Innocent

by Puzzle Piece

Act III: Chapter Twenty-Nine: On the Home Front, Part 1

Applejack dosed standing up. She’d been awake now for almost thirty hours straight. Since the news of the imminent Troll army had arrived late yesterday, she hadn’t given herself the time to feel tired. Now that there was the slightest pause, she couldn’t help but close her eyes for a moment. The ponies with her were in worse shape, passed out in their armor where they waited at the edge of town. It had been a difficult night.

When news of the coming attack had first reached Ponyville, there had been a moment of panic. Despite the plans they’d made for evacuation, the townsponies were unprepared for the moment to actually arrive to carry them out. At first there was confusion. Some ponies were in denial, convinced it was just a rumor being spread as a prank with poor tastes. Others disregarded the procedures that had been agreed upon and fled the town on their own. For the first hour, the only cohesive response was to be found in the ranks of the volunteers, who came running from their houses and the tents of the refugee camp to arm themselves. As the Mayor tried to regain control of the distressed populace, the troops marched in relative calm and assembled at the west edge of town.

As soon as the news spread through the refugee camp, there had been a surge of activity. They already knew what it was to be driven by the enemy and now they had less to leave behind. Half the camp was on the road by the time the troops had finished gathering, while the rest of town was only beginning to remember their plans. Some of the troops were held up by tearful family, wishing them luck or begging them not to go into battle. But their commitment to their fellow volunteers won out and close to two hundred ponies, armor clad and armed, met on the west side of town. They were all visibly afraid and made equally visible efforts to hide it. More than a few had looked to Applejack as she took her place in their formation, seeking a measure of reassurance. It had been hard for her to think that they were relying on training she’d provided to face this danger and it made her reconsider how ready she felt to be marching into battle. But she hadn’t allowed herself to dwell on it long. She’d had an army to lead and a town to defend and it demanded her full attention.

She led them out to their first line of defense, which had been the first few miles at the edge of Whitetail Woods. Those tree-lined paths were familiar to most of the ponies of Ponyville, and the volunteers from among the refugees had gotten accustomed to them during training. In small groups, they found cover where they could ambush the Trolls as they passed by. They were split up in small groups of five and spread out through the trees. There they had waited for the Trolls. When night had fully fallen, the enemy appeared. It was chaos from the very start. Their surprise attack caught the Trolls off guard for a moment, but the battle-hardened Trolls quickly organized to counterattack.

Many ponies fled back to town, unprepared for the ferocity of battle and overcome by their fear. Those who stayed put the second phase of their plan into action. Instead of standing their ground, they took off deeper into the trees, keeping just ahead of the Trolls to draw them away from town. Applejack had warned them that they would be unlikely to win if they allowed themselves to be engaged on the enemy’s terms. So they changed the terms to buy time for their families to seek safety to the east. After three hours of weaving through the trees and dodging Trolls on all sides, Applejack led her team back toward Ponyville. They were all struggling against their fatigue, but the night was far from over. The other teams pulled out as well over the next two hours, each measuring their own limits. Some of the ponies who had fled at the start regrouped with them then.

When the Trolls realized their quarry had slipped away, they reformed their lines and advanced out of the trees. At that signal, the Pegasus members of the defenders took to the air, slipping on silent wings through the black sky. When the javelins started to fall, the Trolls were held up by their surprise, seeking out the new attackers. With no way to strike back against them, they pushed forward doggedly. The ponies charged out to meet them. But just before their lines met, the ponies turned to either side and went around them, back into the trees. The Trolls, enraged by the lack of direct engagement, gave chase with thrown weapons and shouts. Then the whole process began again, with the Trolls hunting through the trees for elusive prey that stayed one step ahead of them.

As dawn began to touch the eastern horizon, the Trolls withdrew deeper into the Woods and gave chase no more. The ponies, on the verge of collapse, welcomed the respite and returned to town. Now they had kept watch, anticipating the Trolls’ return. For the entire morning, they hadn’t relaxed their vigil. Applejack knew they wouldn’t be able to rest properly until the Trolls had been dealt with or they were able to escape themselves. She was vaguely aware of a conversation taking place behind her, but she didn’t break out of her doze until she heard her name.

