Chapter 3: The Fray
Big Macintosh turned his face to the sky and frowned. Something strange was going on above Sweet Apple Acres.
Macintosh had been working the apple trees alone that afternoon. Apple Bloom was away on her school trip to Canterlot, and Applejack had headed over to Twilight Sparkle's place with a cart full of food for what Mac assumed was either a friendly dinner party or a heroic quest to save all of Equestria from certain doom. Either way, Mac didn't particularly mind working alone. He'd been so focused on his chores that he hadn't noticed what was going on over his head and it wasn't until he paused for a breather he realized the sun had turned to shade. Looking up, he saw a sky covered in dense black clouds. The air felt heavy with the pressure of an oncoming thunderstorm.
“Well, that ain't right,” Macintosh muttered to himself. It had been sunny all day and the forecast said nothing about a storm. What were those pegasi thinking, planting that kind of weather over his orchard while he wasn't looking?
Suddenly lightning arched through the clouds, briefly illuminating the blackness. As the thunder roared, Mac's eyes widened. For just a short moment he had thought he'd seen something in the cloud – the outline of some vast titanic thing hanging over his head. It had lasted only a fraction of a second. Had that been real, or had he just imagined it?
Macintosh shivered, suddenly realizing that the air had turned chilly and moist. Looking around, he found the orchard covered in a thick blanket of fog which had appeared just as suddenly and mysteriously as the storm clouds.
“Definitely ain't right!” Big Macintosh didn't know a lot about meteorology, but he had never seen thunder and fog at the same time. Despite the sudden drop of temperature, there wasn't the slightest hint of wind, and Mac felt every bit of the oppressive atmosphere bearing down on him. Lightning flashed again and he caught another glimpse of the dark monolith hidden inside the clouds. This time he was sure he hadn't imagined it.
Macintosh abandoned any remaining inclination to finish his work, his instincts telling him that sticking around much longer would be a bad idea. He broke into a gallop – he had to get back to the farmhouse, make sure Granny Smith was okay. And then? Find AJ, and Miss Twilight Sparkle too. She would know what was going on, right?
As he ran, his nose caught a scent that didn't belong in the orchard. He stopped and sniffed the air. Despite the unnatural stillness, there was no mistaking this smell: swamp gas and brimstone, with a hint of charcoal. Mac felt the hairs on his back stand on end and it had nothing to do with the chill. He knew of only one thing with that kind of smell. The next moment he heard hoofsteps behind him. He turned to see multiple lumbering shapes in the fog and dozens of eerie green lights shone through the haze.
Timberwolves!
A pair of the glowing eyes locked on to Macintosh and he immediately flew into a sprint again, but now he could hear them pursue him. He hadn't even covered a hundred feet when he saw more dark shapes on his right, flanking him. He turned only to find himself flanked once more on his left. They were herding him. None of this made sense to him: timberwolves rarely ventured outside the Everfree forest and never in anywhere near these numbers.
Wherever Mac turned he found more green eyes. He stopped running, realizing they had him surrounded. More flashes of lightning lit up the sky and now he could see them more clearly. Some of the creatures were indeed timberwolves, but most of them were something different: made from the same scraps of wood, but pony-sized. They walked on all fours but had long forelimbs giving them a gorilla-like gait. Instead of the canine features of the timberwolves their faces protruded in large bird-like beaks painted with strange black patterns, and they each had a bushy “mane” of leaves and thin branches sticking out from the back of their heads. Some of them were actually riding on the wolves, and most gripped short wooden spears tipped with sharp crystals in their clawed hands.
One of the riders pointed its spear at Macintosh and let out a hollow cawing. Several of the creatures dashed forward and lunged at him. But Macintosh was much quicker than his size implied and he knew how to defend himself. “Nope!” he bellowed, spinning around and hitting the first of the attackers with a hard buck. The creature exploded in a rain of sticks and wooden fragments. Without pause, Mac unleashed more bucks in rapid succession, shattering three more assailants including one of the wolves. The rest seemed intimidated by his display and stayed back. A few moments later the shattered remains of the fallen rose into the air as by magic and reassembled themselves into their original shapes, but to Mac's relief they too fell back.
“'At's right!” he growled. Despite the dire situation, he permitted himself a triumphant grin. “That all ya got?”
Something shook the ground, sending a shiver through the leaves of the apple trees. A few seconds later another shock did the same. His courage suddenly waning, Macintosh looked beyond the wooden horde and saw two more shapes in the fog. These were much larger than the others, and made loud thudding, stomping, crashing sounds as they moved around. Macintosh could hear thick wood breaking and then saw a huge shapeless mass come flying at him through the air. He threw himself out of the way without thinking and it wasn't until the object crashed into the spot he'd just been standing that he realized what had happened: Something had thrown one of his own apple trees at him.
