The Seasons of Equestria

by Lucaro

Chapter 10: Losing Power

The Tempests screamed, the glass cracking as they all joined in the horrible cacophony. Amberleaf’s horn started to glow, and she changed the chemical structure of the glass so it would not resonate with the Tempest’s shrieks. The glass stopped cracking, and the Tempests eventually stopped screaming.

Starlight uncovered his ears, and sighed in relief. Maelstrom laughed, and stuck out his tongue at the Tempests. “Ha ha, what you gonna do now!?”

Callista tackled Maelstrom. “No!” she hissed. “You’re not going to make them angry again!”

Amberleaf dashed towards Starlight. “Guys, we have to get out of here!”

Maelstrom nodded, standing up. “Yeah, but how? It’s -70 out there, we’ll freeze to death in minutes,” he shivered. “It’s already getting colder and colder in here.”

“Yeah, and that’s why our time is limited,” Starlight said and turned to Amberleaf. “Can you use some kind of spell to get us out of here?”

Amberleaf shook her head. “I tried a teleport spell before, but those elementals have created some kind of anti-magic field. It took all my power to fix that glass, teleporting four full grown ponies is out of the question.”

Starlight looked around the control room. “There has to be some gryphon technology here that can help us escape.”

There was a clank, and the vent started blowing out warm air, trying to raise the room’s temperature back to a normal level. Starlight saw the Tempests outside flinch, and stared in wonder at the vent on the roof. Could they detect the temperature of the air currents in here?

Starlight watched in mute horror as the Tempests raised their hooves, tracing the flow of the warm air back to its source. The Tempests were now all pointing at a building in the distance, and Starlight could faintly hear the hum of generators from there. What were they doing?

All the Tempests began to leave, heading towards the generator building. The realization struck him. “They’re going for the generators. The moment we lose power, the heating system will fail, and we’ll all freeze to death in a few hours.”

“We have to get out of here!” Callista yelled.

“Search the room!” Starlight commanded. “Anything that can help us!”

They all began looking. Starlight ripped through a pile of papers, yanking out the desk drawers, and finding nothing but meteorological tools. The lights went dark, and there was the humming sound of the power failing. Everything went dark, and a red pilot light flicked on. “Emergency power activated.” The temperature interface said.

Starlight could immediately feel the temperature dropping in the room. “We’re running out of time!” he yelled.

Starlight’s eyes caught the temperature gauge as he searched around. -90 Fahrenheit. How had it dropped so quickly?! Panic began enfolding him. He flipped over a desk, in frustration. He heard something tinkle then. Huh?

Something metal had made a jingling sound. Starlight moved the desk over a bit and found what appeared to be keys. There was a tag on them that read. “APC ignition.”

What was that? He picked them up and stared at them. Callista screamed and Starlight saw the giant hammer of a Revenant moving towards him from the window right in front of him. The hammer ripped through the glass, and he felt Amberleaf charge into him. She knocked him out of the way, and he saw a flash of light as she conjured a shield. The hammer shattered her shield, knocking her hard against the wall.

Starlight scrambled to his feet, and saw the Revenant raising its warhammer again. Amberleaf was cornered, her body streaked with blood, and her horn broken. Starlight charged forward to save her. The Revenant’s warhammer began to descend, and she weakly raised her hoof as to protect herself, her eyes lit with terror. She looked at him then, seeing him running towards her. “I love you,” she whispered before the hammer crashed down on her.

There was a splash of blood and gore, which immediately froze in midair. “Noooooo!” Starlight screamed, anguished tears in his eyes.

The Revenant raised his hammer again, the crushed remnants of Amberleaf stuck on the end. He felt a hoof grab him and pull him away before the hammer came crashing down again. “Get up!” Maelstrom cried. “We have to get out of here!”

Starlight felt as if his heart had shattered in his chest, and all the sharp, broken pieces were pricking his insides. He somehow found the will to stand back up and run. The three of them ran into the hallway, and the Revenant was outside again, following them as they made their way down the hallway.