“Our evacuations would have been completed by now, if not for stubborn ponies that are refusing to leave,” one voice was saying.

“Why could they possibly choose to stay?” another responded.

“They either have family in the fighting that they don’t want to leave behind, or they refuse to be driven from their homes,” the first voice reported with a sigh.

“Unbelievable,” the second voice muttered.

“Where are the Trolls?” the first asked. “What are they doing now?”

“Applejack might know more than I do,” the other replied. “I’ve been busy managing our own situation.”

Applejack shook herself and looked around to orient herself in reality again. “What’s that? What’s the question?”

Bon Bon and Mayor Mare were standing a few paces back, out of the way of the rest of the ponies who were waiting for the Trolls’ inevitable return. Bon Bon wore a steel breastplate and armored shoes, her weapons and helmet resting on the ground beside her. She’d been at the front of the fighting and had surprised Applejack with just how well she’d handled herself. Where most ponies had experienced a shock when they first encountered the enemy, Bon Bon hadn’t had any such hesitation. By the end of the night, she’d emerged as a leader that everypony looked to for guidance.
Mayor Mare also wore a breastplate, though it was obvious she had neither participated in the battle nor intended to join the next. A sword hung from her side, but at an angle that suggested she didn’t know how it should be worn. Still, she had insisted she equip herself for the symbolic effect of seeing the town’s leader armed. Both mares turned to Applejack now that she’d joined the conversation.

“I was wondering what the Trolls are doing now,” the Mayor asked.

“Gettin’ ready for their next attack, most likely,” she shrugged, suppressing a yawn. “Or sleepin’, same as I’d like to be doin’.”

“Well, we can’t take our rest just yet,” Bon Bon said gruffly. “They’ve had plenty of time to regroup. I suspect they’ll be back soon. We’ll have to be ready when they are.”

“Are we ready?” Mayor Mare asked apprehensively.

Bon Bon flipped through the papers on a clipboard she was carrying. “Not by my estimations. We’re missing about fifty ponies. Most are probably dead somewhere in the Woods, but at least some ran and never came back. That leaves us with about one hundred fifty, if that.”

“…Did we really lose that many?” Applejack asked, her weariness forgotten beneath a wave of anxiety.

“I’m afraid so,” Bon Bon nodded. “And I hate to be such a pessimist, but I don’t think we’ll be able to keep them at bay with the same strategy as last night. We need a new plan.”

The Mayor and Bon Bon both looked to Applejack expectantly.

“What?! You think I’ve got a plan?” she asked. “I only had a bit of trainin’ with swords. I don’t know about any tactical whatnot!”

Bon Bon looked at the ground with a serious frown while the Mayor cast an apprehensive glance around.

“That makes you the most knowledgeable one here,” the Mayor said, lowering her voice so the nearby troops didn’t overhear. “I’ve run this town for a long time, but giving speeches and signing papers isn’t the same as leading an army. If any of us can come up with something, it’s you.”

“Maybe not,” Bon Bon said softly.

The other two looked at her in surprise.

“I swore I’d never tell anyone this, and I expect the two of you to keep tight lips about it.” She took a deep breath before going on. “I was part of a secret agency, working directly under Celestia to contain monster threats across Equestria. We were shut down a few years ago, but while we were in operation, I wasn’t exactly stuck with a desk job. I helped to capture some of the toughest monsters our agency tackled. I have a few tricks that might buy us some time.”

She looked at Applejack, concern showing through her hard stare.

“Time is all it will buy us. We still need some way to turn the tables on them. How long until we get those reinforcements?”

“I’ll check,” Applejack said, looking up at a lone Pegasus who had perched himself on the top of a nearby building. “In the meantime, get yourselves set up any way you have to.”

Bon Bon and the Mayor left to reposition the troops and Applejack trotted over to the Pegasus.

“Private Felicitous!” she called up to him. He dropped down in front of her nimbly and waited for her to go on. “When did you say the rest of the Army was going to get here?”

“The Army?” he asked, perplexed. Then he shook his head. “No, I said the Vanguard was on its way. We don’t know if the Army will be able to get here, though we sent a message for them to send anyone they could spare.”

