as he saw me. “Capture it at once!”
They all charged, I tried to raise my sword in a feeble attempt at fighting back, but it was no use. I blocked a few hits, but I paid the price for my reduced mobility as I felt a blade cut past my foreleg. It was only a graze, but it was enough to draw some blood and cause me to drop my sword, which was immediately kicked aside by my attackers. I started backing up, drawing all my knives with magic and swiping them through the air. I managed to get one in the eye and another in the neck, but the stallion who had shouted for my capture rushed forward and head-butted me hard with no regard how much my horn would hurt him.
He definitely injured himself in the process, but he achieved his goal by stunting my magic and forcing me to drop all my knives. Before I could move out of the way, I was punched hard in the stomach, dropping to my knees as I wheezed in anguish. Just to add a cherry on top, the massive stallion reached down and scooped me up, holding my body high over his head before throwing me at the wall of a, thankfully, wooden house. I felt my body crash into it before falling to land hard on the ground, I may have been able to shrug off my previous injuries before that, but after that I don’t think I would have been able to lie about it anymore, even to spare Fluttershy the worry.
“Stop you fool!” the stallion cried out.
The next thing I knew, a second bomb landed several inched from my face, its fuse fizzling shorter and shorter. With all the strength I could muster, I rolled as far away as I could in the opposite direction. And while I just about got out of the blast radius, the house I had been thrown against and was still lying next to, wasn’t so lucky. I shielded my head as the building collapsed down upon me, although nothing particularly heavy landed on me, when I opened my eyes, I found myself in pitch darkness, completely trapped underneath the rubble.
“You imbecile!” the stallion chastised one of the others, although his voice was muffled to me both from the rubble between us and the ringing in my ears. “We’re supposed to be capturing them, not blowing them to pieces! Now get over there are dig it ou… Hey!”
I heard a muffled scuffle and feared that Fluttershy had revealed herself, unfortunately my fears were confirmed when I heard her calling out my name in terror, as well as her cries as she apparently struggled against the ponies I had been fighting.
“Hold on a moment,” the muffled voice of the stallion cut across. “Look at this swine’s clothes… why she’s a member of the Celestial Sisterhood!”
There were hushed murmuring among the group, I struggled to shift the debris from off me, but my energy was completely sapped and I could feel myself going faint.
“We need to take her back to Cragsburg at once!” the stallion declared. “A prize like this, we must present it to Gaia immediately!”
“What of the fight brother?” another one of the ponies asked.
“Forget this town, our brethren will take it without us,” the stallion assured them. “Now we must hurry, tie that creature up and let us be on the move.”
I heard more struggles and Fluttershy calling my name before I heard her voice cut out. I tried to scream in fury, as once again I failed to free myself from the prison. I heard their hoofsteps retreating, growing fainter and fainter until all was silent. If I listened closely, I could hear the distant sounds of a battle raging, but it only got quieter as my body grew limper. I had to save Fluttershy, I wanted so badly to escape and to rescue her… but I simply wasn’t able, my body had reached its limit and my magic was unresponsive. As I slipped out of consciousness, I did so to the memory of Fluttershy screaming my name as I let her down, over and over again until there was nothing.