Home

by Homeshine

The fall of Home

"Well, we've never had a snow day that was delaying summer break before."

The kids loved it, though, the day off school (The last day of school was tomorrow. Really, weather ponies?) snowball fights, and building a snow-pony.

The weather ponies swore up and down that they weren't responsible; that it was something called 'windigos', and must be some unicorn spell, but Homeshine wasn't sure she believed that. The other pegasi were all too ready to believe it, though. Some of the remarks concerning the unicorns were atrocious. Homeshine was glad the former-unicorns weren't going to flight school; they would have gotten into so many fights by now from what the other students were discussing about 'unicorn treachery' . Homeshine was almost ready to, and she didn't even have the excuse of being that age. Ugh.

The current strategy was to simply pretend the sisters were ordinary older pegasi, like Integer Switch and Pink Punch. Homeshine simply had them wear a hat whenever anyone was over, to hide their horns, and that was pretty much that. She didn't know what the long-term plans the Powers That Be had for the children, and was starting to question whose side she would be on when it finally decided. She couldn't simply hand them over, but she couldn't put the other Little Ponies in danger. It was a question that would be hard to solve when the time came. But for now, snowball fights were immeasurably preferable to the horrors of the real War before her.

"What do you mean there are no food shipments?" Homeshine demanded of the guardspony who replaced what ordinarily would have been a food caisson convoy.

"The sudden frost killed the newly-planted crops; new ones must be laid down, and food is already scarce as it is. Also, the Earth ponies have refused all food trade shipments whatsoever, due to war, a sound strategic decision."

Oh yes, no matter what, we have to admire sound strategic decisions over those actually starving. "And what are we going to eat?"

The guard handed over a piece of paper, saying "Here is a strict ration schedule. 680 kilo-calories per day. Until October. The new harvest should be adequate to replenish the stocks then, if we haven't won the war first against the mud ponies."

They were talking about winning this war six whole months ago. And we're not any closer to it now than we were then. "These are children. They need more food to grow. There's no way to prioritize more?"

The guardspony simply shrugged "You can't farm clouds. Perhaps something will grow down here in the shade," and with that, he turned and left, duty followed to the letter. With all of the times Homeshine had told her unicorns to think like a pegasus, she was starting to feel the opposite, thinking like a unicorn; less reliance on duty and strategy, more regard for individuals. Then again, from what she heard about the unicorn clans constantly backstabbing each other, she wasn't sure their way was any better.

Homeshine dutifully posted the ration schedule on the fridge. It was ironically appropriate, somehow.

* * *

"You can have mine," Luna offered her dry cereal bowl to Homeshine, realizing that Homeshine didn't have one.

"No, you eat it. I'm thinking." The milk had gone first. Then the juice. At least the water was still running. She would need to think about rain barrels in case that, too, had problems. And even under the overcast sky, some things would grow. Perhaps zucchini? That grew fast and plentifully. Where would we get seeds? Did Celestia know any growing spells; or was that an Earth Pony thing? Homeshine looked up. All the other students were staring at her. "What?"

"You don't have any." Punch said. They weren't going to eat until she did, were they? Homeshine dutifully poured herself a bowl of cry cereal and absentmindedly snacked on it while she pondered. At the last, that got the other children eating.

And this was one week; there was no way they would last six months. Even on 680 kilo-calories per day.

* * *

"Moving the entirety of civilization. That's your great plan? Well, Homeshine, you certainly think big. I guess size does matter."

"It's a firm strategic decision," Homeshine lay her plans on Commander Hurricane's desk. "A substantial portion of our infrastructure is in the clouds. We move everything up here and simply move the cloud somewhere else. We can then grow food below, and expand without getting into constant conflicts with the other races."

"Yes, we just move the cloud somewhere else. That will be easy."

"Your sarcasm is unbecoming. It will work, and it's our only choice, and you know it."

"And just run away? What about the honor of the pegasi?"

"What about my students' hungry mouths? Integer Switch is your daughter, isn't she? You want her going to bed hungry every night? You want to stunt her growth so bad she can't be in the military? You want all flying lessons cancelled to save calories?"

He smashed the desk so hard his metal horseshoes left little indentations in the table. But she had him! They both knew it.

…

"Dismissed."

* * *

Homeshine packed canned food into boxes while supervising all the others, some of who required more supervision than others, "Pack the food first. Then, everything else as we have space. Blankets, lamps. More blankets? Punch, that's too many blankets for one box."

"WHY IS IT SO COLD?! It's July!"

"Well, it will be warmer where we're going."

"Tartarus" Celestia mocked. "Unless it's frozen over, too."

Homeshine laughed. She had to admit it was funny. "Keep only what you need for tonight. Everything else goes on the cloud cart. We move out in the morning. Punch, where is Switch?"

"Her father sent a chariot to collect her for the VIP shuttle. Commander Hurricane's orders."

Of course he did. He funded Home to keep the children out of harm's way. Don't fetch them back up with no notice, putting them right back in that way again. Why didn't he trust her? Bu she had other things on her mind.

The packing went into the wee hours; still, she didn't know how she would get to sleep that night, although they could sleep in the morning she supposed. Children didn't go to sleep well even in the best of times. And this was not the best of times, so perhaps a bit of tiredness could do them good. Her mind wouldn't stay quiet. She wondered about everything. Should she have packed the rain barrels? Why is commander Hurricane so grouchy to deal with? Should she have presented this plan in the first place? Would it work? And …

What was that noise?

It didn't sound like anything she'd ever heard. As if someone was killing a slinky. Was Celestia and Luna casting their night-to-day spell again? Homeshine went to the window, "I'll have to tell her to stop doing that …"

This had to be a nightmare.

It was a fireball, but it wasn't the sun.

It was aimed at her.

Homeshine moved faster than thought, on instinct.

Ran down the stairs

jumped over the side

fell the last half-story

Luna, Celestia's, and Punch's room

"Wake Up!"

next room, the little one's dorm.

No more time.

Homeshine could feel the fireball strike Home from her bones to her feathers. Everything vibrated. Time resumed. "We've all had fire drills. Let's go. Outside." At least the cold had let up some, or maybe that was simply the radiant heat from the fire.

The littlest of little ones made it out. Also Luna, and Celestia. "Where is Punch? No. Oh, God no."

Punch was curled up in a ball in the entryway, too traumatized by the fire even to escape it.

Homeshine was fast. But Celestia was faster. Before Homeshine had gotten halfway to the door, Celestia and Luna had already gotten to the door, balanced Punch between them, and were on their way back out.

They deposited Punch in front of Homeshine, still curled up. The radiant aura of the Cutie Mark magic still emanating from them in its final sparks.

"Don't worry. We got 'em" Celestia said to Homeshine as her horn got longer and slenderer.

The same happened to Luna as she chimed in, "I don't know if Pegasi are really light, or becoming a pegasus made us really strong, but he was much easier to move than I remember."

Homeshine knew what had happened. "Becoming a pegasus doesn't make you physically stronger, but becoming an Earth pony does."

The girls looked down as Punch gradually unrolled and looked up at them all, seemingly over his trauma.

Celestia said naught but "Oh."

Luna concurred. "That explains it."

* * *

Home was burning.

They were going to leave it eventually, but still ...

"Who would do such a thing? And why?" Homeshine begged the stars. The stars were silent.

Celestia answered for them, "Because they know we're here. We were the target. Who else launches projectiles? Pegasi drop bombs. Earth ponies invade over-land. Only one of the races uses rockets."

Homeshine realized the logic, "The unicorns. …"