“The Vanguard?” Applejack repeated. “Who are they?”

“A team of ponies operating ahead of the Army, to disrupt enemy movement and strike their weak points so the Army can finish them off when the time comes,” he announced with a slight swell of pride. “We’d just completed our operation against the remnants of the force that attacked Canterlot when we heard about the attack on Ponyville. They estimated they would be here a day behind me. They could arrive any time now.”

He scanned the trees and the hilly country to the north expectantly.

“They might have been delayed, or even cut off by the Trolls out there,” Applejack mused.

“Or they already engaged the enemy, and that’s why the Trolls haven’t returned yet,” he countered brightly. “We don’t have huge numbers like the Army does, but we’ve got a fire-spitting team, sure as rain.”

“I sure hope so,” she muttered, but she couldn’t shake her doubts.

She excused herself and caught up with Bon Bon, who had already established a new line of defense and was coordinating the construction of traps in the streets. Little flags were planted to indicate safe paths; red for danger, blue for clear. While the code was spread to the defenders, and the traps were being put into place, a meeting was called to make plans for the defense of the town, street by street. Applejack listened to Bon Bon as she gave detailed instructions to each team of ponies and precise expectations for their movement and timing. The gathered ponies absorbed as much of the information as they could, though more than a few looked overwhelmed by her thoroughness.

Applejack committed her part to memory quickly. It was easy enough when she knew every street in Ponyville. It was a simple matter of association. Each street corner had a different plan or maneuver attached to it, laid out in a sequence that followed a route she’d walked a hundred times. Now, instead of going from a bakery to a general store, she was going from a tripwire trap to a three-way ambush. Ponies walked the routes to familiarize themselves with the plan and the last of the traps were being set when a cry rose up from the west. The scouts had spotted the Trolls again. Everypony rushed to their positions, weapons held ready.

Applejack peered around the side of the building she was using as cover to see small clusters of Trolls emerge from the trees and move cautiously toward the town, their eyes scanning the sky and their shuffling steps hesitating to be the leading group. Other ponies near her took steadying breaths as the gap closed, steeling themselves for the fight. During the flight through the woods, they had hardly attempted to face the enemy. Indeed, most of the Trolls they’d managed to kill lay in the open space between the tree line and the edge of town, fallen under the javelins of the Pegasi. This meager killing field was likely contributing to the reluctance of the Trolls to advance. When they had made it halfway, the Pegasi took to the air again and began lobbing javelins, prompting the Trolls to make a break for the cover of the buildings.

Though most of them made it to the first of the cottages at the edge of Ponyville, very few made it any farther. From behind every corner, ponies sprang up to attack. The Trolls were ready to fight, and some ponies were struck down, but they were overwhelmed all the same. The defenders had little time to enjoy their minor victory however, because Trolls instantly poured out of the Woods, having sufficiently probed the ponies’ defenses. The wave swept across the field, almost ignoring the desperately tossed javelins from above. Applejack gave the signal to withdraw, a signal that was echoed up and down the lines, and then led her team back through the streets to seek the first of their traps.

The Trolls that gave chase howled in fury. Applejack spotted the red flag and veered down the blue path. At the same time, a group of ponies revealed themselves on the far side of the red path, taunting and calling to the Trolls. The Trolls let Applejack’s group escape, concentrating on the ponies that weren’t running from the fight. Too late, they realized that the ground had been carpeted in tacks and caltrops. The Trolls struggled to cross over the obstacle only to be met on the other side by spears and swords that cut down the off balance attackers. The advantage was fleeting though, and the trap lost potency as more Trolls became aware of its presence.

Still running, Applejack could see other positions falling back as the traps ran their course and lost effect. The second line of traps waited ahead and she called her team onward. A signal from the Pegasi hiding on a nearby rooftop told her it was time to turn and face the enemy. She and her team wheeled about and held their ground, standing defiantly in the path of the Trolls that rushed up the street toward them. Applejack hoped her fear didn’t show on her face, but when she saw similar fear on those who stood with her, she realized there wasn’t a logical reason to hide it. She was afraid and so were they. Zacon’s words came back to her then.

No soldier honest with themselves is completely unafraid.

