The Quest for the Rainbow of Light

by Al-1701

Chapter 2: Trouble Comes on Many Legs

Wind Whistler threw herself back and she pulled the seat of the sofa out into a bed. Wind Whistler let go of the edge and fell onto her back. She quickly rolled over and got back on her hooves.

“On paper a convertible sofa was no doubt a good idea,” Wind Whistler said. “However, I do not believe they thought of how difficult they are to open and close.”

However, it was the one action needed to turn the den into a second bedroom.

“Thank you for letting me stay at your place.” Fizzy climbed up onto the sofa turned bed. “I’m not sure if the inn would accept the gems I brought.”

“They would, but our ‘friends’ from earlier and the rest of the Apples typically spend their evenings there,” Wind Whistler said. “You will be safe here in the weather office.”

“You’re the weather mare?” Fizzy asked.

Wind Whistler nodded and turned to show the cutie mark of two pink whistles and one blue whistle a few shades darker than her coat. “I got my cutie mark when I realized a major storm was coming into the barony and sounded the alarm. Once I was an adult, they made me the local meteorologist.”

Fizzy furrowed her brow. “What do meteors have to do with weather?”

Wind Whistler rolled her eyes. She had heard that question many times before. It was typically a mean joke. However, how innocently Fizzy asked it made her smile. Weather forecasting was probably much less scientific in the more predictable desert climate.

Fizzy bounced gently up and down the cushions and felt them give under her hooves. “So, what was all that about back at the library?”

Wind Whistler paused. Should she tell this newcomer everything? She saw the Spectral Compass work, so she might as well know.

“This cannot be told to anypony else,” Wind Whistler said sternly. “We should not even be discussing it outside of that room in the library.”

Fizzy swallowed and looked on with wide eyes and the corners of her mouth pulled in tight.

“We have dedicated ourselves to rebuilding the pony nation,” Wind Whistler explained. “We are tired of the griffons and just about everything else having their way in our territory and ponies being so divided. However, some ponies like our baroness and the Apples as well as non-ponies are against reunification and would put a stop to our plans if they ever found out. That is why we have to keep this a secret.”

“I can keep a secret,” Fizzy said, holding up her left hoof and crossing her chest with her right.

Wind Whistler smiled because she could not stop herself from smiling seeing this.

“What was that thing you had?” Fizzy asked. “What does it do?”

“We believe the device is the Spectral Compass,” Wind Whistler said. “It was built by Starwirl the Bearded more than two thousand years ago to lead to the Rainbow of Light.”

Fizzy furrowed her brow. “The Rainbow of Light?”

“Have you heard of the Elements of Harmony?” Wind Whistler asked.

Fizzy nodded.

“It is believed the Rainbow of Light was the magical force Starswirl the Bearded used to forge the Elements in the first place,” Wind Whistler said. “Our hope is to find the Rainbow of Light and forge a new set since the original Elements of Harmony were lost when Equestria fell. Then we can find the ponies who represent the Elements, so we can cast the spell that will create an alicorn who can unite ponykind as its new princess.”

Fizzy gasped with her eyes as wide as they can get. “Wow,” she gasped.

Wind Whistler frowned. “However, I am tepid about this method of unification.”

Fizzy frowned too. “How come?”

“I do not believe installing a princess is what ponies need,” Wind Whistler said. “I think ponies should be united, but not under some ruler. I would prefer that we became more democratic and active in our race’s destiny than leaving it to a powerful few.”

“I guess you’re right,” Fizzy said absentmindedly, perhaps not fully grasping everything Wind Whistler said.

“Anyway, enough about me and my colleagues,” Wind Whistler said. “What about you? It must have been a difficult journey from the Jewel Desert.”

“It wasn’t too bad,” Fizzy replied. “I traveled mostly night since crystal ponies can see really well in the dark.”

So their eyes are different from normal pony eyes beyond their geometry, Wind Whistler thought. Normal ponies had terrible night vision, but the crystal ponies’ odd eyes must have been better at collecting the low levels of light.

