Forsaken

by Beware The Carpenter

10 - Don't Blink

The thesterals had come, and Canterlot was in flames.

When news of Luna’s unexplained death reached the thesteral city of Iskewrel; dark hordes of thesterals had poured forth from of their ancient forest, slaughtering anything and anyone who could not escape their path. Celestia heard too late of her sister’s death, tried to return to Canterlot and made it to within sight of the city walls before they caught her. The thesterals hurled her mutilated corpse against the city walls as their only message; and began circling high above the city as they waited for the night to fall.

Sky Lunge had insisted on taking the pegasi on a preemptive strike on the thesterals while there was still an hour of light. Shining Armor had forbidden it, knowing that the only possible chance for victory would be for the pegasi to provide low altitude air support for the unicorns and earth ponies who could cover them with spells and bolt fire. The fiery pegasi captain had defied his orders and led the pegasi into battle anyways. A brief chorus of screams, and a shower of pegasi blood being the total reward for the deaths of Equestria’s finest as the thesterals feasted on blood, strengthening themselves for the next push.

Shining Armor’s shield had broken in a matter of minutes with the thesteral’s enchanted obsidian blades cutting and distorting the ley energies he used to maintain it; and Shining Armor had let it drop rather than pour more energy into a battle he could not hope to win.

Those foolish enough to try to escape down the open sides of the mountain were caught and slaughtered. The rest of the civilian population ran for cover in the network of caves that spiraled through the depths of The Canterhorn, to the base of the mountain and into the surrounding countryside. It was a desperate measure, the caves had been kept secret for centuries, and not all of the paths were marked or stable, but they provided a last resort to evacuate the city.

Some of Canterlot’s citizens would find their way through the tunnels and escape, possibly collapsing them behind them to prevent the thesterals from following. Others might hole up in one of the caverns with enough food and water to survive until they were rescued when Equestria re-took the city. Many, many more would get crushed to death by their own families in the rush to escape, or buried in a cave collapse. Most would be lost in the blackness and found by thesterals who would take savage delight in a carnal buffet.

Cadance would not be one of the ones who escaped; she was too kind, she would waste her own chances to get away trying to guide others through the tunnels. Shining Armor had given her two vials of poison before sending her into the caves; one for her and one for Clastic Strain, in case capture was inevitable, and he prayed she would have the sense to use them.

Shining Armor told her that he would follow close her, but he’d lied and she knew it. He needed to stay behind, to give them as much time as he could to run, and to light the city on fire. It seemed incomprehensible, but it was the only way to generate enough light that the thesteral magi couldn’t douse the flames. He knew there were ponies trapped in the building he incinerated, but if the battle for the city was fought in complete darkness, no one would survive.

Great plumes of smoke lurched into the air, as Shining Armor focused them as weapons against the advancing thesterals, slowing their advance as they came at him in waves. Each wave was beaten back be him and his defenders, but with each wave, more of his friends fell, and each wave drew further than the last until only he remained; dashing through the burning streets of a city he’d sworn to protect.

Above him can an agonized scream from a pegasi mare trying to escape the carnage. A thesteral stallion had just bitten off one of her wings, but rather than letting her spiral to her death he sliced her tail off at the dock and then began wrapping his hind legs around hers; eagerly intent on raping her before letting her die and Shining Armor did nothing to stop it. Even if he killed the thesteral, the mare would never escape alive, and in the opposite direction was a young family with a pair of thestrals closing in on them. Cold logic determined who he tried to save.

Barreling across the street, he cut through the first thesteral with a beam of light; melting its armor before burning a hole through its chest. Its partner hurled a poisoned obsidian dart at him which buried itself into his steel breastplate, and didn’t get a chance for a second shot. Shining Armor teleported the family into the caves beneath them and gave them simple instructions to keep going down. Most likely they would die anyway, and Shining Armor had wasted precious energy to simply prolong their fear.

