In The Rough

by BlackRoseRaven

Bitter Hope

Chapter Five: Bitter Hope
~BlackRoseRaven

For the young mares, who were miserable but shielded from many of the frustrations of their situation by youthful exuberance and invincibility, the hardest part of the situation they were in was finding something to keep themselves occupied.

At first, of course, they all wanted to show each other how adult they were getting, so Apple Bloom identified trees and scavenged food, and Sweetie Belle made all sorts of little braids and trinkets, and Scootaloo pretended to smoke an unlit cigarette as she strutted around, talking loudly about adult things.

But that all got boring soon enough, and the girls didn't like doing things apart, anyway: they were here on this trip together, and this was perhaps their last big trip before they officially became mares. They weren't fillies by any stretch, really: they were in that awkward, crucial stage in-between, teenagers who were trying to settle into the weird and wonderful world they had been born into.

It felt like it was their 'last chance' to enjoy all the things they thought they'd have to leave behind once they were adults. They were all eager to grow up, and equally afraid of growing up at the same time, and so it was hard to resist when Sweetie had blurted out: “Let's play hide and seek!”

Scootaloo chuffled, but that only lasted until Apple Bloom had agreed. And then the two had taken off and left Sweetie to find them, the mare shouting after them in frustration before she diligently covered her face and grouchily counted to ten.

It hadn't taken her very long to find Scootaloo: the pegasus had gotten herself half-stuck in a log with her rump sticking out, so Sweetie had bounced over and drummed on her butt for a few moments before helping pull her out. Scootaloo had been thankful, until she realized this also meant that she had been caught, after which gratitude turned to a scowl.

Together, they had gone after Apple Bloom: they searched around and through the campsite, ignoring everyone else, then down another side trail that Scootaloo spotted, aimlessly hunting back and forth until they came across some rustling bushes, and Scootaloo had pounced-

It was a blur after that, but Sweetie Belle's mind had struggled to put it all into some sort of cohesive order, even though it seemed like everything had happened at once. Something had tackled her as that bush had almost exploded and an enormous Diamond Dog had leapt out, seizing Scootaloo. And they weren't like the Diamond Dogs around Ponyville, stupid, slobbering beasts: she remembered bloodshot eyes and lips drawn back from yellowed fangs and wiry, bunched muscle, and thick claws that nearly pierced Scootaloo's throat when they seized around it.

Scootaloo tried to struggle. Scootaloo was strong, Scootaloo could throw off a pony, Scootaloo was top of her class when it came to anything and everything physical, and Scootaloo was slammed down on her back like a toy all the same, because these Diamond Dogs weren't playing, and these Diamond Dogs weren't tame.

Apple Bloom had leapt out of somewhere, bow torn out of her hair, face splattered with mud, and she managed to slam a kick into the Diamond Dog's side and knock it staggering. But another dog had leapt out and grabbed her and thrown her into a tree, and Sweetie had started to scream, but the dog holding her had seized her by the face and all Sweetie could do was watching with teary eyes as two dogs jumped on Apple Bloom and shoved her down and the last had pinned Scootaloo, holding her by the face and the wing, making its threat so awfully clear...

Sweetie knew she should try and do something: bite or scream or fight or use her magic. But instead, all she had been able to do was cry and shut down, because she was terrified of being hurt, and because it already seemed so hopeless. Some strange part of her mind still struggled to keep track of everything, though, as if that would somehow make this whole thing make sense, as if that would provide some kind of escape.

There were five Diamond Dogs, and they were all large and mean and brutal. They weren't comical, and they didn't hesitate in the things they did: they ran through the forest as if they had somewhere to go, as if this had all been planned. The alpha never hesitated, barking commands at his... were they soldiers?

Sweetie didn't know. It was too hard to think about. All she was able to do was watch, because her eyes refused to closed, because as badly as she wanted to look away, she just couldn't.

The Diamond Dogs had been tireless, and carried their cargo with ease: the only time they stopped was to discipline Apple Bloom or Scootaloo when they struggled too much. Otherwise, they moved less like dogs and more like gorillas, carrying a pony across one shoulder and leaping through the forest on three legs, jumping fallen trees and gorges with equal ease, and god, there was something wrong with them, Sweetie realized with misery.

They were too focused. They ignored the brambles, the thatches they ran through; she swore that Apple Bloom must have broken the ribs of one of the dogs, but the injury didn't seem to be bothering it in the slightest.