Fizzy stretched out on the sofa.

Wind Whistler turned her attention to her cutie mark: three pink soda glasses with white heads of foam on them and pink straws coming out of the foam. She furrowed her brow. “That is an odd cutie mark for a pony who grew up in the desert to have.”

Fizzy looked to her flank. “That’s what a lot of ponies in Berylon said. Many say my special talent is raising ponies’ spirits like a glass of soda on a hot day.”

“You have soda out there?” Wind Whistler asked.

Fizzy shook her head. “Not all the time. Some traders from the east brought some.” Fizzy smiled and licked her lips. “It was so good. It was actually when I got my cutie mark. At that point I decided I would travel east to where they make soda once I was an adult.”

Fizzy frowned. “Do they make soda here in Ponyville?”

“We make some,” Wind Whistler replied. “We make some cherry sodas, but apple cider is the beverage of choice here.”

“Well, I’ll have to try some.” Fizzy stretched. “Right now, I need an afternoon siesta.”

Fizzy relaxed and her eyelids fell partially over her eyes.

Wind Whistler picked up the blanket she had gotten out and threw it over Fizzy.

“Thank you,” Fizzy said drowsily.

Wind Whistler walked up to the window and pulled down the shade.

“Wind Whistler,” Fizzy said in the midst of a yawn.

Wind Whistler turned back to the unicorn. “Yes?”

“Do you have any brothers or sisters?” Fizzy asked.

Wind Whistler furrowed her brow. That was an odd question to ask before going to sleep. However, she saw no harm in answering. “No. I have many cousins scattered throughout the neighboring baronies, but I am an only foal.”

“I am too,” Fizzy said. “I had always wanted a big sister, and I would have loved her to be like you.”

Wind Whistler paused to think about the prospect. Having said she would be responsible for Fizzy to the Apples and her colleagues, she had become something similar to a big sister to her. She was actually just Fizzy’s unofficial advocate, but she wanted there to be more of a relationship than that.

Wind Whistler felt a kind of tenderness towards Fizzy, especially seeing her nod off to sleep. It was different than her romantic feelings towards Hurricane. Perhaps it was what a big sister felt towards a little sister.

She only met Fizzy earlier that morning, but she already felt they had something in common. Perhaps it was how they were both alone in a crowd. Fizzy was a newcomer to one of the less welcoming baronies while Wind Whistler was considered austere and distant with her complicated vocabulary getting away from her at times and tendency to rely more on logic and critical thinking than emotions and instinct.

Fizzy also did not seem repulsed by these things in her. Like Hurricane, she seemed to admire them. Wind Whistler felt happy to meet another pony who appreciated her virtues.

There was also just something about Fizzy. Her genuinely bubbly personality was a change from the forced contentment that passed as happiness in Ponyville. Her special talent was definitely lifting your spirits. May her innocence and optimism never be dulled by reality, Wind Whistler thought.

Wind Whistler could never be Fizzy’s real big sister or anypony’s big sister since her parents were well past foal-bearing age. However, she would like to be this young mare’s big sister in all the ways that really counted. If this day was any indication, life in Ponyville would be much more enjoyable with her around.

“Have a good rest, ‘Little Sister,’” Wind Whistler whispered under her breath. She pushed down the switch on the wall to close the blinders around the sun crystal in the main lamp.

* * *

Arachnis stopped on small ridge and looked down at the valley blow him. A village of thatch roofed buildings sat along a small river. It was predawn, but he saw a couple of ponies in the streets cleaning in front of the buildings. Arachnis’ mouth peeled into a grin.

One of the spiders crawled up onto Arachnis’ shoulder. “At last we find our prey,” she said in the spider’s language of hissing and mandible rattling.

“Yes,” Arachnis replied. “It seems the ponies are much less numerous than the last time we visited Equestria. However, that will make the task of eliminating their kind that much easier.”

Arachnis twirled his flute in his hands. “I hope you enjoyed your barrowed time ponies because it’s time to pay the piper.”

