39 - Devotion, Part 15 of 16
Scootaloo raced away from Cloudsdale with the remains of her regiments following closely behind her. The griffins went into a full engagement of the enemy to cover everypony’s withdrawal. When she saw the flares, she left the unicorns that were defending Cloudsdale with orders to jump. There were far fewer of the pegasi left than she had hoped. She was certain that there were at least two-thousand. It might be enough.
The battle had grown thick with the putrid stench of burning flesh and death. The changelings were hitting the center in force, just as it was expected that they would. The Prince’s banner was still flying, but there was too much movement to really tell who was still alive. Beams of lethal magic sprayed out, courtesy of the Templars.
As planned, Scootaloo led her force to the tower atop the castle. There were earth ponies waiting for them as expected. As she drew close, she could see bundles of ice arrows. They held them up. She grabbed one as she went by. There had to be a hundred arrows in her bundle, and there were stacks of them; it must have been hundreds of thousands of the frozen bolts that had been created.
Scootaloo continued flying north to give the rest of her force time to grab their bundles and form up with her. They may only get one pass, so they had to make it count. The wind rushed against her face as she turned and glided over the city where she’d grown up. A few of the buildings were on fire, and the town was littered with bodies and arrows; otherwise it seemed mostly quiet.
Scootaloo began increasing her altitude and checked behind her to see that her regiments were flying to catch up with their deadly payloads. To the west, a much smaller horde of timberwolves were pressing the flank, but it seemed as though Rainbow Dash had everything under control.
Increasing speed, Scootaloo took Cloudsdale into her sight. A second set of flares was fired, indicating that the entire pegasus force that would freeze Cloudsdale was in the air. The civilians seemed to be all out, but unicorn fire was still keeping the changelings as busy as were the griffins.
The mare groaned inside, knowing that the next few minutes were going to be nasty. Dropping their ice arrows would be easy enough, but they would need to get above the fray so as to not get in the middle of it. Couple that with the increased difficulty for the unicorns to get away, it seemed likely that they were about to kill quite a few of their own, not to mention griffins. They all had been given orders to fall back, so they would have to take charge of their own safety. Scootaloo hardened her resolve as they set up for their final run.
...
Duster was again wearing the eye patch. Having left the position at the front, he was shouting for everypony else to evacuate the city. He galloped through, flanked by squad, finding any civilians that he could to tell them. Many had already fled, and it wouldn’t be long now before his plan came to fruition. That meant that it was time to go. With his crossbow loaded, he sped through the center of the cloud city. The unicorns were putting on an impressive magical defense, but the changelings weren’t giving up. It made the retreat difficult, and time was short.
Green fiery magic raining down, several of the magical creatures sprang up in front and to the right.
Duster’s crossbow came up, and hostilities were unleashed at point blank range. Several changelings fell dead, and magic impacted into ponies and their armor.
Locknload let out a battle-cry along with some well placed shots of magic to thin their attackers’ numbers.
More flew in from the left, landing hard as Duster reloaded.
As Duster’s crossbow brought his crossbow up, a changeling kicked him in the face, sending him sprawling.
The rest of the squad charged into the newcomers. Locknload teleported behind them, but took a direct hit to his left side and went down.
Duster rolled aside, drawing his knife.
"Why won’t you die?" one of the changelings screamed wildly at him.
Duster aimed and fired his crossbow as the enemy ducked sideways. The arrow missed. Gunnysack lunged at the one who spoke; the changeling had a broken horn. He ducked under the crystal pony’s spear thrust and then came back up, knocking the weapon from Gunnysack’s grasp while jabbing the stallion in the face. A blast of changeling magic struck Gunnysack in the back, and he toppled over.
LD vaulted himself into the others, and they pummeled him from all sides. He fought savagely against four of them.
Duster had regained his hooves. Noticing a wound in the closest changeling’s right flank, vaulted forward; his knife sank deep. The changeling howled and hit the pony in the face with a hoof. Duster saw stars. He blindly swung his foreleg with the crossbow, connecting to the changeling’s head. Several more blows were exchanged, but Duster had lost his knife. It was then that he noticed the changeling’s broken horn had been sharpened.
The foe ducked suddenly, underneath a kick that Rolling Thunder had intended for his head. Ash Eater loosed his crossbow, embedding his arrow in the pegasus’ unarmored belly.
Rolling Thunder staggered backward as two more jumped him from the other side.
As Ash Eater came back up, he faced Duster again. He lunged forward; the pegasus side-stepped, anticipating the move and tripping his foe. Leaping on top of him, Duster used his fore-hooves like hammers, pounding away at Ash Eater’s face.
