We Shall go on to the End

by Wheller

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The sun began to rise as the diesel engine ran through the mohoofie desert towards Appleoosa. Twilight pushed open the door to her compartment, letting out a loud yawn as she stepped out into the hallway, leaving a still asleep Rainbow Dash inside. Twilight looked out the window, expecting them to see the Appleoosan buildings. However, to her shock and dismay, the town was no longer there. Instead a number of charred ruins littered the space where the town was supposed to be.

‘What happened here?’ Twilight gasped.

‘Thar own fault’, said another voice from further down the hallway.

‘Nephites came ta town, lookin ta make nice with tha Appleoosans’, Applejack said as she trotted over to Twilight. ‘They started tha fight, and tha Nephites finished it’.

‘How do you know this Applejack?’ Twilight asked.

‘Ah was thar’, Applejack said. ‘It waddn’t pretty, but it was thar own fault. Fer a people that stress love an’ tolerance as our doctrine, we can be mighty hateful sometimes... us Equestrians’.

Twilight nodded in agreement. ‘I’ve noticed there is a lot about our society that’s rather hypocritical...’

‘Yep’, Applejack said.

‘Everything okay Applejack?’ Twilight asked.

‘Nope’, Applejack said simply.

‘Want to talk about it?’ Twilight asked.

‘More than anything’, Applejack said. ‘Twilight, here’s tha problem though, Ah ain’t smart, Ah don’t even know how ta explain what’s goin’ on ta mahself, let alone ya’ll. Ah figure it’s got somethin’ ta do with tha old world ya’ll keep talkin’ ‘bout. Ah dunno, there’s stuff ya’ll ain’t tellin’ about it. Ah know ya ain’t... Ah also know ya’ll are keepin’ it from us fer a reason. Ah don’t like it... but Ah suppose Ah can understand’.

Twilight frowned at Applejack. ‘Trust me when I say this Applejack, you’re happier not knowing’.

‘Uh huh’, Applejack said. Several of the other compartments opened up, Rarity and Fluttershy’s, and then Vinyl and Surprise’s. Pinkie Pie then stumbled out of the one she’d been sharing with Applejack with a loud yawn.

‘Good morning everypony!’ Pinkie Pie said with another yawn. ‘Rainbow Dash still sleeping?’

‘Yeah, I’m going to go wake her up, Applejack? Can you, Fluttershy, and Rarity head to the back and check on everypony? Make sure they’re all doing okay?’

Applejack nodded in agreement.

‘Vinyl, Surprise? Can you go check on the Cutie Mark Crusaders up front?’ Twilight asked.

‘Yes ma’am!’ Surprise said with a salute before grabbing Vinyl and dragging her off towards the front. Twilight couldn’t help but chuckle as the two departed. Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy too soon departed.

Twilight turned back to her compartment door, pushing it open and taking a step inside. ‘Rainbow Dash! Time to get up sleepy...’ Twilight said as she froze in place. Rainbow Dash was lying on the floor, paralysed with fear as a grey hoof was pressed against her head. Twilight looked up to see Legion looking directly at her with an emotionless glare.

‘We are altering the terms of our arrangement’, Legion said plainly. ‘Do you take issue with this?’

Twilight gaped in horror as she looked at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow looked incredibly scared. ‘Don’t do it Twilight!’ she said uneasily as Legion rocked his hoof back and forth slightly as she spoke.

‘Name your terms...’ Twilight said.

‘Excellent’, Legion said plainly. ‘We knew you would see reason’.

...

Heinrich struggled to keep himself from falling asleep as he waited in the dark alley in the high end fashion district. He was across the street from De Winkel. Nederlands for ‘The Shop’, it was aptly named, Heinrich thought. It was almost midnight, they’d be closing and this Katrijn would be coming out soon enough.

The front door opened, and a signal pony exited the store front. This had to be her. Heinrich slipped out of the alley way and began to follow her. He didn’t very far before it happened.

In hindsight, this plan wasn’t a very good one, as Heinrich came up on her; she whipped around, landing a hard kick into the schäferhund’s muzzle, sending him toppling to the ground, in a daze. ‘This was a poor idea...’ he said.

‘You are fucking right it was! Pervert!’ the pony snapped back at him.

‘What? No! No! Are you the shop keeper Katrijn?’ Heinrich asked.

‘Spying on me?’ Katrijn asked.

‘No...! No! I learned your name from a friend; you have mutual friends with him’, Heinrich said, realising that his words probably weren’t helping him out any.

‘I don’t have any dog friends’, Katrijn snapped at him.

‘These friends are not schäferhund’, Heinrich said. ‘They are Equestrian’.

Katrijn took a step back. ‘How do you know about them?’

