• Published 8th Aug 2011
  • 2,604 Views, 35 Comments

Tomorrow is Always a New Day - Wheller



Change is coming to Equestria. After Gryphons move into the Hoofson Bay Area Princess Celestia sends a trusted ambassador to negotiate, however when the ambassador goes missing, things begin to spiral out of control.

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Chapter 10

Chapter 10

They were no longer caged, yes, but Twilight Sparkle and Vinyl Scratch found that they were nowhere close to being free. Lieutenant Razorwing was kind, for a gryphon, she had given orders to those under her command that the ponies were to be treated with respect, but should they try to leave the camp, Rainbow Dash would be shot, shortly followed by themselves.

The camp was home to some twenty odd Gryphons, conversations with Razorwing revealed that this was half of what they were supposed to have. Everyone else had been lost as a casualty.

“A casualty?” Twilight asked.

“Of war? You know?” Razorwing asked. Both Twilight Sparkle and Vinyl Scratch were completely unaware that the Twin Gryphon Kingdoms were at war with the Commonwealth of South Island, and apparently had been for two or three years at this point. Razorwing scowled at their ignorance. “Gods damn the ponies. Don’t know anything going on outside their precious borders.”

Twilight now understood the reason that Gryphons had occupied the Hoofson Bay Area. They were mining for resources, cutting down the trees for lumber, gathering fish for food. In fact, several settlements scattered the area. The Hoofson Bay was home to nearly a thousand gryphons. Not counting soldiers, of whose numbers Razorwing refused to give them, on the count that they might be spies for the kangaroos.

Razorwing also told them of a kangaroo armoured cavalry regiment, belonging to the South Islander’s twentieth corps, had slipped into the bay several months ago, and took to launching hit and run attacks on gryphon encampments. She called them the Winter Rats, liking them to an infestation of vermin that they just couldn’t get rid of.

Twilight forced her to stop several times, asking her to explain what an “armoured cavalry regiment” and “the twentieth corps” was, causing the gryphon to become extremely annoyed with the ponies ignorance.

After several days of living in the gryphon’s encampment, Razorwing began refusing to even speak to the ponies at all; she had been getting tired of having to explain everything to them, even things that gryphon children would know.

In a few short days, Twilight had learned many things that she could never have in Equestria. Such as what “armoured cavalry” and “artillery” was. She’d been allowed to look through the few books that were lying around the camp; however, she was extremely disappointed to discover that she couldn’t read any of them. While the spoken languages of the gryphons and ponies were very similar, gryphon writings used a completely different alphabet, of which she was unfamiliar.

To make matters worse, Rainbow Dash had still not regained consciousness, forcing the gryphons to slide a feeding tube down her throat. Despite no longer being civil with them, Razorwing had not rescinded her orders to treat the ponies with respect.

Twilight had a nagging suspicion that this would not always be the case. She and Vinyl knew that if they did not come up with some kind of plan soon, either Razorwing would get fed up with them, then order their deaths, or the kangaroos would show up and they’d get caught in the crossfire.

Vinyl spent most of her days thinking and keeping watch over Rainbow Dash. There was no reason why Rainbow had been out this long. She was asleep, but nothing they did could get her to come out of it. They needed her awake if they were going to escape.

...

Rainbow Dash threw open her eyes, gasping in terror. She looked around; she was inside her house, lying on her bed. A quick inspection of her flank revealed that she had not even been wounded.

Oh thank Celestia! It was just a dream!

Rainbow Dash rose to her hooves and entered her washroom. To her horror, the bandage that Fluttershy had wrapped on her head was still there. Likewise, tucked under her wing was the note she’d found in the cloud.

What in the name of Equestria...?

Rainbow didn’t understand what was happening to her. Worst of all, she was incredibly hungry, she couldn’t think straight when her mind was so focused on food. She ate several meals worth of food... but none of it seemed to help. Rainbow didn’t understand. Then out of the blue, she started having trouble swallowing, and instantly felt full.

No rhyme or reason, it just happened.

Rainbow refused to leave her home. The world had stopped making sense to her, and if she went out there, she knew it would continue to make less and less sense.

A knock came at the door, she ignored it. Nothing good could come from answering that door, she figured, another knock, this time, followed by a voice.