It wasn’t a lack of fear that allowed a soldier to fight. It was the will to fight regardless of that fear. Now was her time to prove she had that will. With a steadying breath, she acknowledged her fear and then put it aside. There was no way to avoid what came next, no way to run from it now. She had to face it, and she wasn’t going to let anything, much less fear, stop her. The revelation must have caused a visible change in her bearing because her team looked at her in surprise and closed ranks resolutely. The Trolls took notice of the tiny knot of ponies standing in their way and charged. Heedless of anything else, they howled up the street, their weapons held high. They were only a few strides from the ponies when the Pegasi on the roof released the ropes they’d been holding, and the heavy timbers perched precariously over the street came tumbling down on the heads of the bulk of the Trolls, cutting the front of their ranks off from reinforcements.

Those Trolls that made it through the trap were momentarily surprised to find themselves virtually alone and the ponies took full advantage. Applejack sank her sword into the first Troll she could reach. The blade bit into the muscular chest with a crunch of bone and a gush of blood. The first time she’d killed a Troll, the shock of having its blood splash onto her face had almost caused her to drop her weapon. This time, she did not hesitate and spun her whole body around to create the momentum needed to rip the blade loose again. The Troll toppled over backwards and curled up on the ground to bleed its life out.

She leapt to her next opponent and finished it off with similar efficiency. Suddenly, a javelin hissed by her face, mere inches away, and landed in the dirt. She looked around to find one of the Pegasi on the roof recoiling from the realization that he’d almost hit her as he tried to help with the remaining Trolls.

“Save your javelins and get to the next position,” she shouted at him. “We’ll manage.”

The last Troll fell under her blade and her team turned to retreat to the next line of defense. As she galloped away, she glanced at the javelin. She couldn’t help but shudder at the thought of being killed on accident by another pony. Not only the loss of another fighter to defend her home, but also the guilt that pony would have felt.

Friendly or not, that was too close.

She shook herself and ran on.

~*~*~

Pinkie Pie watched from the main floor window of Sugarcube Corner as ponies ran by. Most ponies had already left town but she had stayed to make sure the bakery was looked after while the Cakes were away. After all, she couldn’t just leave the shop completely unattended. Still, she wondered if she might need to leave for a teeny tiny bit. There sure had been a lot of commotion today and everypony had been acting worried, like something bad was about to happen. But that was silly, because how could something bad happen when so many of their friends had gone to join the Army? They’d promised to keep bad things away from town, and she knew they wouldn’t break their promise.

When the first of the Trolls came into view, she couldn’t help but giggle. She’d never seen one before and there was something comical about their shuffling gait. As ponies rushed past the shop, she saw something that made the laughter catch in her throat. A veil fell across her eyes as her mind refused to make the connection between the fear in everypony’s eyes and the Trolls that chased behind them.

What were those red patches on their coats?

Her mind wouldn’t give her a clear answer.

Were they playing tag out there? she thought as a pony fell under a Troll’s axe. And why doesn’t that pony get up?

The obvious truth danced just out of reach as a fog clouded her thoughts. Somehow, what she was seeing was wrong and she just knew it was a mistake. The light must have been playing tricks on her. Or she was suffering from low blood-sugar levels. Or even that this was some sort of prank that she hadn’t heard of before. It would all make sense as soon as everypony got back up and yelled “Fooled you!” Then they’d all laugh and it would be okay.

Her ears flopped suddenly, followed by a flutter of her eyes and a twitch of her knees. She jumped backward as her Pinkie Sense went off. The door to the shop was kicked in a second later. Pinkie’s ears flattened back instinctively, though she wasn’t sure why. Her knee got pinchy, though she couldn’t figure out what was scary about this situation. The pair of Trolls that were shouldering their way inside could have been more polite by knocking first, but they were probably just tired from whatever game they were playing outside and wanted some sweets for a snack. Pinkie leapt behind the counter and produced a platter of toffees and jelly candies.

“Welcome to Sugarcube Corner!” she announced, holding the platter out for them to see. “I’ve got everything you need right here. Take your pick of these samples and we’ll get you paired up with the perfect treats in no ti–“

One of the Trolls swatted the platter away, scattering its contents across the room. Pinkie backed up as they marched around the counter and closed in on her.