After rolling across the ground, Big Macintosh found himself lying on his back. High above him, just under the clouds, several dark shapes flew through the air on large wings, circling like vultures. Mac didn't need to see them clearly to know they weren't pegasi.
“Ain't right,” he mumbled just before the timber-things swarmed him. “Ain't right at all...”
After a brief and terrible silence, Twilight finally found her words: “”W-What do you mean, you lost Rainbow and Pinkie? Did... Did they...”
“Ah can't tell ya the details.” Apple Bloom looked deeply uncomfortable. “Ya know that. But Rainbow... she sacrificed herself to save a young pony's life.”
”No...” Twilight gasped. Applejack stared at her sister, shaking her head, her mouth failing to form any words.
“Scootaloo was there when it happened,” Spike said, his voice low and full of pain. “But there was nothing she could do, poor girl. The rest of us... We got there just in time to say goodbye.”
“Rainbow...” Apple Bloom's voice cracked slightly. “She didn't even hesitate, ya know? She knew it'd be the last thing she ever did, but she did it anyway. Ah mean, of course she did. She kept smilin' to the end, tried to comfort us. She said everythin' was gonna be alright, somehow. An' then she was just... gone.”
Twilight had brough her hoof to her mouth, too shocked to speak. Applejack still just sat there on the dirt floor, shaking slightly, her eyes wide in disbelief.
“W-What kinda future's that s'posed to be?” she whispered. “Rainbow... Rainbow's one of the most amazin' ponies Ah've ever known! Yer tellin' me ten more years is all she gets? Couldn't ya save her? Go back in time an'...”
Apple Bloom shook her head. “Rainbow is special. Interferin' with her destiny is incredibly dangerous. 'Sides, that's exactly the kinda thinkin' that created the Fray inna first place.”
“We wanted to spare you from knowing about this,” Spike said. “Rainbow Dash did what she felt was right, because she's Rainbow Dash. But without her, nothing was the same anymore.”
“What about...” Feeling her voice fail her, Twilight steadied herself and started over. “I'm afraid to ask, but what about Pinkie Pie? What happened to her?”
Apple Bloom hesitated. “Pinkie...”
But before she could go on, her eyes widened and she choked on her words. She staggered as a sudden vertigo overtook her. “Oh no!” she gasped, starting to hyperventilate.
At the same time, Spike raised a claw to his head and groaned: “Horseapples! Did... Did we do that?”
Apple Bloom weakly shrugged her head. “Ah don't think so.”
“What's going on?” Twilight asked. “What just happened?”
“You okay, sugar?” Applejack asked, giving Apple Bloom a worried look. “Ya don't look so good. Are ya sick?”
“Something or somepony just caused a paradoxical change in the timeline,” Spike said, struggling to steady himself. “We're reacting to the dissonance between our pasts and the altered present.”
Twilight and Applejack traded a worried look. “You mean...?” Twilight began.
Apple Bloom gritted her teeth. “A Fray!”
“Spike, Apple Bloom!” They turned to see Sweetie Belle descend the stairs on unsteady hooves, closely followed by a worried-looking Spike. “Did you guys feel that?”
“Yeah,” Apple Bloom muttered. “We felt it alright. Sweetie Belle, did ya do somethin'?”
“I didn't do anything!” Sweetie Belle glanced at the younger Spike and blushed slightly. “...Much.”
“Well, it wasn't us,” Future Spike said.
There was a moment of silence. Then, as one, all three exclaimed: “Scootaloo!”
“I'm dead,” said Scootaloo, hanging her head as she walked next to Rainbow Dash. “I am so dead. Apple Bloom is going to kill me.”
Not knowing what else to do, Rainbow had opted to walk the crestfallen time traveler back to the library, hoping Twilight and the others would know how to deal with the situation. She put a comforting wing over Scootaloo's back. “Hey, let's try to stay positive, alright? I'm sure they'll understand.”
Scootaloo shook her head. “This was the one thing we couldn't allow to happen, and I totally blew it! I should never have told you about the Bifrost.”
“So why did you?” Rainbow asked.
Scootaloo shrugged. “Wasn't thinking straight,” she muttered. “I... I just wanted to save you.”
“So, basically, you just broke the whole timeline for my sake?” Rainbow chuckled. “Aw, I think that's the sweetest thing anypony's ever done for me.”
Despite everything, Scootaloo couldn't help but smile a little.
They had almost made it back to the library when the front door swung open and a furious Apple Bloom stormed outside, followed closely by Twilight, Applejack, both Spikes and Sweetie Belle. “Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom hollered. “Ah'm gonna kill ya!”
“Told you,” Scootaloo sighed.
Apple Bloom marched straight up to her and growled: “Scootaloo, what have you done?”