The situation repeated itself; killing thestrals, helping refugees reach the tunnels and leaving the wounded behind. His horn and body ached, his magic was failing; and yet he always pushed on, always hoping that saving just one more life he might somehow redeem himself. Skidding around the next corner, Shining Armor saw one more life: a filly, barely on the verge of marehood, surrounded by thesteral stallions.

Shining Armor yelled at the filly to run, and then charged at the thesterals who changed their attention to him and flew around the filly as if they didn’t even see her. He grabbed the fore-fliers in his magic and battered them against the second rank; followed by a hail of missiles. Three fell, four continued towards him, blades and teeth primed.

Shining Armor generated a shield around himself and barreled into them, knocking two of them back but doing little real damage. The thesterals dug their obsidian blades into his shield, cracking it as their enchantments dispelled his defenses. He let his shield break, and they all fell forwards, the angles on their blades shifted slightly, and Shining Armor created a second shield which he expanded rapidly. The blades weren't at the right angle to penetrate, and the thesterals were smashed into the stone walls around him, causing one of the buildings to collapse.

The immediate threats were gone, the filly hadn’t; she was still standing there, frozen in terror. “You need to run.” Gasped Shining Armor, “Get to the tunnels and keep moving!” The filly didn’t respond… she wasn’t even breathing, but her head was raised so she couldn’t be dead. Shining Armor approached the filly and put his hoof gently on her shoulder, which appeared to be made of fabric as she stared ahead with dead button-eyes, “…Smartypants?”

Shining Armor didn’t know why his sister’s doll had grown and was standing in the middle of the burning city; but it didn’t matter. He gave Smartypants one hard shake and found her as stiff and immovable as a statue; and then the cries of a thesteral in pain a short distance away caught his attention, giving him hope that someone besides him still gave Canterlot their protection.

At the other end of his teleport he found two live thesterals who had stormed into a house to check for survivors when the roof caved in on them. The mare was trapped under a burning rafter as the stallion tried to lift it off her and Shining Armor made short work of both of them. He ran out of the house instead of teleporting, painfully aware that the last few hours was taking its toll on his magic, and galloped onto an empty street.

After a moment’s uncertainty about his next course, the stone wall across the street exploded from being struck from the inside. Jets of white flame shot out of the opening as oxygen met the fames, followed by a white unicorn mare who casually walked out of the blazing inferno; wearing sunglasses and an oversized stereo strapped to her back, blaring electro-dubstep.

Shining Armor remembered seeing her before… at his wedding… DJ-Pon3. Then she had seemed completely focused on the music table to pay attention to anything else; now she was even more so as she sauntered up to him, reared onto her hind legs, pulled her stereo onto her right shoulder, put her left hoof inside her mouth, and began beat-boxing.

Shining Armor opened his mouth searched for an appropriate rebuke or warning, then closed his mouth and blasted the stereo to smithereens. The mare continued bobbing up and down on her hind legs as if nothing had happened; and the music Shining Armor had thought was coming from the stereo continued without missing a beat.

Shining Armor stepped back. He didn’t know if he could protect this mare or if she needed protection. He did know that the music she was emanating had caught the attention of another squad of thesterals, swooping down for the kill. He shot two of them down before they closed in, and then generated a shield around himself and DJ-Pon3; reflecting the remaining three thesterals and causing them to overshoot. Shining Armor spun to get ready for their counter attack, putting himself in front of the DJ who still continued her senseless ratchet, and saw at the end of this street there was another Smartypants statue.

The leader of this band was an alicorn, his curved horn sucking the light from around it, causing the pressure inside Shining Armor’s shield to fluctuate, as if it was being pushed apart from the inside. Shining Armor’s power far outstripped the opposing alicorn, but he was exhausted and wasn’t used to defending against thesteral magic.

