Remnants of a Dying World

by Dusk-Spark

Ch. 13: "Ravage"

"Sludge monsters are one thing.
This...beast from the clouds, this...destroyer.
It was in a whole different category.
We'd never seen anything like it before, maybe some of us had heard stories about it.
But, none of us ever expected to see it."

---

---

There are some things, that you're never really prepared for. A pop quiz the moment you come back from 3-week stay at the hospital for a subject you've been failing at, when your marefriend brings you to a public place and says: "We need to talk," the sudden death of a close friend, relative, or colleague. To name a few, there are dozens if not hundreds of examples that one could list. So, you can only imagine the horror of a giant, disembodied eye breaking through the clouds to peer down at the ruins of the Crystal Empire.

It's pupil moved back and forth across the landscape, taking in the sights, absorbing the information. It's eyes briefly locked onto Nox and company.

'Why is it looking at us like that?' More specifically, why was it looking at Nox like that? "Agh!" His wing stubs felt like they were on fire. Why? In all his years, they'd never done that before. Was that giant eye the cause of it? No that was ridiculous, there must be another explanation that doesn't seem so insane.

"You win Break, let's call this off." Marigold passed off the yellow bar to Break, but he didn't take it. "Break?"

He stared, transfixed at the disembodied eye. "Kumi's in danger." Break said, pointing out how the black clouds surrounding the eye were forming tendrils, searching the building Kumi had taken residence in. "I need to help her."

"And just how are you going to help her?"

Break took the rifle from Marigold's hooves, "...The only way I can." He galloped to the edge of the building, knelt down and took aim at the building. "...."

"Break, you're not seriously considering-"

"I am."

"But, it's Kumi-"

"I know."

"...." Marigold was at a loss for words, she looked like she wanted to say something but, it was like the words were caught in her throat.

"Don't!" Nox grabbed the barrel and pushed it aside, "You're gonna shoot her? How is that gonna save her?!"

"This is saving her." At first, Nox thought it was just a horrible joke. But while Break rather liked the sarcasm, it was very clear from his tone and the serious look in his eyes that he was not joking.

"Then you have a poor definition of saving ponies! I thought she was your protege, aren't you like...her adoptive father or something?" Nox looked to Marigold for support, hoping that she, of all ponies in their merry little band, would understand why Nox was so against this. His heart sank when he saw her look away from the scene. "You too Marigold?" Nox looked to each of the two ponies. "You two aren't...you really are...you're going to..." He just couldn't bring himself to say it.

"She knew what she was getting into." Break said in a low voice, "I told her to stay out of it."

"She was just trying to help!" Nox stomped his hooves down in indignation, "and this is how you repay her?!"

"Nox..." Marigold started.

"No! This isn't right, aren't you the good guys? Didn't we go on this mission with the intent of saving ponies? No one said anything about gunning down a filly in cold blood!" Of course Nox was angry, why wouldn't he be? This was the kind of things that evil ponies did. The worst part of it, Nox could see why they were doing, but he just didn't like it. He wanted to believe that there must've been another way.

Break sighed wearily, "Then how would you save her?" Break lifted up the rifle, pointing it at Nox instead. "Let's see if you can see something that I can't?"

Maybe if the gun weren't in his face then he could think of something-

"No. You can't. If you had a plan you would've come up with it, but your eyes drifted to the sky, you're trying to recall something, trying to think of a plan based on something you saw previously. It won't work." Break turned the gun back to the building, "I've run through 49 different scenarios in my head during your whining, and I can tell you right now...there's only one way we're walking out of this, and it's about as likely as you turning into an all powerful unicorn."

"But...that's..."

"Nox, darling." Marigold stepped forward, putting a hoof on his shoulder, "Nopony wants to do this, it's what we have to do. It's more of a mercy than anything else, if we don't...then she'll suffer. Painfully. See look." She pointed out the red smoke billowing from the top of Kumi's building. "I told you what the red smoke means." She hid it well, but her voice cracked in that instant. What they had to do was hurting her, more than Nox could possibly understand.

"...." He hated this.

"I have her in my sights."

He hated not being to do anything, 'If I had my wings, I could fly over there.' The fire in his stubs had not yet receded, he bit his lip and turned away from the scene. He didn't want to see it, he felt that if he witnessed this then-
His eyes widened when he realized something was missing. "Where's Aurora?"

Indeed, Aurora had not been amongst them. In fact, she hadn't been there for a while.

---

The moment the black cloud had appeared, maybe even sometime before that, Aurora had slipped away. Had she gone to rescue Kumi? No of course not, she didn't even know who Kumi was. No. Her objective was the black cloud and the disembodied eye. It reminded her so much of something, but she didn't know what it was. Her fractured memories were screaming at her, they told her that the key to fixing her memory had something to do with that cloud.
She kicked open the door the roof of an apartment complex. It was bigger than the library, there's no way the eye would miss her. She looked at it, almost out of breath. As she stared into that giant disembodied eye peeking out through the cloud covers, something awoke her. A memory from her past, and that memory filled her with rage she'd never felt before. It poured into her, consuming her.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!" She screamed as loud as she could before taking out her gun and opening fire on the eye. It didn't even flinch as the bullets ricochet off the sclera.

But its attention did turn to her. Its pupil dilated when it gazed at her, then a mighty roar rocked the very foundations of the empire, the eye went absolutely berserk. Black tendrils of sludge seeped out of the sky and slammed down on the ruins, destroying everything and coating it in more sludge. All the while, that ear shattering roar pierced through the skies for miles and miles. It spared nothing, and no one as its destruction left the Crystal Empire in an even worse state, its crystal barriers and sturdy buildings stood no chance to withstand the might of black cloud's destructive power.