The pegasus sat down on the ground with her ears flat against her head, shrinking back under Apple Bloom's glare. “I'm sorry...”
Apple Bloom looked to Rainbow and her eyes widened in realization. “Oh no. Ya didn't. Scootaloo, please tell me ya didn't.”
“I'm sorry,” Scootaloo repeated. “I told her.”
“Have ya lost yer dang mind!?” Apple Bloom yelled. “Ya know the rules, Scootaloo, ya never meddle with a Catalyst! Not for any reason! What were ya thinkin'?”
“I don't know,” Scootaloo whimpered, staring into the ground.
“What about the mission?” Apple Bloom raged. “Horseapples, what about Diamond Tiara? Did ya think about that?”
“I don't know!” Scootaloo cried. She looked up and her eyes were full of tears. “I wasn't thinking, okay? I just... I couldn't stand losing her again! I had to tell her!” She broke down into sobs, tears streaming down her face. “I had to... I had to...”
Apple Bloom gritted her teeth, raising a quivering hoof, and for a moment it seemed like she was about to smack the crying pegasus over the head. But then she sighed and lowered her hoof again. Instead she put her forelegs around Scootaloo, gently hugging her.
“O'course ya did,” she whispered. “Ya great big idjit. O'course ya did.”
As Scootaloo kept sobbing, Spike and Sweetie Belle approached her as well. The unicorn immediately joined in the hug, resting her head against Scootaloo's shoulder, and the dragon gave her a comforting pat on the back.
“It's gonna be okay, Scoots,” Sweetie Belle said. “We'll figure something out, together.”
Twilight cleared her throat. “Sweetie Belle is right. What's done is done, and standing around out here won't help. Why don't we all head back inside and think this through?”
Apple Bloom sighed, nodding. “Come on, Scootaloo. Sorry fer yellin' at ya.”
When they wandered back to the library, Rainbow walked up to Twilight and whispered: “I know this is a bad time, but do you got anything to eat?”
A few minutes later they were all back inside and Scootaloo had managed to calm down somewhat. Rainbow was wolfing down some daisy sandwiches Spike had prepared for her. “So, now what do we do?” she asked between mouthfuls.
“The plan hasn't changed,” Apple Bloom said. “We still need to get that spell an' destroy it.”
“Isn't it too late for that?” Applejack asked. “The Fray's already here, right?”
“Doesn't matter,” Sweetie Belle said. “You have to think about it fourth dimensionally. The Fray was caused because we came back from the future using Pumpkin Cake's time spell. As long as we stop it from being created it doesn't matter in what order it happens.”
“So what's the problem?” Rainbow asked.
“The problem is that the Fray makes us vulnerable to Morning Star,” Future Spike explained. “She has ways of knowing when a Fray occurs and she may already be taking action to stop us.”
“Twilight,” Apple Bloom said, turning to the alicorn, “Ah don't think we can wait until tomorrow, we have to get that scroll as soon as possible.”
Twilight nodded. “Agreed. I guess I'll just have to write to Princess Celestia and explain that we have an emergency on our hoofs. Spike...”
But the same moment she turned to face the baby drake, his cheeks suddenly bulged out and he burped out a scroll in a burst of green fire. Rather than fall to the floor, the scroll unrolled itself on its own and gently floated into Spike's claws. Spike looked at it and blinked in surprise. “Huh, that's weird. It's for me.”
Twilight frowned. “Princess Celestia sent you a letter?”
As Spike read the scroll, his expression turned more and more perplexed. “Um, it's not from her.”
“Then who sent it?” Future Spike asked.
“I think you did.” Spike held the letter up. “Guys, you need to read this.”
Still frowning, Twilight levitated the letter to herself and read:
Dear Past Spike
Tell Past Future Me and the others that they have to get to Sweet
Apple Acres right away. It's under attack by the Contumacy.
Sincerely,
– Future Future Spike.
She put the letter down and looked at Apple Bloom. “The Contumacy?”
“Morning Star's forces.” Apple Bloom gritted her teeth. “Dammit, they can time travel more accurately than Ah thought.”
“Hold on,” Scootaloo turned to Future Spike, “you sent yourself a letter from the future? I didn't know you could do that.”
Future Spike frowned. “I didn't know I could do that either.”
Meanwhile, Applejack was heading towards the door with a grim look on her face. Knowing that expression all too well, Apple Bloom quickly ran past her, cutting her off before she reached the exit. “Whoa, Nelly! Where ya think yer goin´?”
“To Sweet Apple Acres, of course!” Applejack replied, her voice shaky with anger and fear. “Ya heard what the letter said, Granny an' Mac are in danger and Ah'm gonna help 'em!”
“No ya ain't,” Apple Bloom shook her head. “Not without a plan. AJ, ya don't got the faintest idea what yer up against.”