His shield wavered, just for a second, but that was enough to allow an obsidian dagger hurled by the alicorn to penetrate his defenses; slicing open his left cheek as it whizzed past him before bouncing harmlessly off DJ-Pon3. Shining Armor retaliated with a volley of missiles which scattered the thesteral formation and missed, save for the one that burnt a hole through the alicorn’s leather wing. The thesteral hissed in agony, and when his guards swooped in to catch him and carry him to safety, Shining Armor killed them together.

Shining Armor checked his surroundings, the impossible DJ who beatboxed obliviously, then turned and cantered down the road in search of his next target, DJ-Pon3 following close behind. He made it about eight steps before something grabbed his leg from behind.

By reflex he dropped, swiveled and hurled a laser behind him, powerful enough to melt a thesteral in its armor; but the thing that had him wasn’t a thesteral, and it didn’t flinch when Shining Armor’s blast hit it square in its cold button-eyes. The Smartypants ‘statue’ that had been at the end of the street was gone; and was now poised behind him, gripping his metal greaves in its extended hoof.

He tried twisting himself out, but the doll’s grip was like steel; he tried another laser, focusing into the dolls mouth which had twisted into an avaricious grin; but his magic did nothing. He unfastened his greave and pulled away from Smartypants. A colt screamed from somewhere behind him, causing Shining Armor to take his eyes off Smartypants for one instant; and in that instant Shining Armor felt a cold hoof clamp down on the exposed flesh of his knee.

Smartypants had come forwards; and her which had been sewn shut before was now gaping open. A death cry of the colt he’d heard earlier caused him to blink, and in that fraction of a second, Smartypants moved again; now it was almost on top of him, with its chin and neck splitting down to the chest into an enormous mouth, lined with hundreds of tiny sewing needles for teeth. “...I don't suppose you could do anything to help me out?” he asked the DJ nervously, “Is there?” DJ-Pon3 stopped beat boxing for a moment, looked at him, and then started beating a far more ominous tune.

“…Alright.” Muttered Shining Armor uneasily, as he gathered his energy and then teleported a few paces away; freeing himself from Smartypants. He took one last look at the doll and DJ, then teleported several blocks away, and then over a wall and across a long row of densely, highly combustible factories that now stood as a thick wall of flame; hoping that that would be enough to shake off any pursuit.
Thesterals flew over him in tight formation; at first Shining Armor thought the smoke must be hiding him, but then one of the thesterals looked down at him, and hurled a poisoned dart from its sling, but then continued on with its set course, followed by another squadron… and another.

Shining Armor took off in earthbound pursuit, and as he drew nearer, the sound of a thesteral drum began riveting through the air. He saw another squadron of thesterals approaching from the east, triangulated the point where the two squadron’s trajectory’s crossed and teleported to the remains of a nearby tower. He slashed the throat of the already wounded scout who was meant to be guarding the tower before he could raise the alarm, then clenched his teeth at the sight beneath him.

There were six entrances into the caves from the city’s surface, each was guarded by a battalion of his best who was to hold the entrance open for refugees for a long as they could, then retreat into the caves themselves and collapse the entrance. The battalion left to this opening had failed; the armor and limbs of its former members strewn in heaps along with the bodies of civilians as scores more thesterals poured into the open gate, hungry for those trying to escape.

Shining Armor closed his eyes and breathed deeply, gathering the last of his strength for a final act to avenge the city he had failed. He opened his eyes, and narrowed them on a vast formation flying towards the open tunnel; and knew that he looked on the elite vanguard of the thesteral army.

Until now; he hadn’t believed the rumors that such a unit existed, or that any fighting force could rationalize their reputation for lethal savagery, but the markings of the dreaded Jamgobblers were unmistakable. These were thesterals whose fanatical loyalty to Nightmare Moon was so great; they had willingly torn their own wings off as sacrifices to Nightmare Moon and replaced them with enchanted pieces of jam on toast.