‘I am... a friend of Twilight Sparkle’, Heinrich said.

Katrijn was taken aback, she clearly recognised that name. ‘Equestrians... have silly names; they are not easy to forget. I remember that one, Twilight Sparkle, what do you want with her?’

‘I am trying to get into contact with her, she did not speak of her home while she was in town’, Heinrich said.

‘They... were in town?’ Katrijn asked. ‘Why would Fluttershy not contact me if she were here?’

Heinrich didn’t have an answer, or really a clue of who Fluttershy was. He did not get the names of any of Twilight Sparkle’s friends while they were here. ‘I do not know, do you know how to get into contact with them?’

‘I do’, Katrijn said. ‘Come, follow me’, she said as she beckoned for the schäferhund to follow. Heinrich got to his paws and followed her down the street towards her flat. She took out a key and unlocked the door beckoning him inside. Heinrich followed her in, she pointed to the telephone. ‘Ask for an International operator to connect you to the Ponyville Post Office, Canterlot Province, Equestria’.

Heinrich nodded as he took the telephone’s headset in his teeth, draping it over his ears and pawing at the rotor, pulling the zero back all the way and releasing.

‘Operator’, said the voice over the headset.

‘International’, Heinrich said simply.

‘Ja, het ene moment’, said the voice on the other end. There was a small clicking noise and a new voice spoke on the other end.

‘International operator, how can I direct your call?’ said a voice clearly belonging to a welaran mare.

‘Connect me to the Ponyville Post Office, Canterlot Province, Equestria’, Heinrich said.

‘Putting you through’.

...

Trixie ducked into the bushes outside of the Ponyville post office as she heard the approaching hoofsteps of the armour clad Paladins. The Sun was just starting to come up, and while curfew was from sun down to sun up, Trixie wasn’t willing to take the change of being caught out in the open. Not when these jerks were trigger happy and the situation was ambiguous enough to let them get away with pretty much anything. Trixie waited until they passed before pushing leaping out of the bushes and pushing open the window to the Ponyville post office. The post office was right across the street from Sugarcube Corner, and Pinkie Pie’s hidden stash of dynamite.

Trixie shut the window behind her. Normally, the Ponyville post office would have been filled with it’s workers at this time. Raindrops, the mail carrier, Pete, the boss, and Blue Berry, the package sorter, all working hard to keep everything running smoothly and get everypony’s mail out on time.

This wouldn’t be happening as long as the Fillydelphians were here.

Trixie crossed the room to the far window, glancing out of it towards Sugarcube Corner. So close. So close to the dynamite, however, there were two paladins standing around in the middle of the street. Damn, Trixie wasn’t going out there until they were gone. The sun was already peaking over the horizon, enough that it couldn’t be argued it wasn’t yet sun up. She could walk around freely about town, but that didn’t mean that she could walk past two paladins and start digging up a box of buried dynamite without incident.

Not unless they were really fucking stupid.

Trixie’s heart leapt in her chest as she heard the telephone ring. She almost jumped into the air. She looked over to it as it continued to ring. Who in Equestria could be calling at this hour?

Trixie had to admit, she was curious, and she had a while to wait for the paladins to leave anyway. She trotted over to the telephone and picked up the receiver with her magic. ‘Hello?’ she asked.

‘Hello, I need to speak to Twilight Sparkle, who is this?’ the voice on the other end of the telephone said.

‘I’m the Great and Powerful Trixie’, Trixie said plainly. ‘That’s going to be rather difficult right now, considering that the town has been captured by a rogue chapter of the Cultus Mechanius and Twilight Sparkle, her friends, and most of the town’s population that would be able to do anything about it have fled west to Vermillion Mesa. I’m sorry; you’re going to have to call back later’.

Trixie did not wait for a response on the other end before hanging the receiver back up and going back over to the window.

...

Heinrich looked confused for a moment. ‘Hello? Hello?’ he asked. ‘She hung up on me!’ he cried out.

‘What happened?’ Katrijn asked.

‘Ponyville has been captured by a rogue chapter of the Cultus Mechanius’, Heinrich said/

‘Oh no! ... what’s the Cultus Mechanius?’ Katrijn asked.

Heinrich shrugged. ‘I don’t know... but I think I know how I can find out’.

Comments

[DreadedCandiru2]

Okay.....things seem to be progressing as well as could be expected. That being said, at least AJ is smart enough to admit that being kept from remembering the Old World is a good thing. After all, she's keeping the others from knowing which Nephite finished things off with the Appleloosans.

[Fallen Knight]

I sense that The Eagle legion will reform to participate in the "fun" in Equestria, with it not having any armies or anything i really wonder how just Celestia kept order until now when its so easy to cause chaos next door to the capital.