“Apple Bloom, get out of my way!” Applejack shouted. “We're talkin' about our home! Our family!”
“Ah know!”Apple Bloom snapped back. “But runnin' in headlong without thinkin' and getting' yer flank kicked ain't gonna do them any good. Applejack, please, ya gotta trust me on this one.”
For a moment it looked as if Applejack was about to refuse and try to force her way past Apple Bloom. Then she backed off with a groan of frustration. “Fine. But ya better think of somethin' mighty fast, 'cause Ah'm holding y'all responsible if... if somethin' happens to Mac and Granny!”
“Don't worry,” Sweetie Belle said. “The Contumacy usually goes out of it's way to take prisoners. Time shenanigans, you know. I'm sure they're both fine for now.”
“Why would they attack Sweet Apple Acres anyway?” Twilight asked.
“It's nearby but relatively isolated,” Future Spike said, scratching his chin. ”They probably want to establish a beachhead for a coordinated strike. Most likely, they plan to capture the entire town. Apple Bloom, I think AJ has a point. We need to hurry.”
“If we're dealin' with a full expeditionary force, we're gonna need backup,” Apple Bloom said. “Twilight, how many ponies can ya teleport at once?”
“I'm not quite sure,” Twilight admitted. “I've managed three ponies plus Spike without effort. If I know exactly where I'm going and have time to focus properly, I think I could probably handle double that.”
Apple Bloom nodded. “Good enough. Do ya think ya can teleport six ponies all the way to Fluttershy's place?”
Twilight cocked her head. “That's a bit of a long jump, but I think so, yes.”
“Right,” Apple Bloom said. “We start by roundin' up Pinkie an' Rarity, then ya can port us all to Fluttershy since her house is the closest to the farm.” She turned to the pegasi. “Scoot, Rainbow, yer on scoutin' duty. Ah need ya'll to fly over to Sweet Apple Acres and find out what we're up against. You'll need to be stealthy, so don't do anythin' reckless.”
“Reckless?” Scootaloo chuckled. “Who, us?”
“We're all kinds of stealthy!” Rainbow added.
Apple Bloom considered this for a moment. “On second thought, Spike, ya better go along an' keep an eye on 'em.”
Future Spike grinned and gave her a small salute with his claw. “Roger that.”
“Sugarcube Corner ain't that far from here. We pick up Pinkie first an' then head for Rarity's boutique.” Apple Bloom gave the scout team a nod. “Y’all meet us at Fluttershy's place when yer done. Alright, everypony, let's roll!”
With that the main group left the library and galloped off, leaving the scout team behind. Rainbow and Scootaloo exchanged grins and bumped hooves, both pumped up about getting to fly together again.
Spike, meanwhile, looked less than thrilled. “I, um, guess I'll just stay here then?” he said.
Future Spike gave him a thoughtful look for a moment, then nodded. “That's probably for the best. It's going to get pretty dangerous.”
“Yeah,” Spike said.
“And after all, you're still just a baby dragon,” Future Spike added. “Better let us adults handle this. Not to mention, it would be bad for me if anything were to happen to you, causality being what it is.”
Spike nodded, his shoulders sagging somewhat. “That's true.”
“And it's not like the others can't handle themselves,” Future Spike said. “Hay, you'd probably just get in the way.”
Spike hung his head. “Probably.”
Future Spike allowed a brief silence to pass by, then said: “So are you coming or what?”
Spike looked up, his eyes wide in surprise. “R... Really?”
“You heard Apple Bloom, we need all the backup we can get, and two dragons are better than one.” Future Spike turned around, presenting his back. “Hop on.”
Hesitating only for a heartbeat, Spike quickly scurried up the older dragon's tail and seated himself between Future Spike's spines. “Thank you,” he whispered.
Carrying him through the door, Future Spike chuckled. “Don't mention it.”
Outside, the pegasi had already taken to the air. “Well, I hope you can keep up,” Rainbow said, “because my wings are itching for action. Ready, Scoots?”
“You bet I am!” Scootaloo replied, already making little loops and rolls in the air.
“Guess we're gonna have to leg it, huh?” Spike asked.
Rather than answer, Future Spike closed his eyes in concentration. He drew a deep breath and then breathed out a bright green flame. Floating through the air, the flame snaked down around his legs and momentarily formed glowing rings around his ankles before quickly fading. The dragon crouched down, tensing his muscles, only to suddenly shoot off into the sky like a rocket.
“Whoa!” Rainbow cried out in surprise and Scootaloo whooped as he circled them, half running and half floating through the air with Spike still clinging to his back.
“You can fly!?” Spike exclaimed.
“Of course I can fly!” Future Spike laughed. “I'm a dragon! Didn't I tell you? Wings are overrated!”
“Really?” Scootaloo said. “You hear that, Rainbow?”