With a shout, Shining Armor struck the base of the tower, causing it to buckle and fall forwards over the cave entrance just as the first line of jamgobblers tried to get in. Shining Armor jumped into the air, and teleported through the mouth of the tunnel as the tower fell, covering the gate under hundreds of tons of rock. His horn shining as brightly as he could, Shining Armor looked past the startled thesterals and hurled the remains of his magic deeper into the caves; knowing there was a secondary set of charges five hundred feet inside the entrance of each cave, in case the first row could not be detonated.

He dived behind a boulder, more from instinct then expectation of survival; and the air around him exploded in fire, screams, smoke, blood and jam. His magic spent, his ears ringing and his eyes nearly blind; Shining Armor fought to regain control of his senses, and ducked an instant before a set of fangs clamped down on his mane.

Shining Armor turned and threw his elbow into where he guessed the jamgobbler's neck would be, and felt a collision the shoulder. The jamgobbler reared, pulling him off the ground by his mane, he tried to buck but missed, and was dropped onto his side.

Twice the jamgobbler kicked him savagely in the ribs. The third time Shining Armor caught it's leg and twisted, collapsing the jamgobbler down to the ground and pulling himself on top of it. It's sugary wings beat savagely, goring him with their talons, but Shining Armor trapped one of them between his hind legs and wrenched, tearing the jam on toast directly off of the jamgobbler's back. A shriek of pain emanated from the blackness, and Shining Armor now had a confirmed location of it's head, drove his horn through the base of it's skull.

After the jamgobbler's death throes had ended, Shining Armor rolled off it; expecting the teeth of another jamgobbler to dig into him at any moment, but he was alone. A long moment passed, and then a minute; the adrenaline started to wear off and Shining Armor realized he was bleeding from his gut. He tried to stem the tied with his arm, only to realize that that was bleeding as well, as was his neck.

Shining Armor sighed and leaned back; and gathered the last of his energy for a simple light spell; making a feeble glow just bright enough for him to see the carnage around him:The cave had collapsed at both ends, leaving him in a bubble between the thesterals and the refugees. They might dig through it, but that would take hours, maybe days and maybe, just maybe; Cadance and some of the other refugees who used this tunnel would survive. He’d done enough, and he felt tired.

Shining Armor laid his head down for his final sleep, and then the sound of hoofsteps echoed throughout the dusty blackness. He closed his eyes, ready for the end, and then heard the soft babble of beat-boxing coming from over his head. He hit his horn and stared up at the white unicorn who continued as oblivious as ever and at Smartypants whose head was just emerging from the stone wall in front of him.

He blinked unsure of what he was seeing, and Smartypants’ chest and arms appeared, reaching out of the stone. DJ-Pon3’s beating grew harsher as Shining Armor tried not to blink; but his magic was fading, and each time his horn flickered, Smartypants came closer.

Author's Note:

So the first time I got snagged on writing Twilight searching for pirate treasure with Enigma, I left the whole story alone for a few months. Then I decided to move one of the 'Enigma' chapters before where I'd originally intended it, wrote half of Twilight's pirate adventure, and then got stuck again; so I'm thinking I might just skip it.

Maybe I will go back and put it in later (requests will increase this chance), but all you really need to know is that everyone is having their own dream right now. Twilight is wishing that there will be fun/ adventure/ singing in Enigma's mind, so that's what she sees. Shining Armor has spent the last three days in a room crowded with angry, hungry, suspicious thesterals; he gets this.

Jam on toast is appearing in all their dreams (for now I'm saying Engima's ship's sails are Jam on Toast), and they all have a guide sent to bring them to Enigma's meeting place. Too bad Twilight and Shining Armor are ignoring theirs.

Onto Luna!

After she's done I already have the next 3-4 chapters mostly written. I know it's been a long time and thank you for being patient with me, but we're getting close to the good parts.

Comments

[Xanderfox]

gahh nightmares and dreams crisscrossing.. madness!

[dzonewolf]

It took me until the jamgobblers to realize Shining was in a dream...