Chapter 12: Shock And Awe
“Boss! Boss, get up!”
“Quickly, drag him out!”
“I will go check on Applejack!”
“You three, go check Ponyville! Come back and inform me of the damage! You two, go to Canterlot and have them dispatch a regiment of guards to Ponyville and the surrounding towns, but leave a few to go towards that cloud of dust out there! I need to know exactly what just happened!”
A blur of conversations swept over Sandman as he struggled to wake up from his semi-conscious state. He could tell he was being dragged, but he didn’t know who was dragging him. His ears were ringing loudly, making him unable to hear who was trying to address him.
“Boss! Are you okay?” A voice next to him yelled out, but it was barely audible to him. A familiar face crouched down in front of him. It was Grinch.
“Boss! Snap out of it!”
“Ugh, Jesus Christ… what the hell happened?” Sandman mumbled out as he slowly began to regain his faculties.
“I don’t know, but it looks like someone goddamn nuked us!” Grinch responded, pointing a finger over towards the forest on the outskirts of Ponyville. Sandman turned his head to see a slightly deformed mushroom cloud of dust far off into the forest. It was rather small, but it definitely resembled a mushroom cloud.
“Holy shit…”
“Yeah…”
“Wait, where’s Truck and Frost?”
“Frost got Truck out, but we all would have been dead if that purple unicorn hadn’t put up a shield so the whole barn wouldn’t cave in on us.
“What about Andrei?”
“Yeah, he got out. The bastard managed to crawl out after the support beam he was tied to cracked in half.”
From behind Grinch, Nurse Red Heart came into focus. She approached them both.
“Are you two okay?” She asked.
“Yeah, I think I’m fine.” Sandman said as he stood up, using Grinch as some support.
“Same here.” Grinch responded.
“Okay, good. I need to check on everyone else..." She started, but her attention was drawn away as she looked out towards the cloud. "Sweet Celestia, what was that?”
“I have an idea, but I don’t think it is right. If it was what I think it was, we all would have been dead by now.”
Nurse Red Heart was going to respond, but was quickly interrupted by the sound of someone calling for help. She got up and trotted off to the sound. Princess Celestia walked up to the two humans, replacing Nurse Red Heart’s position.
“What was that?” She asked them angrily. “I have never seen something like this happen before! Was it something you brought here?”
“No ma’am, we didn’t bring anything with us that could do that. I’m not sure about Andrei, but I am almost positive he wouldn’t have been able to get his hands on a WMD.”
“A WMD? What is a WMD?”
“A Weapon of Mass Destruction. However, that blast from the looks of it was not powerful enough to be a WMD. If it was, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now, but that thing sure as hell had the destruction part right.” Sandman responded, taking in the extent of the damage. Trees were fallen over everywhere, along with half of the barn they were staying in. The main house had some pieces here and there knocked off, but nothing too dramatic. Same with Ponyville in the distance. Most houses appeared to be standing, but a few here and there were either toppled or partially destroyed. It seemed as though the violent earthquake that followed did all the damage, not the blast itself, which allowed Sandman to relax a little bit.
“Do you know if any of us are injured?” Sandman asked the Princess.
“As far as I can tell, no. Only a few scratches here and there, but nothing serious. It looks like everypony got out alright.”
“Well, that’s good to hear. We need to check on the others in the town though…”
“I already sent some guards out to do that. I am having an entire regiment split off and sent to each town for the time being. I need to make sure that nothing horrific has happened, so I must return to Canterlot as soon as possible. Whatever is happening here started when you all got here. Forgive me for saying this, but the sooner we get you home and out of Equestria, the better.”
“No offense taken, ma’am. We want to get out of here just as bad, especially if we are indirectly causing this, but what should we do in the meantime, ma’am? The entire plan of staying here and laying low seems to have literally blown apart.”
“Not entirely, but I don’t know of anywhere else to put you. You have to stay here and treat your wounded. Haybrun will be here with you along with a couple guards, but I require most to aid in searching the towns for wounded and to make sure everypony is safe. I will try to contact you all in the event something happens.”