“Oh hay no!” Rainbow laughed and shot off across the rooftops. “Come on, last one to Sweet Apple Acres is a chicken!”
“Hey!” Scootaloo wasted no time following her.
“Better hold on tight, kid,” Future Spike said and accelerated. Spike had to dig his claws into his future self's scales as they pursued the pegasi, but even so he found himself smiling.
Maybe today isn't so bad after all?
Fluttershy felt anxious. This was not an unusual state of mind for her - many things made her anxious: Dragons, natural disasters, flying at high altitudes, her shadow acting threatening and so on. Indeed, anxiety had always been a common occurrence in her life for as long as she could remember.
At the moment, the cause of her anxiety was the fact that her cottage was full of various woodland creatures in all shapes and sizes. That too was not especially unusual, except this time something seemed to have the animals severely spooked. A large number of bunnies, mice, ferrets and a few hedgehogs sat huddled under her chairs and dinner table, their little eyes darting back and forth at the slightest sound. A wide variety of birds sat perched on every counter and cupboard, too terrified to utter a single chirp. Even her friend the bear seemed nervous, curled up into a ball in a corner with his paws on his head, which was highly irregular.
Contrary to what most ponies assumed, Fluttershy couldn't literally understand what the animals were saying since they didn't use words to begin with. She merely had a very acute intuition for what they were thinking and feeling. Therefore she wasn't exactly sure what had frightened them so; all she could make out was that Something Very Bad was going on outside. She suspected it had something to do with the strange weather – thick clouds had appeared over Sweet Apple Acres seemingly out of nowhere along with a mysterious fog, neither of which had been mentioned in the forecast. Even though she wasn't a weatherpony, Fluttershy knew enough about the subject to realize that something must have gone terribly wrong.
“Oh Angel, what am I to do?” she asked.
Angel Bunny, who could talk to the other animals and had a pretty good idea of what was going on, peeked out of his hiding place behind the sofa and gave her a helpless shrug.
Fluttershy wasn't good at taking initiatives – that had always been Rainbow's forte, and Fluttershy found herself wishing her friend was there with her. Ever since they were fillies, Rainbow Dash had always been around to push Fluttershy forward or drag her along, or knock her off her safe little cloud. Sometimes literally. Fluttershy stopped for a moment to wonder what might have become of her without her childhood friend, but she couldn't imagine a life without Rainbow.
A sudden loud sound and a flash of purple light snapped Fluttershy out of her thoughts and made her heart skip a beat. Twilight Sparkle had just teleported into the middle of the room, bringing with her an assortment of friends and time travelers. Their appearance startled the animals and some of the smaller ones fainted. Fluttershy almost did so as well. “Oh, Twilight! You scared me!” she whimpered.
“Sorry, Fluttershy,” Twilight replied, looking just a bit weary from the magical exertion. “We have a crisis on our hooves and there wasn't time to use the door. Long story short, Sweet Apple Acres has been invaded by a military force from an alternate future and pretty soon they'll conquer the entire town.”
Fluttershy turned somewhat pale. “Oh my, that sounds really serious! What do we do?”
Apple Bloom grinned. “Obviously, we're gonna go over there an' tan their sorry hides.”
Fluttershy turned even paler. “I was afraid you'd say that.”
Rarity sighed, quickly making sure her mane was still tidy. “And here I'd just gotten a lovely hooficure, too. I'd just hate to ruin it against some uncouth ruffian's face.”
Applejack shot her a wry smile. “Ya know, Rarity, for such a prissy pony yer strangely badass.”
“Why thank you.” Rarity frowned slightly. “I think.”
Suddenly the front door slammed open and Rainbow barged in, followed by Scootaloo and both Spikes. “Mission accomplished!” Rainbow hollered. Fluttershy nearly fainted again.
“They didn't see you, did they?” Apple Bloom asked.
Future Spike shook his head. “It was a bit touch and go, but I don't think so.”
“We hid in an apple tree!” Spike declared, clearly still a bit hyped up from the excitement. “I was sure they were gonna see us but they didn't! It was awesome!”
Twilight gave the baby dragon a disapproving look. “You brought him along? Is that really a good idea?”
“Probably not,” Future Spike admitted, “but since the Fray is already here, I've decided to stop worrying and embrace the madness.”
Apple Bloom turned to Scootaloo. “So, what are we dealing with?”
“They have a cloaked airship parked right above the farm,” Scootaloo replied. “And they've already deployed a full platoon of troops to patrol the orchards. It's mostly scarecrows, though.”
Applejack looked puzzled. “Scarecrows?”
“Contumacy footsoldiers,” Sweetie Belle explained. “Think small timberwolves with spears. They'll probably have some actual timberwolves as well.”