The pack ran until the sun set, and as the light of day died, they had finally stopped. They were smart... no, that wasn't the right word. They had been trained very well, and during this first break, they fitted them with heavy yokes, and then bound these together, with loose, long chain.

It was smarter than the Diamond Dogs could have come up with on their own: sure, they could try and run, and the long chain even seemed like a benefit at first. But in a forest like this, a long chain would catch and snare on every branch and rock and bush, making it impossible for them to escape from the swift beasts.

The Diamond Dogs tied them each to a tree with splintered rope: it clearly wasn't meant to really hold them, but it would make it much harder for them to slip away without alerting the beasts. Meanwhile, the pack made a fire, and sat down to eat.

Sweetie Belle drew her eyes to her companions: Scootaloo was curled up and shaking, and Apple Bloom was laying on her belly, breathing hard, mane in her face, and all the work she put into her... herself, had been scrubbed and torn away. She looked beaten, in a word, and Sweetie knew it wasn't just the Diamond Dogs had thrown her around and pummeled her and bruised her, but because the armor she so carefully arranged around herself had been shattered, and the pony, the body she had been born into, had been left naked and vulnerable.

Sweetie bit her lip, then slipped a little closer to Apple Bloom, before wincing as the rope around her neck drew tight. One of the Diamond Dogs looked up immediately, and Sweetie shrank a little, fearful of what might come, but after a moment the beast carelessly turned his eyes back to the rest of his pack, going back to whatever they were growling about with each other.

Sweetie leaned down as close as she could to Apple Bloom, then asked the only question she could think to ask, in spite of how stupid it was: “Are you okay?”

Apple Bloom shivered a little, then she looked up after a moment before asking weakly: “Are you?”

“No.” Sweetie said honestly, before she looked over at Scootaloo. But after a moment, she decided it might be better to just leave the shuddering Scootaloo alone for now, instead turning her eyes back to Apple Bloom. “What happened?”

She realized after she blurted the question out that she really didn't know what had happened: one moment everything had been fine, the next they had been ambushed and kidnapped. But Apple Bloom only shook her head, murmuring: “I don't know. I just... I don't know. I was running down the path, and then the dogs came out of nowhere, and... and then everything happened.”

There was silence for a few moments, and then Apple Bloom shook her head before she looked down and murmured: “I hope the others are okay. I hope nothing happened to Spike or Moonbeam.”

“What about Marina?” asked Sweetie, and Apple Bloom smiled a little.

“If they had come across Marina, I know she would have clobbered them.” Apple Bloom said with a strange confidence. “She's real strong. And... and I know she's going to find us and help us.”

“You like her a lot, huh?” Sweetie Belle asked, and Apple Bloom nodded before her eyes shifted down, and she went strangely quiet for a few moments.

Sweetie Belle let the silence play out, until Apple Bloom murmured: “She's like me. And she's like what I want to be. Not just a mare... strong.”

“Strong.” Sweetie echoed, and then she gave a small smile, saying quietly: “I think you're already pretty strong, Apple Bloom.”

Apple Bloom laughed a little at this, smiling briefly up at Sweetie before she shook her head and closed her eyes. She breathed softly, then shivered a bit, and Sweetie frowned as her eyes drew along her, noting the bruises, the scratches, the way her leg kept twitching... “Are you okay?”

The second time she'd asked that question, and it was no less stupid than the first. But Apple Bloom only nodded a little, murmuring: “Yeah. I just... I think it's more shock than anything else. Stuff like this, I just... it's not supposed to happen like this, you know? It's just not supposed to happen.”

“But it did.” muttered Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle smiled faintly in spite of the bitterness of the pegasus' voice: at least she was back with them instead of... wherever she'd been lost. “It did and now we're stuck here and this... this sucks. This sucks and we can't do anything, we can't do a thing!”

Her voice rose slightly, and Sweetie winced as she looked in the direction of the Diamond Dogs, but they barely looked up at them. It was like they didn't care: how had they gone from pushing so hard, moving so professionally, for lack of a better word, to so... careless?

Sweetie thought she knew, though, as she shivered a bit before leaning down and whispering: “Quiet. I... I think there's something weird about those guys.”

“I don't care.” Scootaloo muttered, but her movements were lethargic and the anger was dying out of her eyes and voice, the young mare's eyes shifting away. “It doesn't matter now, does it? We're screwed.”