With that, she turned to the other Elements of Harmony who had gathered near the house.
“Applejack, is your family alright? Celestia asked.
“Yea, although Granny Smith and Applebloom were mighty scared when that… whatever that thing was went off.”
“Good, at least none of you were hurt. I have to take my leave though. I will have Haybrun and some others remain with you for the time being. I just can’t stay here while the town is in chaos. I need to return to Canterlot to inform the others as well as Luna about this.”
“But, what about the humans?” Rarity asked.
“They will have to remain here with you. I’m sorry, but there is nowhere else I can take them. This is the safest place for them and you to be at this time. I must hurry, if anything happens, contact me with a letter and I will come as quickly as possible.”
Hearing the letter part, Twilight’s eyes went wide.
“Oh no! Spike! He was at the Library! I’ve got to go get him! I need to make sure he is alright!”
“No, I will have one of the guards retrieve him. Stay here, you will be safe here.”
With that, Princess Celestia’s horn ignited into a burst of gold, and then she was gone. A moment of silence was exchanged between the two groups, until Haybrun spoke up.
“Is the house structurally sound?” He asked.
“Yea, ah believe so…” Applejack responded.
“Ok, I suggest we all get inside for the time being. We will be able to better protect you all there.”
“What about THEM?” Rainbow hissed, pointing a hoof over towards the humans.
“They will come inside with us as well. We can separate the lot of you if it would make you feel better.”
“I don’t want them anywhere near me!” She shouted out. “YOU probably caused this! I knew you were all lying!” She made an attempt to fly at them out of anger, but was held back by Applejack who grabbed her tail with her mouth.
“Whoa, Rainbow! Now simmer down sugarcube!” Applejack said, trying to restrain the infuriated mare.
“Let go of me!” She yelled out.
“Hey! We didn’t do anything! How could we have? We have been with you the entire time!” Sandman said, trying to reason with Rainbow. Behind them, Nurse Red Heart was treating Andrei, whose wounds had gotten worse and was bleeding profusely. She quickly gave him a shot of penicillin and wrapped some clean bandages around his wounds. She was almost completely oblivious to the argument going on next to her. Truck was doing rather well. He suffered very little injury in the barn, with only a bruise on his right arm and a small gash on his right leg.
“You did something! Everything was fine until you all got here! You probably wanted to kill us all, just like you tried to kill me!”
“Hey, that was me reacting to having something tackle me to the ground and kick me in the face! I did nothing to instigate any form of aggression! You just outright attacked me without warning! Maybe in the future, you shouldn’t be so stubborn and go attacking random strangers before you even know anything about them!
“Who are you calling stubborn?!”
“CALM DOWN!” Haybrun yelled out to Rainbow and Sandman, stepping in front of them to block their view of each other. “The Princess gave me full reign over you all until she gets back or until otherwise instructed, so I am ordering you to restrain yourselves!”
“Yes, sir.” Sandman said, backing away from Rainbow Dash. It took Rainbow a moment, but she eventually backed off as well.
“Good, now all of you get inside. Humans, you will stay in the spare bedroom downstairs. The rest of you will have reign over the rest of the house. White Flash, Storm Breaker, you two will stay outside and guard the home. The rest of you will stay inside with me.” With that, Haybrun turned to Red Heart who was treating Truck by wrapping his leg and chest up and giving him a shot of pain medication.
“Nurse Red Heart, you have no further need here. I want you to go back into town and help those injured there. I will have Wind Dancer escort you back.”
“O-Okay, thank you.” She responded shakily.
With that, Wind Dancer and Red Heart gathered up her medical supplies and went off towards the town. She left a couple of clean bandages and a few shots of pain medicine and penicillin with them just in case something was to happen. Silently, the group entered the house. As the humans entered, they were met with the stares from three new ponies. One was rather big, almost exactly the same height as Sandman, possibly bigger. It had a red coat and an orange mane. Another was rather small and frail with a green coat and white mane. It looked to be rather old, more than likely that Granny Smith Applejack had mentioned. The last one was very small, more than likely a foal. It had a yellow coat with a light red mane. Each one of them stared at them with confusion and interest.