“Want something more substantial?” she asked nervously, wondering why they were being so rude, even as her mind would not accept the answer. “Try these muffins, or a fruit pie, or some cupcakes. In fact, have them, have all of them!”

She tossed the items up, hoping the Trolls would leave her alone and go for the food, but neither of them even glanced at the confections. The Troll in front of her flicked a cupcake off his shoulder and grabbed her by the foreleg, lifting her up to his eye level. There was an axe held tightly in its other clawed hand and its beady eyes had no warmth in them.

So she laughed. There was nothing else to do. She was scared, but she didn’t have to be. She’d laugh these scary things away and everything would be alright again. In fact, if the Trolls actually thought about how ridiculous they were, she was sure they’d laugh themselves right out of existence too. Scary things couldn’t hurt her if she just laughed them away. They’d be gone any second now. As the axe was raised up, she wondered how many seconds were in an “any second” anyway.

The Troll stopped before he could swing and looked down at his leg. Gummy the Alligator had latched onto the Troll’s ankle. The Troll tried to shake him off, but the toothless gator held fast. The Troll dropped Pinkie in his attempt to dislodge the stubborn reptile. With a grunt of annoyance, the Troll kicked out violently and Gummy went sailing into the wall behind Pinkie. He hit the wall and slumped to the ground. She waited for him to bounce back to his feet but he didn’t. He just lay there.

Pinkie blinked at him in a daze. Her mind had reached the end of its ability to reasonably dismiss reality. It hung on the precipice of two equally bleak voids; either to admit to the horror of her surroundings, or to turn away from them to such a degree as to come back full circle, but leaving herself behind. The choice never made it all the way to her consciousness, which had long since lost control of itself. Instead, she had already decided which course to take and her laughter changed pitch accordingly. Gone were the nervous giggles, and the gentle trills of yesterday did not replace them. Now, her laughter was sharp and irregular, coming in short bursts as if she were forcing it out between anxious breaths.

“Oh, is that the kind of game you want to play? I’m good at that game!” she said as she turned slowly back to face the Trolls. An unnaturally wide smile was growing on her face as her unfailingly fluffy mane deflated. “And it looks like it’s my turn!”

~*~*~

Scootaloo had made a mistake. Since they’d seen other ponies choosing to stay, she and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders had slipped away in the confusion of the evacuation. It had felt like an opportunity for adventure, to see the troops in action, or maybe even to have a chance to help save the town. Somehow, she never imagined how wrong she could be. None of the monsters that had ventured into Ponyville before had ever acted like this. While some, such as Cerberus or the Ursa Minor, had found their way here either by accident or by being disturbed, these Trolls didn’t seem to have any purpose but to kill everypony. Racing through the streets, a pack of Trolls giving persistent pursuit, Scootaloo fled toward town hall. It was the last place she’d seen the others as they prepared to leave town and she hoped it was where she could find somepony to help her.

The other two CMCs were not by her side now either. They’d stumbled upon a small battle between a cluster of Trolls struggling through a tripwire trap and the line of ponies trying to hold them back. One moment, the ponies seemed to be evenly matched with the brutish attackers. The next, several ponies the three fillies had known most of their lives were dragged down and tossed aside. When the Trolls turned their hateful gazes on them, Apple Bloom had bolted. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo took off as well, but the other filly was too far ahead and they lost sight of her. A few blocks later, Sweetie Belle turned down a different street than Scootaloo, and now she ran alone.

Just as she thought she’d gotten away, a knot of Trolls shuffled around the next corner ahead and spotted her. She saw an open door to a house on her left and veered toward it. Taking the stairs inside to the second floor, she glanced about hastily. Picking a room, she kicked the door closed behind her and sought a place to hide. It was a well furnished bedroom. She looked at the underside of the bed but decided against such an obvious place. A dresser in the corner provided just enough room for her to squeeze between it and the wall so she wiggled into place and waited.