“We also saw some of those new metal automatons,” Spike said. “Not sure how many. And of course there's a squad of Lionheart Company griffons running the show.”
“Scarecrows, tincans and Lionhearts,”Apple Bloom tallied. “We can handle that.”
“They also have walker tanks,” Spike added. “Two of them.”
“Dammit,” Apple Bloom groaned. “That makes it trickier. We're gonna have to find a way to take those out.”
“What about Granny an' Macintosh?” Applejack cut in. “Are they alright? Did ya see 'em?”
Scootaloo shook her head. “No, but my guess is that the griffons are holding them prisoner at your house or in the barn. They seem to be using the farm as an improvised barracks.”
“Rescuing 'em is out top priority,” Apple Bloom decided. She started pacing the room with a thoughtful look on her face. “So, in summary, they've got a small army of battle constructs, a band of ruthless griffon mercenaries an' two heavily armed war machines in a defensive position. We've got nine ponies...”
“With no weapons,” Scootaloo added.
“...Nine unarmed ponies, two dragons, a homefield advantage an' the element of surprise.”
Future Spike grinned slightly. “Sounds like a fair fight.”
“What about the airship?” Twilight asked. “Is it armed?”
“Probably,” Sweetie Belle said. “But they won't risk firing on their own troops, especially not when their ship is cloaked and they don't have a clear view. Morning Star doesn't like wasting resources.”
“The real trick will be to get past their patrols long enough to free Granny an' Mac,” Apple Bloom said. “Twilight, just makin' sure, but ya do know combat magic, right?”
Twilight nodded. “I know how to defend myself.” She had indeed learned the basic maser beam spell, if only because Shining Armor had insisted she did. She decided not to mention that she had only used it once on an actual living target.
“Good.” Apple Bloom stopped pacing and addressed the group. “Alright, everypony, here's the plan...”
Commander Girard inspected the interior of the barn with a critical eye. It wasn't much, but it would have to do until the order was given to advance on the town. The griffon warrior hoped it wouldn't take much longer: Primitive accommodations aside, the unnatural fog produced by the airship's cloaking magic always made him uneasy. Not to mention, it ironically risked attracting the attention of the ponies, but if any of them had noticed the strange weather they were wisely keeping their distance.
The scarecrows were already patrolling the orchards and would apprehend any trespassers. As for the residents of the farm, both ponies had been quickly captured. However, one of them had offered unexpectedly fierce resistance and had actually injured several of Girard's men before being subdued. The stallion had put up quite a fight as well.
They were now both securely tied up and gagged in an unused corner of the barn. Girard had requested they be held in the ship's brig but the request had been denied, as he'd feared it might, due to the expedience of the operation.
“Hmw dwwh hwu!? Uhmthwuh mwh uh hmf!” The old mare tried in vain to shout some manner of insults at the griffons through her gag, all while struggling against her bonds. She had been doing that for a while now and Girard really wished she would stop. On the other hand, he was beginning to wonder if they had even needed to gag the other one. The large stallion hadn't made a sound since he was captured. He was just sitting there, glaring at them. Girard could hardly wait to take the town so he could have some proper internment camps set up.
One of his subordinates entered the barn and saluted. “Sir, we've swept the entire area. Nothing unusual to report.”
“No sign of the pony known as Applejack?” Girard asked.
The griffon shook his head. “No sir.”
That worried Girard. Applejack was designated a high-priority Pony of Interest and historical records indicated that she would be active at the farm during this time period. Girard hoped she was just out of town on this particular day. “What's the word from above?”
“The general is reporting our progress to Lady Silver as we speak,” the griffon soldier said. “He will join us for the offensive shortly.”
Girard nodded. “Good. Let's get the troops in formation so we can get out of this backwater rat's nest.”
“Mwt!?” the old mare grunted furiously. “Rhts nhst?! Mwyhmm uwhthuh...”
Girard rolled his eyes. “And not a moment too soon.”
Among the trees of the orchards the scarecrows were on the prowl, eerie green eyes flashing in the dense fog. Their leader, perched on the back of a huge timberwolf, cawed the occasional order while directing the others with its spear. So far the patrols had been uneventful.
Suddenly a sharp whistle cut through the air. “Hey, numbskulls! Over here!” As one, the troop turned to see Rarity and Pinkie Pie standing side by side out in the open.
“Have at thee, villains!” Rarity shouted, taking a battle stance.
“Come get some!” Pinkie added for good measure.
The scarecrow leader pointed his spear at them, cawing a command, and the entire flock stormed towards the two ponies with crystal spears at the ready and wooden fangs bared.
“Ready, Pinkie?” Rarity whispered as they advanced.
“I was born ready!” Pinkie replied. “Well, actually, I was born helpless and screaming, but that doesn't sound very...”
