Equestria Has Fallen

by ward282

New Beginnings

The night sky ruptured into a large purple star, a beam of light opened from the sky to a spot of land. A solitary pegasus saw the beam of light, he'd seen this once before some time ago but he couldn't be sure, he kept to the shadows of the trees until the light vanished. In the distance at the very spot the light touched the ground, he saw a purple unicorn look around looking lost and scared. The pegasus tried to move quietly towards the unicorn but the metal armour made his hooves make a loud clop when they struck the ground. He kept low and moved as quietly as he could, he knew he wasn't alone out here.

Twilight awoke suddenly, her eyes were still sore from the blinding light of Luna's and Celestias' spell. She picked herself up from the ground and took in her surroundings. It was night time, which was odd because it had only been mid-afternoon when they were all fighting in the chapel. Then it hit her, her brother had been bleeding when Celestia teleported him and Cadence to Trottingham. It felt like Applejack had bucked her in the chest, tears rolled down her face. She looked around for her friends who had been right beside her in the tunnels, they were nowhere to be seen. Twilight looked around for where her friends might be, there were trees to her left and hills in the distance to her right, she had no idea where she was nor where her friends might be.

There was a rustling noise in the tree-line. Twilight turned quickly in its general direction. She illuminated her horn and pointed it into the tree-line.

"Rainbow Dash if that's you, now is really not the time!" she shouted half angry, half hoping.

The noise rustled some more, this time to the left of where she was looking. Twilight pointed the light at the trees, the light glinted on something pony-sized and black. As Twilight focussed she realised there was more than one black object; changlings. Twilight fired a stun shot from her horn and struck the changling it fell and then it rose again, now it started to move towards her. Twilight scanned the trees, all the changlings were moving towards her, but these ones were slower unlike the ones in the chapel and none of them used their magic against her. As the changlings moved closer Twilight noticed that they weren't changlings, they were of similar shape, colour and size, but the colour in the eyes was black and some had clear wounds. Twilight fired some more shots from her horn, each of these changlings were hit, they fell and then rose again just like before. Twilight heard the gasping and the moaning coming from these changlings as they drew closer to her. She counted six, as they moved closer Twilight saw the sharp teeth they all had, she also noted two had wounds that should be fatal.

Twilight looked at one of the changlings nearest her, then something happened that she couldn't quite explain. There was a loud, deafening *BOOM* and the changlings' head exploded black blood splattered the ground and her face, the body was tossed to the side from the force of the blow. There was another *BOOM* followed by another *BOOM*, one of the changlings to her left head exploded, another changling to her right was tossed at great speed. The other changlings were nearly on her, then there was a darkness a figure landed in front of her; a pegasus. The pegasus reared, the moonlight glinted on the armour it was wearing, the pegasus struck a changling with its forehoof. The changling staggered back, the pegasus turned to Twilight.

"Don't just stand there! Kill them!" the stallion pegasus said, the accent was Northern Equestrian; Buckingham or Trottingham Twilight wasn't sure.

Twilight didn't know what to do. She couldn't help but watch as the pegasus outstretched his wings, crouched down and rotated, this manoeuvre knocked two of the three changings to the ground. The pegasus reared again and then stomped on the changlings' head, a deafening crack was heard as the skull broke beneath his hooves. Twilight felt sick, her stomach felt heavy, she put a hoof to her mouth and stepped back a few paces. The pegasus used his wings to grab one of the changlings' head, then he jumped up, his back legs tucked under and he planted them on the changlings' chest, he pushed off. Twilight heard the crack as the spinal chord of the changling was pulled. Twilight vomited, she flopped out on the ground, she turned to see the last changling stagger over to her and then *BOOM* a large hole in the changlings side formed and it fell over to one side.

"Thank you" Twilight said, wiping the vomit from her mouth.

