The Moon Shall Rise From Hell's Ashes

by TundraStanza

Ch. 10: You Know, I Think I Would Have Preferred Snakes

Chapter 10: You Know, I Think I Would Have Preferred Snakes

---{Dilan Shier}

The return train to Canterlot was a little different than the train to Manehatten. In the part that we entered, there were seats along the sides of each car right next to some handlebars to hang on. It was like riding in one of those shuttle buses. It felt like it was going a bit faster than the other train considering how I had to strain my hoof to hold on.

"According to Spirit's letter," explained Faith Shield, "The Everfree Forest has invaded Canterlot. Possibly all of Equestria, too."

"Can a forest really invade a country?" I raised my eyebrow at the idea.

"I wouldn't put that plan past it," he answered with a nod. "That messed up woods has 'unnatural' written all over it. If the animals from the Everfree are capable of fending for themselves, then is sentient plant matter so far behind?"

I tilted my head. "Wait, so you're saying that other animals in Equestria can't live in the wild?"

"Certainly not," he said while readjusting his hoof's hold on his handlebar. "Animals are naturally cared for and protected by the ponies of the land through their various forms of magic. To send an animal into the harsh wilderness is like sending it to its grave."

Dang, I thought, If that isn't extreme domestication, I don't know what is.

"But we should think positively," insisted Faith, "For example, I doubt that the invading forest would think to take over the train station."

There was a sudden shaking. I was abruptly launched into the handlebar on my side of the train car. Faith merely lost balance for a second before steadying his posture.

"That's strange," he commented, "We're not supposed to arrive at the station for at least another five minutes."

"Does this train make any stops between Manehatten and Canterlot?" I inquired while rubbing the sore spot on my shoulder.

Faith shook his head. "Not unless some pony pulled the emergency stop lever."

I wasn't entirely sure what happened next. It sounded like a crash. It looked like something broke through the floor of the train car's rear end. But it was difficult to comprehend exactly what that something was aside from black, prickly, and wearing a face that only Cthulhu could be proud of. Strike that. Cthulhu would be pretty pissed at the comparison.

"Get to the door. Get to the door!" shouted Faith.

I slammed the door open and galloped the heck out of that train. Faith immediately followed after me. However, this unexpected stop wasn't the only unpleasant surprise. I gasped at the sight as I surveyed the location. In almost every direction, more black, prickly tangling things were growing. Even the clouds overhead seemed to be infected with the black pricklies. Behind me, the vines were covering the express train entirely.

I was so engrossed by the instant vineyard that I was caught off guard by a new vine sprouting underneath. In one split second, it had both of my front hooves ensnared. I will shamelessly admit that I yelped like a little girl.

"Hang on!" hollered Faith in a gallop. He opened his wings with what sounded like a sword being drawn. In a second's flash, he cut through the immediate threat and the vine's pieces fell to the ground unmoving.

"Keep your guard up," he advised, "We don't know what these things are capable of."

Another vine with a wide, mouth-like appeared soundlessly behind him.

"Heads up!" I yelled as I whipped my tail around. The red limb collided with the vine, causing said vine to close its mouth. What happened next was somehow weirder than the mutant vines themselves. A large, purple crystal grew out of the space just above the vine before gravity kicked in and pulled it to the ground. The mouthed vine squirmed around underneath the dark rock before ceasing to move.

I blinked, unsure about what happened. However, I had an idiot savant idea.

"Stay back, you thorny plant monsters!" I hollered while holding my tail in the most threatening pose I could think of. "I've got a demon-possessed tail and I'm afraid to use it!"

"Don't you mean you're not afraid to use it?" questioned Faith.

"I know what I said!" I slammed a hoof down for emphasis.

It was wrong of me to rely on the devil that I knew slightly more than the devil I didn't. But at that moment, I was really hoping that this demon could do something about this malignant matter of Mother Nature. Unfortunately, I didn't hear his confident voice that sought to devour hatred. The only sign that he still existed was the fact that I could conjure crystals with my tail. That could help deal with one or two, but we were in trouble if the vines decided to gang up on a single target.

