Sins of the Mother

by Chelis

The Horde

The changeling incident was quickly forgotten by the Children of Harmony, and it was passed off as a one in a million occurrence. The fact that Cotton Candy had the first 'kill' in the trip burned into Prism's soul, who up until that time bragged that he would get the first kill. At that moment, they were a day or so from leaving the mountain pass they had started climbing a day earlier to reach the Grand Valley, which was where all of the Griffon Kingdom's food supply came from. As the cool, crisp air rejuvenated their hardened lungs, Clair was heating up in more ways than one. She started to become anxious, jumpy, and nervous when Prince Illusion was brought up.

"Why are you nervous today?" Anthea finally asked.

"It... It's been two weeks."

Everyone stopped and looked at the young woman watching their rear. Everyone had a different interpretation of what that meant, only one person had the lack of a filter to say it.

"You're pregnant?" Prism asked.

Crystal Clarity began to blush in embarrassment and anger."What?! No! Shut the hell up! Every two weeks Illusion visits me... He should find out today that we are gone if he hadn't known already."

"Oh shit, that's bad. He will be totes pissed," Cotton Candy said.

"Unless he can show up out of thin air I don't think he will bother us. Besides, the only one who can do that is his father, he will likely not do that for him." Star commented dismissively.

"I guess... Hey do you hear that?" Claire asked.

Everyone stopped and looked around. A faint rumble was heard farther down the mountain pass. It began to get louder with each passing minute. They had their answer a few minutes later, staring down a large horde of Changelings running up the pass, heading their way.

"Uh oh," Golden Delicious said.

"Welp." Turquoise added.

"Whats going on?! You guys are scaring me!" Anthea cowered.

"R-Run!" Starburst commanded as everyone followed her back into the pass.

"They will be on our ass soon! Better find a hiding spot!" Prism hollered as everyone continued their desperate sprint. There was little to no hiding places in the woods, and seven humans against a horde of maybe a few thousand Changelings was asking for a brutal death.

"Fallen tree! Everyone inside!" Star hollered as she ran into a large remnant of a sequoia tree.

They all dived into it and crouched down, ignoring the ants, roaches, and centipedes that were crawling around in the panic of their peace being disrupted. The rumbling became louder and louder right up to being deafening in the last second. The forest became infested with the horses, the entire ground covered with a mass.

***

An hour had passed since the horde ran through the pass, a bit slower because of the narrowness contesting everything, making it a crawl through the heavily dense forest.

Everyone continued their statuesque posture, even with the various and unknown types of bugs crawling all over them. They continued to wait until the horde passed.

"Shit, that was.... Holy shit," Prism muttered.

Anthea moved her way to the arms of Turquoise. "I was so scared"

"Ain't gonna lie, I think we all were." Golden replied.

"I don't think we are out of the woods yet. Looks like they left five behind." Star commented, looking through a hole in the bark. They were sniffing around, obviously the picked up their scents

"So now what?" Cotton asked.

"Okay... I have an idea. Anthea gives me your pistol. Alright, I will distract them. you guys go on without me. I'll catch up when I finish them.” Starburst said.

"Let me join you!" Prism demanded.

"No, I don't want to put more of you in danger. Ready? Go!"

Star Ran out of the log with her rifle in her hand and got on one knee the second she had a clear shot of the Changeling closest to them. She quickly presented her rifle towards the creature, unleashing a shot that crumpled its feral face inward without much effort.

"Oh come on!" Prism yelled in frustration from inside the log, his hope of being at least the second person to bag a kill dying along with that changeling.

Starburst began to run, with the Changelings on her heels and closing in. When the last one left, the group began to run down the mountain pass, looking back in hesitation whether or not to help their friend.

One particular changeling was five feet away from Star and lunged at her, emitting a snarling growl as it was in the air. In the last second, she ducked and allowed the Changeling to sail over her. It rolled its way back on its claws, but its face exploded by the lead ball from one of Star's pistols. Star jumped over the creature as its body fell on the ground. The three changelings broke off and began to flank her, waiting for a mistake on her part. They didn't have to wait for too long as she was stopped by a rocky outcropping.

Crap.

The changelings were quick to surround her, clicking and growling as they moved on her. The Princess dropped her spent pistol and took a shot with her unfired pistol in the air, backing the changelings off a bit.

Even with the proper military training, Starburst would still indulge herself in unorthodox fighting styles, with dual wield swords being among them. Her father was one of the best dual wielders in Equestria, and always had a piece of advice when his daughter wanted to learn that style of fighting: Don't stop moving and hope for the best.

"Alright, let's make this interesting." Starburst said as she pulled both sabres from their sheaths.

With her swords in each hand, she had it in her mind that if that was her final battle, she would make it an interesting one.

"Bring it, assholes!" She hollered.

Comments

[Chelis]

6237014

Uwot

[SolidFerret]

These chapters are too short.