The sounds from the street were muffled through the walls and Scootaloo couldn’t hear any sounds of her pursuers’ approach. The sudden creek of the stairs under their weight caused a shiver to pass up her spine. Their footsteps stopped in the hall for the space of a heartbeat. Then the hinges of the door shuddered under a heavy blow. She resisted the urge to peek at the door. It burst open a second later and three Trolls shouldered their way inside. She tried to quiet her breathing but it sounded like a gusting wind in the relative silence. She could hear the Trolls begin upending furniture in search of their prey. A bedside table became matchsticks as it was acquainted with an impatient axe. Scootaloo had to make an effort not to gasp or scream as bits of furniture landed in front of her. When the bed was smashed in half and tossed against the wall like a toy, Scootaloo could take it no more and bolted from her concealment.

She made for the only window in the room because the door meant passing two of the Trolls on the way. Luckily, the third was facing the wrong way to see her make her move. She heaved the window up and shoved the shutters open, leaping out onto the flowerbox. With another small jump, she made it to the thatched roof where its slope came down next to the window. A Troll’s claw closed down where her hooves had been a fraction of a second ago. As she scampered toward the roof’s peak, she could hear grunting and scrapping that told her they were attempting to follow.
When she reached the top, she realized that she had nowhere else to run. With panic rising up again, she turned to see two Trolls carefully climbing out the window after her. Their size made walking on the thatching hazardous and progress was slow, but they were determined to reach her. Scootaloo looked left and right, and finally, down. There was only one way to escape. Taking a few steps back so she had room for a running start, and trying to ignore the fact that she was three-and-a-half stories up, she spread her wings.

She hesitated for the span of a breath. Just as the first Troll lifted his clawed hand to grip the top of the roof, she charged wildly and flung herself out into space. Her eyes clamped themselves closed when her hooves left solid ground, refusing to see the emptiness that she knew lay below her. Her wings beat furiously and she stretched her hooves out before her. As the rush of wind in her ears told her she was falling, she instinctively angled her wings. At once, she felt herself change direction. She opened her eyes in shock. She was dropping rapidly still, but now she was on course for the next rooftop and had leveled out so that she might even make it. She shifted again and aimed for the lower part of the roof. She hit at an angle, bounced once, and scrambled madly to stop herself from tumbling over the other side. She watched as bits of straw that had been kicked loose fell away into the street below.

She blinked once. With a burst of elation, she realized that she hadn’t just made the jump, but had actually managed to control her descent. It was the closest she’d ever been to actually flying on her own in her whole life. She turned about, full to bursting with the need to celebrate this wonderful moment with a smiling face and ended up staring back at the Trolls she had only barely managed to evade. They growled and brandished their weapons at her but could not follow.

The sounds of battle and screams of ponies rising up around her returned in a rush and she recoiled. The rooftop gave a clear view of the fighting up and down the street. Bodies of Trolls were left abandoned like spilled grain sacks where the defenders had faced them down. But the bodies of ponies lay beside many of them. Every so often, another group of combatants passed by, leaving more bodies behind.

The last of her ecstasy drained away and she lay down in a quivering and disconsolate mass, folding her legs and wings tight against her body. She tried to shut it all out, hoping for it to end and leave her behind. So complete was her denial that she didn’t even move when a crunching sound behind her announced the presence of someone else on the roof with her. She did finally look when a hoof touched her shoulder.

“Don’t give up kiddo,” the newcomer said. “We’re not finished just yet.”

Of all the faces Scootaloo was wishing to see right now, no other could have brought her a bigger smile. Rainbow Dash stood tall and proud in her Air Corps uniform, framed by a sunburst that peered through the clouds behind her. She scanned the street grimly for threats. Scootaloo flung her hooves around her idol’s neck with a cry of relief.

“Did you…? You didn’t happen to see me when I…?” She couldn’t help trying to ask, despite their current situation.

“Yeah, squirt, I saw. And it was pretty awesome.” She smiled briefly and ruffled the filly’s mane. When she turned her gaze back to the fighting, however, her eyes hardened against what they saw. “Listen, I’ll fly you somewhere safe and you stay there, alright? I’m needed out here.”

“Okay.” Scootaloo said, letting herself be hoisted onto Dash’s back.