“Now!” On Rarity's command they both jumped aside, away from each other, revealing that they'd been standing in front of Pinkie's party cannon the whole time.
“Party hard!” Pinkie cried and opened fire.
A barrage of high-pressure party accessories struck the attackers, and while the blast didn't do a lot of actual damage it was enough to stun them. One scarecrow had its head smashed to pieces by a heavy punch bowl, another got a facefull of strawberry cake. Blinded, it swung its spear around in confusion, injuring several of its comrades. Many more were similarly incapacitated by pies and other assorted pastries.
Pinkie kept firing, whooping and shouting taunts the whole time. The few scarecrows that made it through the barrage were swiftly struck down by Rarity, putting her self-defense skills to good use with powerful kicks and bucks. “I can't believe this is working!” she said. “Rainbow, Scootaloo! Your turn!”
Two glowing streaks shot out of a nearby apple tree – one purple lightning, the other a brilliant rainbow. They turned in the air and smashed into the rear of the scarecrow squad like a pair of colorful missiles. When the dust settled, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo stood back to back, hooves raised, surrounded by scarecrows and timberwolves.
“Remember to destroy their cores,” Scootaloo said, “or they'll just keep coming back for more.”
Rainbow nodded. “Gotcha.”
“Think you can handle this many?”
“Why? Want me to leave some for you?”
The two pegasi shared a cocky grin, then leapt into the battle.
On the sidelines, the scarecrow commander watched the fight in confusion. Without a griffon to give it instructions, the wooden construct wasn't nearly smart enough to deal with a two-pronged counter-attack. Noticing that another patrol had arrived to reinforce them, it raised its spear and opened its beak to issue an order to regroup, when suddenly a shadow fell over it from above.
Future Spike landed right on top of it, smashing rider and timberwolf alike into twigs and splinters. The scarecrow reinforcements stopped dead in their tracks and stared at him.
From his seat on his elder's back, little Spike cheerfully waved his claw at them. “Welcome to Ponyville!”
And then Future Spike set them all on fire.
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GO SPIKE!
"From his seat on his elder's back, little Spike cheerfully waved his claw at them. “Welcome to Ponyville!”
And then Future Spike set them all on fire."
Best. Spike moment. EVER.
I thought this was dead. Are five month hiatus between chapter's going to be normal?
4350848
Hopefully not. I've never been a fast writer, but so far this year has been unusually unproductive even by my standards.
It depends on various factors, some of which I have little to no control over.
LET'S GET A PARTY STARTED
4350864 Completely understandable. I am not criticizing, I was just curious. I completely comprehend that we all have far more important obligations than fanfiction.
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome!!!
I read this at 4:42 in the morning ( have no idea what the time is where you are right now or where you are at all, but that doesn't matter)
I was just about to sleep peaceful when i get a E-mail saying it had updated so i decided not to sleep but read.. Great story by the way well..
Goodnight I'm going to sleep!
4350902
The crazy thing is, I sorta don't have any important obligations. Writing this thing is more or less my job now, and I've commited myself to making some kind of progress on it on a weekly basis. How I still managed to end up five months late is a bit of a mystery to me.
4350939
Apparently we're almost in the same time zone, it's 05:13 where I'm sitting. (I post my stuff early in the morning because that's when the site is most active.)
...Hope it was worth staying up for.
Odd. I've got this favourited, but it didn't show up as a new chapter in my favourites list.
Just glad it showed up in the featured box.
4351028
Yeah, that's always been an issue for my stories on this site. I really have no idea why that is, though.
4351091
Good thing they're so good though so many check up on or re-read frequently!
SPIKE IS KICKASS IT SHOULD FOCUS ON SPIKE MORE
YAY Update
I've been waiting for SOOOO long for this update. It was worth it.
Great to see another chapter up. I just hope it doesn't take this long for the last chapter to come out.
I don't usually have many stories I'm excited about updating, but for this story, FUCK YEAH!
Hmm it seems there must be something extra important about Pinkie's death because we keep mentioning it but keep getting side tracked from it. I wonder what the significance of that is?
4351429
And then it just ends up being that her Daily 2000 servings of sugar finally got to her
Granny Smith is a Badass. O.o
"However, one of them had offered unexpectedly fierce resistance and had actually injured several of Girard's men before being subdued. The stallion had put up quite a fight as well."
Lol way to go Granny Smith!
Cutie Mark Crusaders... playing with time...
*The Doctor suddenly hears about a billion Cloister Bells going off simultaneously as his new companion, Pinkie has a doozy so strong it nearly shakes the Tardis apart.*
The the universe explodes. Again.
Great
4350951 it was worth staying up for and I think we're in the same zone because it was like 5:13 when I posted that message. It was just 4:42 when i began reading.
You're an awesome writer, this is my favorite story in all time! (See what I did there all time) I'm so funny aren't I?