"We need to make a path to Canterlot," Faith declared, "Let's stay close and keep the worst of these vines off each other."

"Got it!" I nodded in firm determination.

Without another word, we went. I galloped at a substantial pace, keeping neck-and-neck with the guard pony. Several vines curled up and over him. His wing slashed through them. Another handful of vines snaked towards me. They all got a beating from my Red Tail of Crystal Crushing (TM). After slapping each vine, large crystals grew out and flattened the thorn ridden branches.

This went on for a long time. Of course, when one runs for their life, any amount of time seems long. Anyway, just when I thought we had reached a reprieve in the weeds, it turns out that there was a huge clump of vines crawling tall and around a dead end in the shape of a cul-de-sac. No matter how many times Faith and I whacked the darn clump, it just grew another extra vine to cripple my crystals and drive back the bladed wings.

"Fan-tipping-flastic," I muttered, "Now what?"

Faith looked around a bit and hummed in thought. He looked back and forth at a couple of points before hopping up.

"Uh, Faith?" I inquired, "Any particular reason you're standing on my back? Your boots are kind of cold."

"Whip that ground beneath you into shape!" he ordered.

...

"What?" I turned my head to look at him like he was nuts.

"Just do it!"

"All right, fine." I gave up. Not quite understanding where he was going with this, I slapped my tail against the ground underneath me several times in succession.

An earthquake rattled me with a severe case of the shivers. This continued as a pillar so wide rose up and launched us high into the sky. I couldn't even hear myself scream against the force of air that this crystal was displacing. As quickly as the shaking and rising started, it ended. Thankfully, I no longer felt cold boots on my back.

"Looks like we're above the spiked clouds," commented Faith while flapping in place.

On the other stand, I was busy performing a scientific experiment. From what elevation could I deposit stomach fluids out through my chompers after so much vertical acceleration in such a short time? What was the result of that experiment? Well, I think one of the vines near the bottom of the pillar got burned by the acid. I couldn't tell for sure, though. It was a fairly long way down.

I took a few deep breaths. "Never let me let you convince me to do that ever again."

"No promises," Faith replied with a smirk.

I shook my head before flapping my wings to follow. It was just in time, too. Some of the vines were already worming their way around and through the crystal pillar's base. Cracks started forming all throughout the artificial structure before it went toppling to the ground in large smithereens.

"I wonder which idiot decided that putting steroids in the fertilizer was a good idea," I muttered before catching up to Faith.

There was still quite a bit of sky to cover from here to Canterlot.

---

The capital city wasn't looking much better than the railroad. With all the wild vines and thorny clouds covering the place, I was willing to call this a situation "flipped up beyond all retrospect".

"Over there!" called Faith, grabbing my attention.

The other vampire pony that I knew was in a bit of a bind. His was cutting through vines around him just fine. But his back hooves were latched onto by some smaller vines. They were in a position that he couldn't quite adjust his wings to reach.

Faith dove down with his wings wide open. Upon hitting the ground, he used his momentum to slide across the way. The little vines around Spirit's back legs were quickly slashed apart.

"You're late," commented Sword.

"Sorry," apologized Shield, "Traffic was terrible."

"But you took the train."

Faith scratched his neck. "Yeah, funny thing about that. It turns out that these plants were smart enough to cut off the rail routes. I had to wing it half the way."

Spirit sighed. "That figures."

The two guards stood back to back as various vines grew around and started closing in on their position.

"What's the plan, partner?" Faith asked.

"Strike down as many of these invaders as possible," answered Spirit.

"I could've thought of that."

Spirit rolled his eyes. "Good. That means you're ready."

Oh, no! They're surrounded! I thought while edging myself forward. I've got to do some- Wah! Where did you come from?

I had to halt myself to avoid crashing into a couple of thorn-covered clouds. How they managed to sneak up in front of me, I'll never know. But then, a third cloud burst in right in front of my face. I yelped and waved a hoof in front of my eyes instinctively.

Upon hitting the closest cloud, I heard a loud zapping noise. I think I saw an electrostatic discharge racing around the cloud. It then gave off a 'poof' before evaporating. The solid thorns fell to the ground with no cloud to hold onto.