Rainbow coiled up and jumped into the air. She circled once and flew southeast. Town hall passed beneath them, where the remains of the defenders had gathered to make a last stand. As more and more Trolls found their way to the spacious plaza from the surrounding streets, the battle intensified. The stragglers of the evacuation, as well as stubborn ponies who were now being driven from their homes forcefully, still lingered on the south side of the river and were making slow progress to the east. The defenders concentrated their efforts on keeping the Trolls away from the bridge that was the easiest river crossing. To the west, smoke rose from many rooftops, where Trolls had begun to burn the cottages. Rainbow descended toward a familiar white Unicorn and landed hard in her urgency.

“Rainbow!?” Rarity gasped in surprise. “You’re here?”

Before Rainbow could do more than nod grimly, Sweetie Belle bounded out from behind Rarity and dragged Scootaloo off of the other Pegasus and into a crushing hug.

“Oh, thank goodness you’re alright. I was so worried when we got separated.”

“So was I,” Scootaloo said, easing the trembling filly off of her. “But what about Apple Bloom? Did she make it here?”

Sweetie Belle’s eyes glistened with tears as she shook her head. “We haven’t seen her.”

“I’ll keep an eye out for her,” Rainbow said, spreading her wings. “But I need to get back to my squadron. Get yourselves out of here and take care of each other.”

Rarity looked like she wanted to say something, but she could see there wasn’t time and gave an encouraging nod instead. Rainbow shot back up into the sky and winged north to regroup with her squadron as it strafed a street full of Trolls with javelins. The other Pegasi defending the town quickly rallied at the sight of the Air Corps squadron and soon a full fifty Pegasi were raining projectiles onto the enemy. The Trolls were having trouble bringing their numbers to bear in the confining streets and, with no maneuvering room or cover, entire groups of Trolls were wiped out by the Pegasi. Meanwhile, the fighting in the plaza surged and ebbed, but each time the Trolls were driven back, there were fewer ponies to hold the line.

~*~*~

Applejack and the remaining defenders held their ground stubbornly. But when she glanced across the river to the remaining ponies who had yet to flee the burning town, she despaired. They were too slow and the Trolls were too numerous. Even if they could hold on until the last of them had escaped, it would be too late for any of her troops. Tears welled in her eyes as her hope faded. Another wave of Trolls had made it through the Pegasi and was bearing down on her, but her heart was no longer in the fight. The plaza before her was littered with fallen ponies; names and faces that swam before her. The Trolls trampled over the dead heedlessly and came on.

They were about to reach the ponies when a blast of force erupted between them, sending them all sprawling. None of them had time to determine its source because bolts of lightning and shards of ice ripped through the air and turned the battlefield into a cloud of steam and strobing light. The thunder was nearly continuous as it rolled over the ponies, who quivered where they lay. The ice seemed to concentrate on the Trolls closest to them while the lightning fell against more distance foes. The terrifying display of power was enough that many Trolls refused to advance on the plaza, instead withdrawing to the western side of town. Those who remained were cut down by the magical maelstrom.

As the haze cleared and the echoes faded, the ponies got back to their hooves, looking about shakily, equally amazed and frightened. Then they saw her. The radiant battlemage that had saved them stood with a wide, defiant stance. Her silver armor gleamed over the navy blue uniform and energy still crackled around her menacingly from the barrage she had unleashed. Applejack had to blink a few times before she recognized the mage for who they really were, so different was she from the scholarly pony she’d known. More than the unusual attire, her entire demeanor was changed. The fierce gaze, the gritted teeth, the raw power that seemed to bend the air around her; none of it looked like the obsessively studious mare from Canterlot that Applejack called her friend.

Twilight was breathing heavily from the effort, but with just one steadying breath, she appeared calm and collected once more. A few ponies cheered as they rushed to greet her. Applejack made her way over woodenly, still processing the day’s events and the turbulent emotions that were coursing through her. Earlier, she remembered seeing Rainbow amongst the Pegasi, leading them over the streets. The recognition had been there and gone again in the heat of battle, but as a relative stillness settled over the town, she was beginning to catch up. She was supremely tired, grief-stricken and afraid, but now so filled with relief that she could cry. Her friends had come home and there wasn’t anything she wanted more than to hold them near again.

Just when she thought she’d had her fill of familiar faces, she spotted Jason and her joy bubbled over in a choked laugh as she ran forward.