(I know it's a bad joke but I don't care, I find myself hilarious.)
Looks like, whoever Morning Star is (*coughSunsetShimmercough*), she prefers magical abominations to regular pony troops. One wonders just how ugly her world might be.
"Lady Silver"? I wonder if that's Silver Spoon. More importantly, is she from Morning Star's timeline or from that of our heroes? If it's the latter, one wonders precisely what she did to Diamond Tiara as proof of her change of allegiance.
The real trick will be to get passed
past
Ready, Pinky?
Pinkie
4351429
Mostly, it's significant in that I don't want to pile the exposition up too much.
We'll get to Pinkie's fate eventually, though.
4352163
You're not Scandinavian, by any chance?
4352426
Fixed. Thanks.
4352643 nope I'm from the Netherlands,
Holland, you know, the land of cheese where everyone speaks dutch :]
4352729
Been to Holland - my brother lived there for a while. Nice place, if a bit flat compared to Sweden. Love your architecture.
4352751 thanks, even though I did nothing with the architecture, but well thanks for complimenting my land. Can you speak dutch?! I never went to where you come from, but it sounds like it's very cool over there. When you went to Holland did you eat cheese!?
4352756
I don't recall having any cheese, but we were only there for a short while. And I don't speak a word Dutch; all I know is that it sounds kinda like German spoken with a somewhat Swedish accent, which I always found curious.
4352830 You. Didn't. Have. Cheese.
But cheese is sooo good..
And even through it sounds german I barely can speak a word german.. I can say
''Ich bin Lightning Spark." though. It means
I am Lightning Spark..
Well uh.. you really should have eaten cheese..
4352868 Du bist dich klein blau u-Boat. I know my spelling is awful, but at least it matches up phonetically.
4353313 i have no idea what you just said but i think something in this line:'you are a little blue u-boat.. Something like that
4353346
I mentioned this before, but I actually think Applejack's honesty makes her worse at detecting insincerity, not better. Kinda like, you have to be a good liar to spot one. Applejack is a very straightforward pony who takes things at face value, which makes her much easier to fool than Twilight who's used to analyzing things.
4353389 You are a small, fat, blue submarine. HAHA!
Du bist dich klein blau krapfen.
4353640 if you mean fat then you should have typed it like 'dick' and not dich as dich is something I should know and can not explain because I didn't pay any attention in that class.
Something to do with the '4e naamval' as we call it in dutch.
“Welcome to Ponyville!”
And then Future Spike set them all on fire.
Classy.
Yes, Spike. You have learned well.
I see what you did there.
If only all stories ended like that. Ps, I had the spike flying with no wings idea a long time ago. So yeah. He doesn't do it the same way, but its still flying.
So AWESOME
. Please continue soon! The Spike has been double!
So...awesome...
Nice job, and a great place to cut the chapter actually.
At least we're not left with a cliffhanger like the last one.
This made me double back.
I personally like the separated paragraphs; I do the same thing in my stories because it feels less like a wall of text. Never have that problem when I'm reading with novels and such though... writing on the internet is weird,
Can.... can we start calling this story Spikes;Gate?
subversify.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/49157-george-takei-oh-my-gif-e64l.gif
)
(I know, I know... it's not quite the same thing, but I couldn't resist,
Non of this made sense to him:
---None
---Now that reminds me of "The End of Ponies." So. Care to shove more time travelers into the midst now that the jig is up? The more the merrier the chaos would be.
---Karate Rarity for the win.
---Yes. Embrace it. Let the madness flow through you.
researchismagic.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/pinkie-pie-party-cannon-i31.gif
On the whole "updates not showing" thing, just post a blog about it, and people will be fine.
Well, that was fun.
wallpaperswa.com/thumbnails/detail/20120719/sun%20outer%20space%20multicolor%20tardis%20earth%20doctor%20who%202447x1426%20wallpaper_wallpaperswa.com_57.jpg
This was very good. I can't wait for more.
4359993
Spike is mad scientist. It's so cool! Sunnovabitch.
4360058
Not sure I follow you there.
If you mean they should simply write the whole story down and have Twilight send it to Celestia, they could try that. It's just that the events they are trying to prevent are part of the true timeline, and time itself wants those events to occur. Basically they don't think they can afford taking any chances, so they mean to make sure it gets done in person.
As for the Fray, knowing the future doesn't necessarily cause one (because, again, the timeline is kinda stubborn) but they were trying to be really careful anyway.
We'll just have to wait and see what happens, won't we?
4360458
It's over; you have won the Internet.
31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0hv30YZ3e1r105rmo1_500.gif
4360458 Why where ever could Past Discord be? And Morning Star's Discord? And Future Discord?
Looks like events are...
(Puts on shades)
Heating Up.
4361034