---

A blue pegasus colt stands at the edge of a cloud, gazing out into the beauty of the dawn's early light. But, he was not there to admire the scenery or anything of that sort. No, he was there because he had decided that it was time for him to fly. No more drills, no more light fluttering, no more practice runs where he'd just end up falling on his face. This was the real thing now.
He remembered the snickering of his classmates when he, who knew so much about the mechanics of flying, could barely lift himself in the air. It just wasn't fair, he wanted to fly more than anyone, he wanted to...he wanted to fly with the mare he looked up to. He wanted her to look at him, and praise him just like that day.
A strong wind blew through his mane, he sighed. "What would Rainbow Dash do?" Stupid question. He knew what she would do, the real question was; "What is Noctilucent going to do?"
. . . . . . . . . .
He took a deep sigh, and took several large steps back. 'Remember your training, remember what you studied for. You can do this, and then no one will call you names, no one will look down on you. Everything will turn around.'

"Nox."

He stretched out his wings. 'Stretch the wings, get a good gliding position.'

"Nox, wake up."

He pawed at the cloud, waiting. 'Get a good running start and then...'

"Nox, come on wake up!"

He broke into a run, the wind hugging his tiny body, a little pony in his head told him this was a bad idea but it was already too late. 'The most important thing is to look your fear in the eye, and kick it right in the face!'

---

"Nox, Nox!" Marigold's voice cut through his dream. Or rather, her hoof smacking him across the face brought him out of his dream.

"Agh! I'm up, I'm up!" He sat alert, "What's going on?!" It was dark, much darker than he'd expected. They weren't in the library anymore, well that wasn't entirely true. They were still technically in the library, just...not in the same place as before. He tried to recall everything, he must've taken a blow to the head when everything...he was starting to piece it together now. "The cloud monster it...went insane and, oh crap. Where's Break? Aurora? what happened to Kumi?"

Marigold opened her mouth to say something, but she seemed to be struggling to form words, her whole body was shaking. And sweating...in addition to that her breathing was shallow and pained as if she was struggling against some unseen weight...

"Marigold?" It was then that Nox realized that the glow from Marigold's horn was fading quickly, a blanket of magic extended above them. Keeping them from being crushed by a couple hundred pounds of rubble. "Okay, I get it now. Let's go."

"Can't." Marigold choked out.

"Why?" Nox had yet to notice why Marigold hadn't already dragged the two of them to safety.

"User." Sally spoke up, "The subject known as Marigold sustained an...extensive injury to the right foreleg."

"Injur-" Nox saw it now, how had he missed it before? His heart fell into his stomach as he gazed at the piece of metal impaling Marigold's leg. "Oh Celestia..." Nox couldn't even imagine the kind of pain Marigold must be feeling right now. There was, so much blood from the wound. "I...I don't know what to do here..."

"If you were the one injured...then...I could've fixed you up but...it's me that's injured so...heh. Not only that, well..." She motioned with her head to the rubble above their heads threatening to crush them. "I think you can make it out of here but...I probably can't."

"Don't talk like that." Nox was not about to lose someone, not to this place. He needed a plan, he needed a route to take, so he did the only thing he could think of. He looked to Sally for guidance, "Sally, we need a way out. Can you help?"

"This one will try."

"Great. See, Sally's gonna find us a way out in the meantime...what should I do?"

"Well, if we're gonna move then I'm gonna...need you to do some about that." She pointed to the metal piece, "I need you to lift up my leg and see if it's stuck to the ground or if it can move."

"O-Okay." Nox took his shaking hooves and gently lifted Marigold's hoof. He heard her wince from the pain and the rubble overhead shift. He froze, but he couldn't stop now. He needed to see what the status was.
. . . . . .
He touched the metal piece, it wiggled but it was definitely stuck in the ground. He could try lifting the leg up further to see if the metal piece might come out of the ground...or it could go down through what's left of the building. Either way, it wasn't worth it, if it would cause Marigold's concentration to falter anymore. "I think it's stuck to the ground."

"That's bad. If we don't have a way to cut it then..." Marigold's eyes drifted over to Sally, "Sally dear, can you perhaps lend your assistance?"

"This frame does have a laser cutter equipped. Is that acceptable?"

"Let's hope so, dear." She tried to sound upbeat and nonchalant about the whole thing, but her anguish was evident in her voice. Her head drooped and...she'd lost a bit of color.

Nox put Sally down next to Marigold's leg. He watched as Sally's 'arms went to work on cutting the metal piece. "Heh, ya know that probably would've been useful." There was so much that Nox didn't know about Sally, he really should try and figure all that stuff out one day.

"Oh, I can...imagine..." Her eyelids started to close, before they shot open, "Nox, darling, I need you to make sure I don't fall asleep. I might go into shock and if that happens, I might fall unconscious and if that happens..." She looked up to the rubble just eagerly waiting to crush the two ponies.

"Yeah...I got it." Nox needed to think of something, small talk...just...something. "Do you wanna hear stories about where I come from?" Nox's little stubs fluttered just a bit.

"That would be lovely." She answered in a tone barely above a whisper.

"Well...it all started back in a place called Cloudsdale..."

Author's Note:

...I practically blanked on this chapter. Hm...next week's chapter probably won't be there on Tuesday, I'm gonna take some time to actually try to plot things out as opposed to "making stuff up as I go along."