“Someone's gotta help us.” Sweetie Belle said anxiously, but then she forcefully clamped down on herself before she could spiral out of control: it took every fiber of her being to fight it, but now wasn't the time to cry or be dramatic as she took a breath before saying in a firmer voice: “No, we need to... we need to figure out what's going on. If we don't know what's going on then we really are... hopeless.”

“It's already hopeless.” Scootaloo mumbled as she pawed at the earth, but her eye shifted a little all the same, and even if the only thing Sweetie had was her attention, that was all she wanted right now.

Apple Bloom looked up with a frown as well, and Sweetie bit her lip: now what? But in the same way her mind had arranged what had happened, the same way she had noticed all those strange little details in the Diamond Dogs, Sweetie felt her mind trying to figure out the right things to say as she muttered: “It's not hopeless. It's... they grabbed us and they immediately ran. They ran really fast. They don't want to be caught. And now they've stopped here and they're completely different.”

Sweetie looked over at the Diamond Dogs: they had settled down now, and it looked like two of them had already fallen asleep, and one of them was chewing on a bone. One had vanished, and the last one was the only one who was alert, his ears moving back and forth as he watched the darkness, his eyes reflecting the firelight-

No, they were glowing. Why were his eyes glowing? Sweetie shivered a little, and then she looked over at Apple Bloom, asking uneasily: “Do you see that?”

Apple Bloom looked up, and then she frowned after a moment before she shivered a bit as the Diamond Dog looked back over his shoulder at them, his eyes gleaming unnaturally. “W-What... what do you think it means?”

“I don't... something can't be controlling them, right?” Sweetie wondered aloud: no, that didn't make any sense. If something was controlling them, then why would it let them stop and rest for the night? Why would they be back to acting more like how she imagined Diamond Dogs acted instead of like-

“Hey! Who the hell do you guys work for?” shouted Scootaloo suddenly, leaping to her hooves, and Sweetie winced as Apple Bloom stared in disbelief.

The Diamond Dogs flinched, one of them snapping awake and the guard snarling in their direction. Scootaloo glared defiantly back: that was, until a paw grabbed the back of her head and slammed her, face-first down into the ground, a Diamond Dog that had materialized behind her from the forest growling low in his throat: “Not for you to know, pony. But you find out, very soon.”

Scootaloo shivered and grit her teeth, but she did her best not to fight back as the Diamond Dog's fingers almost caressed her mane as they drew back, before he snorted and stepped over her, striding away with a load of wood under his other arm. They watched as he left, before Apple Bloom gave a faint laugh, then she said weakly: “Good work.”

Sweetie blinked, and Scootaloo gave a weak grin and a small shrug before it clicked in the unicorn's mind: of course. “But... who has the power to... are they getting instructions?”

“Maybe not. Maybe they just... they've been told precisely what they were supposed to do.” Apple Bloom said slowly, raising her head uncertainly to look in the direction of the Diamond Dogs, who had already gone back to relaxing and ignoring them: they were careless indeed. They were nothing like they had been during the journey, or just after it when they had set up camp: were they going to go back to being that way when the sun rose, and they continued to follow whatever mysterious orders that had been drilled into their minds?

But that brought another question to her mind: was capturing them, specifically, one of the orders they had been given? Somehow, that seemed even more important than who it was they were being brought to...

Sweetie looked nervously at the Diamond Dogs, studying them: four who were cruel and large and brutal and stupid, and one who had brightly glowing eyes, searching the night constantly, as if he had unlimited attention, as if he would never tire while he was on duty.

The others didn't speak: no one knew what to say now. All they could do was try and figure out what was going on, and that seemed impossible with the precious little information they had.

Sweetie didn't sleep, even though Apple Bloom and Scootaloo drifted now and then, or turned away to try and find some quiet sanctuary in their own minds. Sweetie could only watch the Diamond Dogs, studying them, watching the way the acted, and how every few hours, that eerie green glow would blink suddenly out of the eyes of whoever was standing guard while the others slept, and he would almost topple to the ground, as the glow blossomed in another's eyes,the Diamond Dog snapping awake and immediately going to guard duty as if he had been waiting for the chance, instead of snoring the night away.

And when morning came, the Diamond Dogs leapt to their paws, and the biggest, meanest of the lot came towards the ponies, snarling: “Wake up! No rest today, ponies, today you walk. Now walk!”