Arachnis put his flute to his lips. He had not played the Diminishing Melody for a thousand years. He could have used those canine miners for practice, but decided to save his liberators the terror. Besides, he knew every note by heart.

Arachnis blew over the mouthpiece of the flute and began to play. As a musical piece, the Diminishing Melody was a haunting tune, indicative of its sinister powers. As the player, he could actually see the music as a purple bar with notes twisting and curling out of the end of the flute and slithering across the ground towards the village. It branched out and reconnected as it entered the collection of buildings. The bar and notes passed through the buildings and traveled down the streets. The whole village looked like was covered in a spider’s web.

As much as Arachnis liked the visual and audio aesthetics of the Diminishing Melody, it was the power that interested him and his horde. The power began working as the bar surrounded the unsuspecting ponies in the street and they shrank down to the point they could not be seen. The same thing was happening to the ponies in the houses. They could not see or hear the spell, but the ponies were certainly feeling the effects as they shrank to the size of insects.

Arachnis played the final note of the melody and took flute away from his lips. The bars and notes faded, but they had done their job.

“Let the long belated annihilation of the pony race begin,” Arachnis said.

* * *

Hurricane awoke to what sounded like a fly hitting a pane of glass. He opened his eyes and sat up in bed. Everything seemed normal.

He rolled out of bed and went to the window. The streets were empty. That was not normal. There were typically some shop owners preparing to open even at this normal hour.

Hurricane shrugged and stretched. Since he was already up and it was almost dawn he decided to start his morning rituals.

* * *

Wind Whistler tapped on the door to the guest room. “Are you awake, Fizzy?”

“Sure,” Fizzy replied from inside. “Come in.”

Wind Whistler pushed down on the door handle and pushed the door open. “You must have been really tired because you slept right through the evening. It is almost sun up.”

Fizzy was using a brush to brush her curly mane. “I guess your sofa bed was so comfortable compared to sleeping in a sleeping bag on the ground.” Fizzy stretched. “I haven’t felt this well rested since I left Berylon.”

Wind Whistler smiled. “Glad to hear it. You are actually up in time for one of my favorite things to do in the morning.” She motioned to the window. “Do you want to come?”

“Sure,” Fizzy said.

Wind Whistler pushed the window open and flew out. She landed on the roof. Fizzy appeared next to her in a flash of pink.

“You sit on top of her house?” Fizzy asked.

Wind Whistler chuckled. “Yes, but there is a reason why.” Wind Whistler pointed east. “Look to the horizon.”

They looked to the eastern horizon. They were just in time as the sun peeked out into the open. Wind Whistler could never get tired to seeing it.

“Wow,” Fizzy gasped. “That’s great.”

“I have to imagine the sunrises in the Jewel Desert are quite impressive,” Wind Whistler said. She could imagine the tricks of light the crystals had to play at sunrise and sunset.

Fizzy nodded. “Berylon is made entirely of crystal, so when the sun comes up and sets the whole city is bathed in rainbows. However, the sun is doing all the work here.”

Wind Whistler happened to look down into the street: the empty street. She scowled confusedly.

Fizzy turned to Wind Whistler. “What is it?”

“Where is everypony?” Wind Whistler asked under her breath. “There should be ponies up and about by now.”

* * *

Paradise sighed in relief when she saw Powder and Hurricane clad in one of his aloha shirts coming down one street towards the library and Wind Whistler and Fizzy coming down the other. “That accounts for all of us.”

Monsoon scowled. “But only us. Everypony else in town has disappeared.”

“I don’t like this,” Shady whimpered. “What if they’re plotting against us? You heard the baroness yesterday. She knows about us.”

“Let ‘em come,” Gusty grumbled in response. A small tornado swirled around her horn as it gained an aura. “I’ll blast the whole town into next week if I have to.”

“The town isn’t plotting against us,” Magic Star scolded. She turned her attention to the street. “I think something much worse has happened.”

Shady suddenly yelped. Everyone turned to her.

Shade was sitting up against the wall and pointing with a trembling hoof. “Th-th-there’s a tiny Surprise right there!”