“Rainbow Dash! Ah know yer in there! Get out ‘ere!” the voice belonged to Applejack. Wonderful the world was now so broken that Applejack could actually knock on the door to her cloud castle without falling, not to mention the effort it would have taken for her to actually get to the door at all.

“Rainbow! If ya don’t come out, ah’m gonna knock it down!” Applejack called again.

Fine. Whatever. Rainbow thought to herself, she went over and opened her door. She was a little surprised to see that Applejack was actually not standing on her doorstep; rather Derpy Hooves was struggling to hold her up so that she could knock.

“There ya are! Ah was worried sick about ya when ya’ll didn’t show up at the farm this mornin’ what were ya’ll thinkin’ worrin’ me like that!?” Applejack said.

Rainbow didn’t remember ever talking to Applejack about helping her on the farm today. Then again, she didn’t actually know what the date was, or if it even mattered in this world that she had deemed had gone crazy.
“’Ello? Equestria ta Rainbow Dash! Come in Rainbow Dash!” Applejack said. Rainbow shook her head; she’d gotten caught in a lull of thought and had neglected to say anything.

“Yeah... I’ll be over in a little bit, give me a few minutes to get ready,” Rainbow said.

“Okay. Derpy, ya’ll can put me down now,” Applejack said.

“Oh thank Celestia!” Derpy cried out in an exasperated voice, she lowered the orange earth pony to the ground. “I don’t want to sound rude Miss Applejack... but you are really REALLY heavy!”

Rainbow shut the door. She really didn’t have anything to do; she just didn’t want to be around Derpy right now... She figured it had been just a dream... but how could she be sure?

...

Pom pom pom!

Twilight and Vinyl burst from the camp’s infirmary to find that two gryphons were crewing one of the smaller guns in camp.

Pom pom pom!

The gun fired in another burst, pointed at the air. Twilight and Vinyl looked up to see that a large metal looking bird was flying overhead. Twilight remembered that Razorwing had called this gun an “autocannon” and its main use was shooting down kangaroo aircraft. The metal looking bird must have been one of these aircraft. Twilight found it to be an odd sight. When Razorwing said aircraft, she’d thought hot air balloon.

Pom pom pom! Pom pom pom!

Twilight came up with a plan. She her horn began to glow and she flashed a bright beam of light into the sky. The Gryphons were far too busy to notice; otherwise they might have done something to her. She could only hope that the kangaroo operating the metal bird had seen it and would send help their way.

No such luck, an autocannon round struck the metal bird, sending it diving towards the ground, exploding several hundred metres above the surface. Twilight frowned. The kangaroo was dead, and so was their best chance for help.

...

Pom pom pom! Pom pom pom! Pom pom pom! Pom pom pom!

Rainbow Dash perked her head up. She threw open her front door. The sound she’d heard had been faint. But she was sure that she’d heard it this time. Nothing in the country side indicated that anything had happened at all.

Rainbow Dash frowned, she wasn’t sure if she was hearing things or not, whatever it had been, it was frustrating her to no end.

...

Night fell. Twilight was even more discouraged than she had been before. Worse still, Vinyl was starting to show signs of giving up hope. The white unicorn had been the one to remain chipper the longest, but it seemed that a lack of real options on a course of action had started to affect her too.

Twilight was sure that she was going to die here, either at the talons of the gryphons, or possibly her own hooves.

She shook that thought from her mind. No, they weren’t that desperate yet.

A twig snapped behind her. She shot her head around, crouched behind her was a kangaroo, clad in a leather jacket and a goggled helmet, he was carrying a type of firearm that Twilight had never seen before.

It was a sort of short cylinder shape, with a long metal rod sticking out of the front.

He put a finger to his mouth and shushed her, waving her over.

Twilight approached the kangaroo slowly. He continued to wave her closer.

“I got your signal before my bird got hit,” the kangaroo said. Clearly he had been the operator of the metal bird she’d seen earlier. “I was able to bail out and call for help. My boys are going to be here tomorrow morning.”

The kangaroo handed her a small firework. “Set that off at dawn. Then take everybody you care about and run for cover. Got it?”

Twilight nodded. “Why are you helping us?”

The kangaroo smiled. “’Cause we’re the good guys!”

He disappeared into the darkness shortly after that. Twilight was quick to hide the firework somewhere the gryphons wouldn’t find it.

She hoped he had been telling the truth.