"Huh?" I looked down at my hoof cautiously. A few sparks were dancing around the green, purple, and orange streaks on that hoof's metal bracer.

A lightning punch? I wondered. But that move belongs to... Spectrum...

After an awkward pause, I slowly said, "O...kay then. Tail, say hello to your new roommate." Since I was kidding, I was glad that neither of my body parts said anything. "As long as it can deal with these pokey clouds, I'm not complaining."

---{Faith Shield and Spirit Sword, third-person POV}

Their wings created a 'shing' sound when sliding against each other. They bent their hooves and prepared for the worst. One vine came straight for their center. Spirit took a step to his left before brandishing his wing at the offending plant. Another plant with an open mouth launched down at the guards. Faith backflipped, kicked, and sliced the mouth in half. He then took a step to his left before slashing another vine that had come an inch too close.

The two of them continued to circle each other, never exposing their backs to the enemy. Their counterattacks flashed in the simultaneous sunlight and moonlight. Their golden eyes constantly scanned, always anticipating the next strike. With each second that passed, another two vines met their end.

---{Dilan Shier}

"Wow," I murmured, "That fluidity with their fighting style, it's almost like I'm watching one pony."

I then returned to the task of electrocuting the swarm of clouds ganging up on me.

"Ra-Zam!"

More thorns fell through empty sky.

"Come on, you cumolnimbi!" I taunted, "Who's next?"

All of a sudden, the rest of the dark clouds faded in a wave of bright light, thorns and all. I looked down and saw a the same phenomenon happening to the vines all over the city. Spirit Sword and Faith Shield looked just as surprised as I was that the enemy was fading away.

"Um, all right," I said, still confused. "That works too."

---
(The next day...)

So that was the Summer Sun Celebration, huh? I don't know. It seemed a little out of place for a star pattern to appear at the crack of dawn. I mean, shouldn't a representation of the twilight hour happen at... well, twilight?

Still, I thought as I gazed through the window, it is pretty to see.

---

Author's Note:

Because "plunder vines on a train" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Comments

[Zaralann]

Interesting.... more.

[Nihatclodra]

wait... did you have twilight ascend AFTER they returned the elements of harmony to the tree? how would that work?

[TundraStanza]

4409951 , Uh, no. That's not what I had Twilight do.
Season 3 Ending: Twilight Sparkle became a princess.
Season 4 opener part 2: The Elements were returned to the Tree of Harmony. Then, Twilight Sparkle performed a "Twilight Boom" during the 1001st Summer Sun Celebration.
I don't really see what's confusing about that.

[Nihatclodra]

4409977 Oh, I forgot about that... wait, I still don't remember twilight being an Alicorn in this fanfic yet... did she ascend while Dilan was in Manehatten?

[TundraStanza]

4410049 , Allow me to point out some interesting passages from Chapter 2: The Candle That Burns.

Twilight Sparkle (for once) saw the importance of a friend in need first. Placing a hoof on the shoulder of her fellow princess, she nodded and wore a brave smile.

“I don’t know for sure,” admitted Twilight, “In any case, we should probably let Princess Celestia know about this.”
“Way ahead of you, Your Majesty,” interrupted Faith Shield.

Hope that clears things up at least a little.

[Nihatclodra]

4410093 Well then... *imprints brick wall with image of my face*

[Nealend86]

So Sombra lives in her tail. Was it him that devoured Spectrum or was it the remains of Nightmare Moon?

[Tome Turner]

Absorb ALL the villains!

[Just_A_Nopony]

Hold up, you said in a chapter or two ago that Twilacorn wasn't let onto a cab cause of reasons, but that happened AFTER the vines, didn't it

[TundraStanza]

4467370 ,



Well, you got me there!
Congrats.
Dang it. How did I overlook that?

[Kage no Brony]

4411627

My thought is that the Nightmare Forces (see the comics) are fragments of a dead god or godlike being, and Dilan can absorb these fragments to begin piecing the being back together. Or something.

[Arnyx]

"flipped up beyond all retrospect".

Last I checked, “recognition” isnt a swear word