“A tiny Surprise?” Powder asked.

“Yeah! Right there!” Shade pointed.

Paradise adjusted her glasses and squinted. There was a white object maybe the size of a large fly. It flew towards her and she could tell it was pony-shaped with a frizzy, vibrant yellow mane and tail. It was Surprise as she hovered right in front of Paradise.

“Surprise!” Paradise blurted.

“Well, at least my powers of surprise haven’t shrunk,” Surprise said in her very small voice like she was shouting from far away.

“What happened to you?” Paradise asked.

“I don’t know, but the whole town has shrunk except for you guys,” Surprise said. “Baroness Crown Jewel has called a meeting in the square.”

“That must be why we did not see anypony,” Wind Whistler said. “They were so small we missed them.”

After a pause Wind Whistler exclaimed, “Check you hooves!”

Paradise quickly checked under her front hooves. “Check my back hooves,” Paradise said to Gusty as she lifted up one and then the other.

“You’re clean,” Gusty said.

Paradise sighed in relief.

Gusty lifted her up her back hoof. “What about me?”

Gusty put down her hoof and raised the other. Thankfully both only had some trail dust on them.

“You’re fine,” Paradise said.

“Uh oh,” Hurricane said in a small voice.

Paradise felt her heart jump into her throat. She turned him fearing the worst. Hurricane looked at his hoof with a horrified expression. Paradise felt a chill go down her fine as she tried to think of what pony met their fate under that hoof.

Hurricane suddenly grinned and showed his dusty but otherwise clean hoof. “I’m clean.”

Paradise felt the urge to both smack her hoof on her forehead and break out laughing but fought both off. She only shook her head. Hurricane and his sick sense of humor, she thought.

Gusty smacked Hurricane upside the head. Not hard enough to really hurt him, but hard enough Hurricane glared at Gusty while he rubbed the back of his head. This got a giggle out of Paradise as well as the others.

“Let’s go to the square and figure out what happened,” Magic Star said once she got control of herself.

* * *

Ponyville’s square was where the old tree turned library had once stood. The site of it was now a monument to the bearers of the Elements of Harmony with a statue of the six mares. However, it was the crowd of tiny ponies gathered in front of the statue that grabbed Wind Whistler’s attention.

Wind Whistler strained to hear the conversations.

“I was lost under my own bedspread,” Heartthrob explained to another pony.

“I don’t wanna be a little filly forever!” some filly Wind Whistler did not know sobbed.

Crown Jewel stood behind a megaphone lying on the ground. “Everypony shut up for five seconds!” she said angrily through the amplifying device, but was only at maybe normal volume.

Wind Whistler and the others stopped at the edge of the group.

“Well, well,” Crown Jewel said in a snarky tone. “Look who’s particularly big today. It’s Magic Star and her little secret society.”

The tiny ponies all turned to them.

“And they have the foreigner from yesterday with them!” Apple Bumpkin shouted.

“I bet this was her doing, and they’re all in on it!” Apple Cinnamon Crisp added.

Fizzy backed up behind Wind Whistler.

“Why aren’t we big-sized?” Hurricane whispered to Wind Whistler from the corner of his mouth.

“I have a theory as to why we are immune to whatever miniaturized the others,” Wind Whistler whispered.

“I didn’t do anything,” Fizzy said as tiny ponies surrounded her. She looked up and pointed down a street off to the side. “I mean, that scary, two-legged thing is big too.”

Wind Whistler swung to the side. Walking down the street was a tall, two-legged creature wearing a long coat and wide brimmed hat. Its skin was gray and its eyes were gold on black whites. Wind Whistler felt the hair on her back stand on end seeing the ghastly creature.

Shady jumped behind Powder and curled up into a trembling ball.

The creature glared at them. “Why didn’t my diminishing spell work on you?” He was apparently male with a voice like that.

“We were just talking about that, actually.” Hurricane forced a weak laugh.

The creature curled back his lip to expose his pointy, yellow teeth.