The hammer came ripping through the walls in front of them, and they turned back around and ran the other way. Tears burned in Starlight’s eyes, and his entire body shuddered in grief. He didn’t care if he left this place alive or not, Amberleaf was dead and nothing mattered anymore.

They ran back into the control room and ripped through the doors of the hallway on the other end. They ran through and saw the Revenant appear again outside. They made it to the room on the other side before the entire hallway was wrecked by two Revenants. Callista slammed the steel door behind her, and in the dark red light, they appeared to have stumbled into a garage.

“Look!” Maelstrom yelled. There was a large, armor-clad, personnel carrier parked in the garage. It even had fancy looking snow treads, and a rapid-fire crossbow turret on top. They rushed to it, and Callista tried to open the door, but it was locked. Maelstrom joined her and tried to force the doors, but they wouldn’t open.

Starlight stared at them, completely numb with shock and grief. Maelstrom was banging on the windows, but being an armored vehicle, he couldn’t do it. Callista began to cry in desperation, desperately looking around for anything that could save them. Starlight realized that he still had these keys in his hoof. He stared at them. “APC ignition.”

“Armored Personnel Carrier,” he softly said to himself. He pressed one of the buttons on the keys and the vehicle beeped, and the doors automatically slid open. “Oh, cool,” he softly said to himself.

There was a terrible grating sound and white cracks appeared in the roof. A Revenant had ripped off the roof, and was staring down at them. Starlight’s preservation instincts kicked in and he ran to the APC, ripping the door open and jamming the key in the ignition. Maelstrom had pulled Callista in, and he slammed the doors shut.

Starlight floored the gas pedal and they jolted forward. They crashed through the steel garage doors, and began sailing across the snow. “Callista!” Starlight yelled. “You’re our navigator!”

She nodded. “Where are we going?”

“Just get us out of here!” Starlight yelled.

“Sounds like a plan to me!” Maelstrom agreed.

Starlight shouted as a giant spike of ice appeared in front of the APC, and he swerved out of the way. The snow treads hit the icy spike, and the entire vehicle tipped precariously on its side and fell back down with a thud. “What in Equestria….”

Another spike of ice appeared and he swerved out of the way. Callista looked out the rear window and gasped. “The Revenants! They’re following us, and there’s like three of them!”

Two ice spikes appeared in front of them at the same time, and he crashed through one, the windshield cracking and the engine threating to stall. “We can’t continue taking these hits from them!”

Maelstrom leapt up. “Leave them to me!” he opened the hatch on the roof and began climbing up.

“What are you doing!?” Callista yelled.

“Starlight drives, you navigate, and I’ll shoot!” Maelstrom said.

There was the sound of arrows being fired in rapid succession as Maelstrom spun around on the crossbow turret, shooting at the Revenants. “Eat it, bitches!”

Maelstrom was yelling above the turret fire, and Starlight dodged another ice spike. A Tempest appeared in front of them, but Maelstrom shot it down quickly. “Thanks!” Starlight yelled.

“No problem!” he replied.

“Change direction, head north now!” Callista ordered.

There was an earth shaking explosion, signifying the death of one of the Revenants. A bar of ice in front of them, and Starlight couldn’t avoid it. They crashed through it, and the jolt sent Maelstrom flying off the turret. He was hanging off the edge of the APC, still holding onto the mounted crossbow.

“Maelstrom!” Starlight yelled.

Maelstrom pulled himself back up and started shooting again. “Drive better, dammit!”

Starlight grinned, and they picked up speed. Maelstrom’s crossbow fire had been warding them off, and now the Revenants were falling behind. “We’re getting away! You can’t even see them anymore!” Callista cheered. “Now, where are we headed?”

“Canterlot,” Starlight growled. “Something needs to be done about that bastard, Snowhoof.”

If I see him, I will personally send him to hell. Starlight had been foolish to trust him, and now…now Amberleaf was dead. I will find you, and I will kill you Snowhoof for all the lives you’ve taken.