He pointed sharply forward, and Sweetie opened her mouth-

The Diamond Dog slapped her cruelly across the face, Sweetie gasping, and Scootaloo and Apple Bloom leapt up on either side of her, snarling. But the Diamond Dog only grinned, and Sweetie trembled before she suddenly gritted her teeth, then looked up through her curls at the Diamond Dog's glowing eyes, saying quietly: “I was going to ask which way. You... idiot.”

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo both stared at Sweetie, but the Diamond Dog only snorted before he grabbed the unicorn by the horn, forcefully twisting her head around, saying distastefully: “That way, pony. Walk. And no try anything funny, or we will hurt you.”

Sweetie rose her head and turned sharply away, and her friends followed after a moment, both glaring over their shoulders at the Diamond Dog as he marshaled his pack.

But Sweetie didn't look back now, even as the dogs barked and bit at their heels to try and rush them on, the young mare lowering her head and squaring her shoulders as they pushed onward through the forest, determined not to let them see her tears, and that she would figure this out.

She wasn't going to just keep crying. She wasn't going to fail her friends again.

Spike was up before the sunrise, and he had the campsite cleaned and packed up before Moonbeam was completely awake. The mare didn't seem happy about it, but she didn't protest, either, although she didn't go with the flow as much as allowed herself to be dragged behind Spike's momentum.

Spike was silent as he tried to remember which way they had been going. He couldn't hide his trembles as he almost fearfully searched the brambles and the bushes: here was where they had entered the clearing, but where had Marina and the Diamond Dogs left? God, he was so stupid to have thought that-

There.

Spike sighed in relief as his eyes locked on a distinct ruffle in the wall of green around them: when he walked over to inspect it closer, he found a patch of muck with a smudged imprint of a paw. A very large paw, Spike realized after a moment, shivering a bit as he shifted uneasily: how big were these Diamond Dogs?

Moonbeam walked up behind him, then she looked down at the pawprint before she scowled a little, saying: “We should just go home. Marina can take care of herself. Marina got herself into this mess and she can take care of it.”

“I'm not leaving her or the fillies behind.” Spike murmured, and then he shook his head briefly before he took a slow breath. “Let's... let's go.”

Moonbeam sighed, but when Spike started forward, she followed. For an hour or so, they walked in silence, Spike pausing every few minutes to make sure they were on the right path, but never having much trouble finding a sign: the one positive thing about how fast the Diamond Dogs had moved was that they had left a lot of signs behind, and here and there they could see the marks of Marina's passage, too.

He hoped she was okay. He wondered if she had stopped for the night, too: he wondered how far ahead of them the Diamond Dogs had to be.

“You're slowing us down. They're heading in a straight line.” Moonbeam interrupted Spike's thoughts, and the dragon blinked and looked back at her in surprise, but then winced when she glared and gestured shortly ahead. “Stop staring. Keep moving.”

“What do you think they're doing?” Spike asked, and Moonbeam gave a short laugh.

“Trying to get as far away as possible.” shrugged the mare. “Maybe they're heading towards wherever they're supposed to be going. Maybe they were just running away. We're never going to catch up to them, though, Spike.”

“We just... have to keep moving, and hope for the best.” Spike argued, and he grimaced as he looked forwards, picking up the pace a little.

Moonbeam growled under her breath, stumbling a little behind him before she snapped: “This is useless and stupid! You can't do anything!”

“You're... you're useless and stupid!” Spike suddenly exploded, stumbling around in a circle and glaring at Moonbeam, and he felt tears fill his eyes as the pony reared back in surprise. “I can do this! I'm going to do this, and... and you're more than welcome to leave at any time Moonbeam, because I don't need your 'help!'”

Spike breathed hard in and out, trembling a little, and Moonbeam looked away. There was silence for a few moments, and then Spike spun around, dropping his head, knowing he should apologize as the adrenaline passed: not because he was really sorry, but because the ponies, the ponies always blamed him and it was always his fault even if Pinkie Pie walked right into him or Twilight hid the book somewhere else or- “I'm sorry.”

Spike glanced up, but he only stared straight ahead as Moonbeam murmured: “I don't... I just want to... look, I'm scared, okay? And that comes out as anger. Everything... everything always comes out as anger. But I'm a coward, Spike. I'm not like Marina. I'm not like you...”

Spike laughed a little, then he shook his head before he closed his eyes, wiping at his face as he murmured: “I'm scared too. I'm not dumb. I don't know what we can possibly do to help. All I know is that... we have to do something.”

“Getting help would be doing something.” Moonbeam argued, but she followed when Spike started forward.