A carpet of tarantula-sized spiders and large scorpions filled the street around the creature. He pointed forward. The spiders and scorpions swarmed into the square.

“We need to remain calm,” Wind Whistler said, trying to keep from succumbing to panic herself.

Screams came from the crowd and the tiny ponies ran in random directions.

“Did you forget where we live?” Gusty asked sharply.

The pegasi took to the air, but the spiders were throwing up nets of webbing connecting into a large net that trapped them like flies. The ground-based ponies tried to find hiding places, but the arachnids chased them down.

Monsoon bared his teeth. “If we could have kept everypony in one place we would have had a defensible position. There are too many ponies to protect and too many arachnids to fight with them scattered all over the place.”

“Well, they only have one boss,” Gusty said. “We take him out, and the arachnids will follow.”

Wind Whistler looked to the creature. He was staggering at even normal size. He was gaunt, but Wind Whistler knew he had to have powerful magic on his side if he could shrink the whole barony without exposing himself.

Shady walked up to Gusty. “How are supposed to beat him?”

“By any means necessary,” Gusty replied.

Gusty grabbed Shady who yelped as Gusty lifted her over her head. “PONY PILE ON!”

“Pony what?” Shady asked before yelping as Gusty chucked her forward.

Shady screamed as she flew forward. She landed square on the creature’s chest. She looked up fearfully as he glared down at her. Gusty then jumped on him. Hurricane and Powder jumped on him.

As stupid as this strategy was, Wind Whistler was at a loss for a better idea. She ran at the creature and jumped onto the pile.

All ten of them were on top of him including Paradise and Monsoon. Wind Whistler felt the creature’s legs giving way under their weight. However, a crackling energy filled the air. Before she knew it she was hit with a force that sent her flying backwards and away from him.

Wind Whistler used her wings right herself in her tumble. She planted her hooves and skidded to a stop. The others tumbled across the ground.

“We showed him,” Hurricane said with obvious sarcasm.

“Shut up,” Gusty grumbled.

Gusty got her hooves. “All right, big guy, let’s see how you like this.”

Gusty pointed her horn forward and a brilliant aura formed around it. A powerful blast of wind erupted from Gusty’s horn. The wind hit the creature squarely in the torso and sent him flying back into a house. He hit with such force and broke through the wall.

Gusty picked up her head as the aura faded and grinned. “Let’s see him get up from that.”

The claws of the creature gripped the sides of the hole his impact had made. If it had not been attached to her skull, Gusty’s jaw would have hit the ground. Wind Whistler was just as shocked to see the creature take such a blow and seem barely fazed.

“Well, we saw it,” North Star said.

Gusty shot North Star a dagger of a glare.

The creature looked to his hand and then patted his jacket and looked around frantically. Wind Whistler was not sure what he was looking for until he picked up a gold flute from the ground next to the hole in the house.

Powder stepped forward. “If hotheadedness won’t work, let’s cool things down.”

Powder shot one of the most powerful beams Wind Whistler had ever seen her create at the creature. The beam hit the creature and an icy mist exploded around him. The mist cleared to reveal the creature in a thick layer of ice.

“How do you like that?!” Powder pointed at the frozen creature. “I put you on ice!”

Powder grinned smugly. She then noticed Gusty glaring at her. “What?”

“Amateur,” Gusty said.

Powder scowled. “Your catchphrases are just as cheesy.”

Wind Whistler turned her attention to the creature and walked up to him. He was an oddity to behold. A true biped standing perfectly erect with the foot on the ground all the way to the heel. The front limbs ended in claws more dexterous than any griffon or dragon. Then there was that strange flute he was so desperate to find.

Wind Whistler’s train of thought was shattered by a sudden crack in the ice. She looked up, and those ghastly eyes shifted in her direction. Wind Whistler felt her blood run cold like she was trapped in the ice.

Wind Whistler ran away from the creature. “He is still alive in there and attempting to get out!”

“No way!” Powder exclaimed. “That should have been like a cart load of liquid nitrogen exploding on him.”