She looked at the pegasus, he was wearing silver armour tailored for a pegasus, but this wasn't Celestias' royal uniform or Luna's'. The armour had two long barrels that sat on the back and were pointed forward either side of the pegasus' head. Twilight cast her mind to a book where she'd seen a similar sketch. Her mind recalled a book on the history of pegasi, this was military armour, designed for combat before the reign of the two sisters.

"What are you doing out here at night, are you trying to get yourself killed?" the pegasus said angrily.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to it was daytime when Celestia and Luna cast their spell." Twilight said quickly, still unsure herself why she was here.

"Wait Celestia and Luna sent you here?"

"Yes we.." she paused, "my friends and I were in the Canterlot tunnels when Luna and Celestia cast their spell to teleport us to Trottingham.

The pegasus stared at her.

"You're a bearer of the Elements of Harmony aren't you?"

"Yes, I'm Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestias' student." Twilight said proudly.

"My dear I am so sorry, you don't even know?" The pegasus said.

"Know what?" Twilight replied.

There was a long pause the pegasus seemed to have forgotten how to speak, Twilight was about to ask again when he spoke up.

"Canterlot fell two years ago".

Questions began forming in Twilights' head at about the same pace as Pinkie Pie when she tried to explain anything, if her head was a machine it would of fried because of the speed. How on earth had two years passed, she'd been in Canterlot a mere half hour ago. The pegasus was patiently waiting for a reply. The pegasus himself had a white coat, blue eyes and a light brown mane and tail. His coat was mainly covered by the silver armour, from a distance it looked like something Rarity would design but on closer inspection the armour had clear scratch marks and dents. The wings of the pegasus were also odd, instead of white wings the pegasus had silver metal wings.

"Twilight Sparkle, I know you will find this hard to understand but I have to take you to Trottingham" The pegasus began.

"Trottingham! My brother, Cadence are they okay? Are the Princesses there? We have to go, I was supposed to be teleported there by Luna and Celestia" Twilight asked suddenly perking up.

"Miss Sparkle it is late and we have a long walk ahead of us and we need to get to safety"

"I'm sorry.." Twilight searched for a name.

"Thunderer" the pegasus replied.

He turned and began walking away, Twilight followed.

"I know you'll have many questions but I cannot answer them all." Thunderer said.

They walked for five minutes as Twilight considered what she actually needed answers for.

"What were those things?" Twilight asked, she had to consider what she had to know now.

"We call them abominations, they're what happens when changlings suck ponies dry, they become the living dead. Queen Chrysalis has no control over them they just wonder and eat any living thing they find."

Twilight thought that was awfully clichéd, but the evidence was there and she couldn't deny it.

"How far is Trottingham?" Twilight asked aware of how stressful her day had been and wanting a good bed to sleep on.

"A few hours, you say Luna and Celestia sent you here, are you aware that that happened two years ago?" Thunderer took the chance to ask a few himself.

"Honestly.. it only felt like half an hour ago when they cast that spell, I don't understand how two years have passed."

"Where we are going there is someone who can answer that for you" Thunderer said.

They walked on in silence for a long time, Thunderer lead the entire way, their surroundings were mainly trees, streams and large cliff faces. Then when they started to climb Twilight saw something that filled her with hope. Beyond the hill they'd just climbed was a large city, surrounding it was a large pink bubble, the exact same bubble that Shining Armour had cast around Canterlot. Twilights' heart fluttered a little, she wanted to run to her brother. She turned to Thunderer and hugged him. The pegasus moved quickly to the side as Twilights' hooves touched him.

"I'm sorry, I don't like being touched" he said.

Twilight looked slightly offended but retracted her hoof.

"This is Trottingham?" Twilight asked while yawning, she was too tired now.

"Yes, welcome to Trottingham"

Thunderer continued downwards towards the city, Twilight followed him.

Author's Note:

Northern Equestian - Scottish.

Comments

[Insanecrusader]

the accent was Northern Equestrian.

Every planet has a north. EVERY PLANET.
p.s I think this Thunderer of yours would be glad to meet Stormcloud.