The dragon shook his head with a small smile, saying finally: “And that wouldn't be any help at all. We'd probably have gotten lost finding the ranger, or finding help, and... well...”

He halted, shaking his head briefly before he gave a small sigh, murmuring: “They'd want to scour the forest, and the Diamond Dogs would have gotten away. If worst comes to worst, I can send a letter to Twilight or Celestia for help.”

“I don't see why we're not doing that now.” Moonbeam muttered.

Spike hesitated, and then he looked down and murmured in response: “Our problems aren't as big as theirs.”

Moonbeam scowled at this, but Spike only shook his head before he said softly: “They have the entire kingdom to think about. There's something going on right now that was important enough Twilight got called away for it. They're important and we're not. We're the secondary characters, Moonbeam, and I know that's hard and hurts to think about, but-”

“I know. Believe me, I know.” Moonbeam said bitterly. “That's why they left me, for months, in a tube, being slowly eaten from the inside out by Changelings. It took a Changeling to save me. I've never forgotten that.”

Spike didn't say anything, and Moonbeam fell silent as well. There was no real end to their conversation or their argument: things just shifted back into silence, and they continued forward, Spike trying to focus more on the path ahead and Moonbeam, to her credit, being a bit more quiet, if not more helpful.

Spike couldn't help but notice that the further they walked, the more the forest seemed to be... dying, for lack of a better word. There were plenty of trees, but they seemed to be getting more stunted, more warped and scraggly... although that only made the path they were following all the more confusing.

The little dragon grimaced as he pushed around a tangle of bush, feeling thorny vines nip at his scales and try to drag his bag away. His eyes traced the path ahead before they sharpened suddenly, and he pointed quickly, blurting: “Look, there!”

Moonbeam frowned, but her own eyes widened slightly as they caught on the disturbed clearing ahead. They skidded to a stop by the remains of a campfire, and Moonbeam scowled as she muttered: “I can't tell-”

“They must have left here at dawn.” Spike murmured as he held a claw down over the fire, feeling the weak warmth from the buried embers. “It's been hours. They spent the night here... and there must be a whole pack, too, look at all the pawprints and how they scraped up the ground to make themselves little... there!”

Spike suddenly turned and hurried, and the mare frowned as she followed him a short distance away, where Spike was studying several over disturbances in the earth: disturbances pockmarked by hooves.

Spike carefully picked up a few tangled strings of hair, studying the bright red of Apple Bloom's mane silently. “They were definitely here. I don't see any blood, at least... but I think there might have still been a scuffle. I'm... I thought I'd be happy to see that, but...”

“Fighting will just make it worse.” Moonbeam muttered, and then she shook her head shortly before her eyes lowered to the ground. “They pretty clearly went this way.”

“Yeah.” Spike looked down, studying the clear prints in the earth before he added: “It looks like they're walking now. We might actually stand a chance of catching up to them, and Marina-”

“Marina definitely will. Then we should hurry.” Moonbeam said brusquely, and Spike blinked at the change in her demeanor before the mare leapt past him, stumbling a little but picking up her pace as she hurried in the direction the Diamond Dogs had gone with their hostages.

Now it was Spike who was lagging behind as Moonbeam ran through the underbrush, the little dragon wincing and running as fast as he could with all the gear he was carrying: but at the same time, he didn't want to shout at her to slow down or to let him catch up, because he thought that might undo whatever strange impulse had come over the mare.

It didn't take very long for Moonbeam to slow, though, the mare panting hard and trembling a bit as her pace stumbled down to a walk. Spike nervously hurried up beside her, opening his mouth to suggest a break, but the mare only glared at him before she looked ahead, saying through sharp breaths: “We just... we just need... to keep going.”

“Yeah.” Spike said, grimacing a bit as he rubbed at his chest, before he added: “You should eat something, though, or-”

“No. I'm fine.” Moonbeam muttered, and Spike looked awkwardly away.

“An army marches on its stomach.” he said, repeating something Twilight had said to him more than once.

Moonbeam laughed shortly, then she answered: “It's a good thing I'm not a soldier, then.”

Spike didn't have a response to that: how could he, anyway, when all he was doing was repeating things that ponies had randomly said at some point?

So instead of saying something else that the ponies had always told him and reminded him of, he bit his lip before asking: “What should we do when we catch up to them?”

“We find Marina.” Moonbeam said without hesitation, and Spike smiled a bit at this before he lowered his head in thought.

“Maybe if she causes a distraction, we can get the girls out of there.” Spike said, and Moonbeam scowled at him.