A sickening crack came from behind Wind Whistler. Another hairline fracture spread across the ice.

“Might I also add all this time the arachnids have been having their way with local population?” Monsoon said sternly.

“What do we do, Magic Star?” Paradise asked.

“I…I…” Magic Star tried to say.

“We abandon Ponyville,” Wind Whistler said what she was thinking.

The others look to her with shocked and horrified expressions. Wind Whistler was just mortified with the prospect. However, after what she had seen, she saw little choice in the matter.

Wind Whistler turned to Paradise and Monsoon. “Paradise and Monsoon, collect everything you can for a long journey including the Spectral Compass.”

Paradise and Monsoon nodded. They then galloped away towards the library.

Wind Whistler turned to North Star. “We will take care of the maps.”

“Right,” North Star replied.

Wind Whistler turned to the rest of the group. “The rest of you try to save as many ponies as you can as well as gather whatever supplies you come across.”

“You got it,” Hurricane said.

Wind Whistler turned back to North Star. “Come on.”

Wind Whistler broke into a dead gallop towards town hall. She looked around her. Thick nets of webs hung from every tree and building. Ponies struggled in the sticky threads as spiders and scorpions crawled towards them. Ponyville was already lost. All they could do was run for their lives in the hopes of fighting another day.

* * *

Truly ran down the expansive plain that was Hoofer Street. She glanced behind her at the brown scorpion the size of a bear compared to her. The stinger on its long tail loomed high above her and it lunged one of its large pincers at her. She jumped to avoid the swipe and hit the ground to continue her run without losing a step.

Truly had treated a number of scorpion stings as a nurse. Some of the species were dangerous ponies at normal size. At her current size, where the thing’s stinger would go halfway through her body, she did not want to think of what would happen to her.

Her legs were getting heavy from being in a dead run for so long. Her throat burned with every breath and her hurt pounded against the inside of her chest. She was not the most athletic pony, especially for an earth pony. However, she was on pure adrenaline now. Discomfort beat death.

Truly suddenly felt something close around her midsection and lift her off the ground. She looked back and she thought her heart had stopped. The scorpion had her in its pincer. Its many eyes seemed to focus on her.

Truly covered her eyes with her hooves. This was the end. The only question was how: sting, crushed in the pincer, or just eaten alive. Either way it did not matter in the end.

Truly suddenly dropped to the ground and the pincer slowly loosened its grip. She slowly took her hooves away from her eyes. A large rock sat where the scorpion had been with its pincers sticking out from under it. Truly felt sick to her stomach for a moment at the thought of the scorpion’s gruesome fate. She then reminded herself it was better it than her.

She looked to see one of the full-sized ponies standing above the rock. It was the white pegasus stallion who always wore those tacky shirts like the one he was wearing at the moment.

The stallion lowered his head to the ground. “Hop on.”

“Thank you for savin’ me,” Truly said in her refined drawl. She jumped into the tangled mess the stallion called a mane. “To whom do Ah owe the pleasuh?”

“Your friendly neighborhood Hurricane, Ma’am” the stallion said.

Truly held on to as much mane as she could as Hurricane carefully lifted his head.

Sundance and Ribbon and suddenly poked their heads of out the wine red forest of hair. Truly heaved a sigh of relief. “Sundance, Ribbon, Ah’m so glad youh both safe. Is there any pony else?”

“We’re the only ones Hurricane has saved so far,” Ribbon replied.

“But what do we do now?” Truly asked. “Ah can’t see me takin’ up residence in this rat’s nest.”

“I heard that,” Hurricane grumbled. “We’re getting out of Ponyville while the getting’s good.”

Hurricane looked down to some rumbling at his hooves. Truly followed his vision to the rock with the scorpion’s pincers sticking out from under it. To her horror, the rock was moving.

“That thing is still alive?” Truly gasped.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Hurricane grumbled under his breath.

Hurricane took a step back as the rock lifted up. The scorpion underneath crawled out barely injured. It looked dazed at first, but quickly regained its sense.