A blast of magic hit Duster from the side, and he fell. With surprising agility, the changeling wrapped his fore-legs around Duster’s neck and twisted him around, using the momentum so that he was now in the disadvantaged position.
Struck again in the face, Duster became dazed a moment.
"This time you stay dead!" Ash Eater growled as he drove his jagged horn into Duster’s throat.
Searing pain rippled through him as the changeling pulled back, a fountain of blood covering his hideous face. His own blood, Duster realized. Ash Eater bore a wicked grin as the life drained from Duster. He made an attempt to throw the changeling off, but he had no strength. He tried to hold the wound; his hooves were soon slick and warm. The changeling struggled with him, and he was soon restrained. The world began to fade.
As Duster lay there, he could see the battle unfolding in the sky. Unicorns and changelings exchanged hostile magic, killing each other over this particular piece of air. It seemed a bit silly to the stallion. Surely the world was large enough that they could all find a way to live in peace.
It was then that he noticed another group flying far above the battle. They were unleashing something that fell into the group of changelings and beyond, directly into Cloudsdale. A magical cracking sound was heard from above and below. It was the ice arrows.
The griffins split, and departed almost as one, speeding away from the lethal bombardment. Changelings unfortunate enough to be in the way were hit and frozen solid, falling from the sky. Soon, the cloud floor beneath him would freeze solid and fall on the timberwolves.
It was a small comfort next to the fear of his own mortality. The changeling had ripped Duster’s throat open, and everything grew foggy and far away. It was almost as if he were gently floating down, but it wasn’t darkness that he saw. There was light below. He turned to face it and realized that he was no longer restrained in any way.
A lush, green, grassy field was below Duster, and it was only moments past before his hooves sank into it. The fresh scent of spring was in the air, and songbirds flitted about, filling the clear blue sky with their music.
The stallion was a little disoriented, but he didn’t care. All of the strife, fear, and struggle were gone. It seemed odd; there had been something so important that he’d bee doing, but he couldn’t remember what it had been. He filled his lungs with the aromas of the flora a moment. He had never known a contentment so pure and complete as he now felt.
“We’ve been waiting for you.”
Duster turned. Approaching from behind, he easily recognized Sissy, though she didn’t look as she had. She was whole, wearing no armor as her long mane flowed in the gentle breeze. As she drew close, she smiled, a sparkle filling her eyes, that same joyous one for which she had been named.
“Where have you been?” he heard himself ask. He then added, “Where are we?”
She smiled again, “It’s a small matter, but I’ll tell you everything. Come with me.”
He followed her, and the pair walked over a hill. Down by a swift babbling brook which ran with the clearest water he’d ever seen, Duster saw an older stallion standing by the bank. Delight filled the stallion so much that he shivered with joy.
“I’ll race you,” Sissy said with a grin.
“You’re on!” he roared playfully.
The pair galloped down the hill toward their father. The warmth of peace filled Duster’s heart.
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Not another one, it's too soon!!!!
8729816
I was hoping he would survive. Guess not. Farewell Sparkys.
8730705
8730641
The lazy writing joke was a refference to the recent dead pool trailer
8730988
I'm no stranger to sarcasm, sir.
8731224
You know the John Cena meme.
Also I have earned at least 2 cookies
So I still owe you no cookies, I just only get one cookie now
8731267
🍪
I looked up John Cena. I recognize him, but there are a ton of memes.
8731286
They used the meme in ponies the anthology 6
That's sweet.
Also screw you. Only A sick monster would kill Duster.
I see the line finally got spoken. Also, I get it. Ash Eater thinks Duster is Sparklefly due to him pulling the whole deception with the eyepatch and everything, and he's probably a little coco at this point to consider that he knows Sparklefly has to be dead. Ash Eater must be pretty much flat-out insane with rage at this point if he's viciously killing ponies using methods like goring them with his own horn, since he was still able to use magic, I think? Just not able to transform is all. Goring them sets himself up to being attacked more easily. His general insanity and being up in the front lines makes me think he's just pretending to be the leader too, while Chrysalis or some other 'ling is the true commander of the changelings right now.
Still, I doubt the ice arrows was enough to take out Ash Eater. Him and Scoots have to get their final showdown sooner or later. I'll be disappointed if one or the other dies at the hooves of somepony other than each other.
8802888
He was not able to use magic or shape shift. He had been using a captured pony crossbow and his sharpened horn as weapons. I'm going with... they were stretched so thin at that point (the changelings) that they determined to take Cloudsdale, committing just about everything to it, Ash Eater leading the charge himself (not realizing that Scoots or anybody might be up there).
Ash Eater still lives you predict?... 🍪