“And then what?” she asked grouchily, but Spike only shrugged a bit: he wanted to say 'well, and then we run away,' but he knew that wasn't really an option: the Diamond Dogs were much faster than them and far better trackers, and it was unlikely that they'd be able to escape with the fillies without a fight.

“Six are better than one.” Spike said finally, and Moonbeam frowned at him in surprise. “We... if we work together, we might be able to scare off the Diamond Dogs.”

“As if those fillies are going to be ready and able to fight.” muttered Moonbeam, before she looked away and added quietly, in a voice Spike almost couldn't hear: “As if we can fight.”

“Maybe we can't. Maybe we can't fight fight. But we might be able to scare them off, all the same.” Spike said firmly, and Moonbeam frowned at this as she turned her eyes curiously towards Spike. “I'm a dragon. You're a unicorn. I can breathe fire and you can flash some magic. They're not smart, they're Diamond Dogs.”

“So your entire plan is 'scare them off?'” Moonbeam asked, but she sounded more dubious than anything else. Considering her usual tone with him, Spike considered that a good thing.

“Pretty much.” he admitted. “There's not much we can do otherwise. But I don't want to leave Marina to fight them all off by herself. Maybe if we can even offer a distraction, it'll be enough to turn the tables, you know?”

Spike nodded to himself, and Moonbeam scowled, but didn't reply as she instead turned her eyes ahead. And for a little while, the two continued on in silence, traveling quickly through the underbrush before Moonbeam bit her lip as the changes in the world around them became too obvious to ignore. “Spike...”

Spike only nodded as he looked back and forth uneasily himself: the forest was dying around them. The trees were thinning, and they were mostly dead, with only a few patches of green here and there. Thick weeds and patches of tall, thorny grasses dotted the landscape, making it hard to see, and the ground was loose and gravelly, not arid, but... rotten.

All the same, they pressed onward: the Diamond Dogs had been going in roughly the same direction, so that was the direction they tried to continue, moving from landmark to landmark. Every so often, they found a trace that told them they were on the right path: hoofprints, pawprints, here and there scraps of mane or other signs of passage.

But Spike was starting to wonder if they were ever going to catch up: they had been following for hours now, and they didn't seem any closer. And where was Marina? He understood them still being behind, even if the Diamond Dogs had slowed down, but Marina was tireless. Was she maybe shadowing them? Or had something happened to her? They hadn't seen any signs of a scuffle, but...

“Spike.” Moonbeam whispered, and Spike glanced up before he froze as something stirred through the tall grasses nearby.

Spike watched uneasily as the patch of vegetation shifted even as he tried to find the courage to say it was probably nothing, before he flinched as he heard something behind them. He turned around, and flinched as something large vanished into another patch of grasses, watching them silently.

Moonbeam's horn began to glow as she began to take short, frightened breaths, and Spike bit his lip before he reached out and grasped her shoulder, shaking her once to try and get her attention before he started: “Let's try and-”

Moonbeam snapped her horn down, and Spike flinched and swore, blinded by the bright flash of magic. But he still watched in shock as a Changeling leapt out of the vegetation in surprise, the creature hissing in pain before it pointed at them and screamed: “Get the intruders!”

Moonbeam screamed as Changelings erupted out of the vegetation on all sides of them, and Spike gritted his teeth as he tried to steady himself, his mind processing what was happening even as his body struggled to react.

He did the only thing he could think of: he leapt up onto Moonbeam, two Changelings uselessly crashing to the ground behind him, and he swung his backpack out and smacked another Changeling across the face before he spat out a blast of flame on wild impulse.

The flames flashed over the vegetation, and the dry weeds burst into flames, the Changelings scattering away from the fire with hisses and yells as Moonbeam leapt forwards with a whinny of fear, charging through the dying forest.

Spike clung to Moonbeam's mane, then he risked a look back: he saw the Changelings were already recovering, already shooting after them, running and flying and charging their foul Changeling magic-

Spike looked back forward, and he saw the tree branch a moment too late to do anything before it slammed into his face and knocked him off Moonbeam.

The little dragon hit the ground hard, groaning in pain, struggling to stay conscious: there was a thudding in his head, but it wasn't the thudding of hooves. He was able to raises his head enough to watch with bleary eyes as Moonbeam vanished through another patch of tall grass, right before dark and alien shapes surrounded him as he fell back down.

Green light suffused his vision momentarily before it all went black, and Spike knew no more.