Hurricane was airborne so fast it was all Truly could do to hold on and not fall off. Hurricane looked back at the scorpion as it crawled on top of the rock and raised its pincers menacingly.

Truly looked ahead to a thick net of webbing between a tree and a building they were heading straight towards. “Look out!”

Truly ducked into Hurricane’s mane as he flew through it. He coughed and sputtered as he threw the webbing off. Truly raised her head above the hair to see nothing but some strands of webbing left. Sundance and Ribbon raised their heads out too. Truly sighed in relief.

A shadow spread over Truly. The relief was gone, replaced by terror. She turned around to see a giant spider looming over them.

“Spider!” Sundance shrieked.

“Duck!” Hurricane shouted.

“Not duck, spider!” Truly corrected.

“No, duck!” Hurricane pointed forward at the sign to Bug Off’s extermination business.

Truly immediately ducked into Hurricane’s mane. She heard a smack as a narrow shadow passed over them. She poked her head up and looked back. The spider fell from the sign.

Truly glared down at Hurricane. “Some rescue.”

“You’re still alive, aren’t you?” Hurricane retorted.

* * *

Wind Whistler bucked in the door to the map room. There was no reason to care about property now. She spun around and trotted in with North Star. The room was filled with maps hanging from the walls, sitting in stacks, and rolled up in cubbyholes.

“Now what?” North Star asked.

“Take as many maps as you can carry,” Wind Whistler said. “We’ll burn the rest.”

“Burn?!” North Star exclaimed.

Wind Whistler scowled. “I highly doubt these things will stop at Ponyville. We cannot leave them a way to find the other baronies. Fortunately these are the only modern political maps in town.”

“We’ll have to go through the maps to find the best ones to take,” North Star said.

“Then let us hurry,” Wind Whistler replied.

Wind Whistler took out several maps from a cubbyhole and spread them out on the table.

* * *

Shady skid to a stop and looked around. Webs and spiders crawling across them were everywhere. She did not see any ponies. Though, she did see some clumps in the webbing that were big enough to hold a shrunken pony.

“Help me, whoever you are!” someone shrieked.

Shady looked down. Crown Jewel was trapped in a net of webbing. A spider was dragging her in.

“Don’t just stand there!” Crown Jewel shouted as she was dragged in. “Get me out of this!”

Shady looked to the spider. She raised her hoof, but the spider lifted its legs and brandished its long, sharp fangs. It gave an aggressive hiss and lunged at Shady. Shady drew her hoof back and backed away.

The spider pulled Crown Jewel in closer.

“Please!” Crown Jewel pleaded. She was dragged closer. “I’ll never bother your group again! I’ll even make you a rich mare!”

The spider brought Crown Jewel under itself.

Crown Jewel looked up at the fangs of the spider. “No! You can’t do this to me! I’m a baroness!”

Shady screwed her eyes shut to not see what happened next. She wished she could do the same for her ears as she heard Crown Jewel scream and then stop suddenly. With her eyes still closed she turned and ran in the opposite direction.

* * *

Wind Whistler rolled up a stack of maps. She and North Star were almost done. The walls and cubbyholes were now bare. North Star shoved one last map in her bulging saddlebag. “That’s all the maps I can carry,” North Star said.

“Then let us take the rest out and burn them,” Wind Whistler said. “I suspect our attacker will be able to free himself any minute.”

Wind Whistler and North Star wrapped their front legs around stacks of maps. They took them out of the map room and out the opened door to town hall. Wind Whistler was disheartened to see the webs had only gotten thicker once they were outside. Wind Whistler dropped the maps in a metal garbage can. North Star did the same and packed the rolled up papers in.

Wind Whistler opened her saddlebag and pulled out a box of matches. She placed the box on the ground and pushed it open. She took a match, struck it across the side the box and threw the lit match in the garbage can. Where the match touched paper began to blacken immediately, and flame singed more paper to start more expanding black spots. Wind Whistler took a stick off the ground and broke up the papers as they burned. She left the stick the can as a flames shot out of the can carrying some pieces of brunt paper up into the rippling air above them.