“Applejack, who are they?” The foal asked.
“And what was that noise? Was it an earthquake?” The old one asked.
“They are some animals that got lost and we are gonna to be keepin’ em here for a while. As for the earthquake, I don’t know. It looked like somethin’ exploded out in the Everfree forest.”
“Something really really really really BIG.” Pinkie added on.
“Okay, you humans have this room here.” Haybrun said, pointing his hoof to a room off in a corner. “You will remain there unless I tell you otherwise, understand?”
“Yes, sir.” The group responded in unison. They picked up Grinch and Andrei and carried them into the room. There was a small bed along with a couple chairs, a table, and a couch. They set Truck down on the bed and Andrei on the couch, followed by Haybrun peeking in the door.
“If you need anything, call me.”
With that, he shut the door and the humans were left alone.
“Well, this is an interesting turn of events.” Truck said.
“You can say that again. Boss, do you really think it could have been a manmade explosion?” Grinch asked.
“Oh, I am almost positive that the explosion was manmade. From what I have seen, these ponies are using completely outdated technology, AND their Princess said they don’t focus on weaponry or warfare, so saying they made it would be completely ridiculous.”
“So, what does this mean?”
“It means we got a serious goddamn problem. I’m pretty sure any trust we had with the Princess just flew out the window with that. I just hope that nothing horrible happened, because if it did, well, we are going to be completely fucked.”
“What makes you say that?”
“She asked me if we knew what the explosion was, and I mentioned the possibility of a WMD. Even though I said it more than likely wasn’t, she now knows we have the capability to do something like that. Now, with that new information, who do you think the prime suspects, and for that matter the ONLY suspects here with the capability of causing an explosion like that are right now?”
“The people sitting in this room.” Frost responded without any emotion.
“But it wasn’t us! We didn’t do anything!” Grinch reasoned.
“Yeah, maybe not US, but maybe someone else in this room knows what happened.” Sandman said, turning around to face Andrei.
“O, ne smotri na menya! How could I have done this? I was with you!”
“If not you, then who? Maybe that friend of yours that got away had something up his sleeve?”
“Net, ne Leyonid! He is my brother! We have no WMD’s! How would we launch one?”
“Well, if he was out in those woods, he is either dead or the one responsible for causing that thing to go off. More than likely both.”
“Chert amerikantsy! Ne smey mesto eto odnomu yemu!"
“In English Andrei, we barely understood a word.”
“Not Leyonid… not him. It can’t be him…”
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“Well, looks as though I still have control over my Elements. What is the count now… seven I believe? I got the original five from those foolish ponies who tried to stop me. Heh, what a backfire of a plan. All they did was slow me down, imprison me for an amount of time. Huh, I should have asked that poor fellow what year it was… oh well. Where was I… oh yes! I have those five plus my own element… then the one from the temple. Yes, seven Elements. Now, I wonder where I am.” The man said to nobody in particular.
He was standing alone in the middle of a barren field of dirt and charred remains of trees and plant life. It was a familiar sight. A very familiar sight. A sight he remembered seeing long ago when he first came to this land and met those that he had once called his friends. That was, until they turned on him. Having all these memories flood back to him filled him with anger, an anger none had ever seen before.
For as long as he could remember, a voice inside his head kept telling him…
“Make them pay for what they did to you. Make them suffer. They don’t care about you, so why should you care about them?”
At times, his own thoughts would try to fight back and reason with the voice.
“But, what did they do? They did nothing to me but accept me and keep me safe! Why should I hate them?”
But this was to no avail. The other voice always seemed to win. Now, his own thoughts seemed to be non-existent.
This voice invaded his thoughts in every action, every time he spoke, every time he met another individual. It consumed him from the inside out. There was no stopping it, no blocking it out. It continued to gather strength. It continued to consume his mind. It wasn’t him, it was something else. Something nobody could see or hear or feel. It was something that you could sense though. Like when you sense something is wrong, but can’t exactly tell what it is. It was something that clouded his thoughts, making them not his own.