“Let’s get the others and leave,” North Star said.

Wind Whistler felt a pit form in her stomach. They were really leaving Ponyville like this. However, she fought it off.

She turned back to North Star who was already galloping towards the square. Wind Whistler closed the match box and put it in her saddlebag. She followed North Star towards the square.

* * *

Magic Star watched Gusty hold her head low with her horn pointed forward. She blasted a spider into a wall. The Spider actually flattened out some upon impact. It fell off the wall and onto the ground. It hopped on its legs and took an aggressive stance.

“What do you have to do to kill these things?” Gusty growled.

“We’re supposed to be saving ponies,” Magic Star scolded.

“I saved some pony.” Gusty tilted her head. Cherries Jubilee poked her head out, her peach coat and orange hair standing out against Gusty’s mane.

Magic Star shook her head. She then saw Paradise and Monsoon and weaving between the webs laden with bulging saddlebags and other equipment. North Star and Wind Whistler were coming from town hall too.

She turned to Powder, Hurricane, and Fizzy. Magic Star herself managed to save Buttons and Cupcake who were hunkered down in her green mane. Surprise, Sparkler, Posey, and Heartthrob were in Powder’s mane. Ribbon, Sundance, and Truly were in Hurricane’s. Fizzy had Lickety-Split and Lofty in her mane. Gusty had only saved Cherries Jubilee she jumped on her. She had spent all this time trying futilely to kill the arachnids that seemed as indestructible as their leader.

This made Magic Star remember their leader. She turned back to the ice incased creature. The ice was crisscrossed with cracks. Some small pieces had fallen away. He would be out and mad as all get out anytime.

Paradise and Monsoon dropped much of the equipment on the ground next to the group. “Gear up,” Monsoon said.

North Star and Wind Whistler stopped. “We’re ready to go.”

Magic Star looked around. “Where’s Shady?”

Gusty motioned to rattling crate. “Where else?”

Gusty turned around and blew the crate away to reveal Shady curled in a shuddering ball.

“Then we’re ready to go,” Powder said.

“Wait,” Paradise interjected. “There might still be ponies we can rescue.”

The creature’s arm suddenly burst from the ice and flexed.

“I hate to say it, but time’s up.” Hurricane spread his wings. “If we don’t leave now, might not leave at all.”

The other pegasi spread their wings. They took off and broke through the webbing. Magic Star took one look around before following after Shady and the unicorns galloping down the street. She never thought she would see Ponyville fall. It survived the dissolution of Equestria, but here it was the latest ruin of a ruined nation.

Another loud crack sent her into a dead gallop after the others.

* * *

Arachnis broke out of the last of the ice. He took a few stiff steps and shuddered off the chill. He grimaced and snarled.

“Why didn’t the Diminishing Melody work on you?” Arachnis growled. “There’s something about you, some kind of energy coming off you. It’s familiar.”

Arachnis pushed the issue aside. The town was theirs. He turned to a statue of the Element Bearers covered in webs.

Arachnis grinned. “So much for the magic of friendship, ladies. You’re dead” ---he pointed to himself in a jabbing fashion--- “but I endure.”

Arachnis made his way to the town hall. A can with smoke coming out of it sat next to the kicked in front door. Several spiders and scorpions stood around it.

“What is this?” a spider asked as Arachnis came up to them.

Arachnis looked in at the glowing ash. He reached in and pulled out a larger piece of ash. He ignored the intense heat as he examined it. It was badly burned, but he could make out the perpendicular lines drawn on it.

Arachnis scowled. “They burned their maps.”

Comments

[Sunstar]

Keep going!

I have a suggestion. Spacing out paragraphs breaks up the text and makes it far easier to read. Just a friendly suggestion.

[Al-1701]

3115399 Thanks for the suggestion. I just did that.

[EZTP]

3115399>>3115577
If you have a fanfiction account, this can automatically be done in the document editor to perfection

[Leave a Whisper]

smart move, I like that your realistic enough not to make everyone a hero