Tomorrow is Always a New Day

by Wheller

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Pop!

It was morning and the strange noise threw Twilight Sparkle and Vinyl Scratch from their sleep, they jumped to their hooves in surprise, which turned out to be a poor choice of action, considering that the inside of their igloo only rose about half a metre at the most.

Their hasty awakening collapsed the igloo, burying the three ponies under some twenty kilograms of snow.

Panic set in. They needed to dig their way out, and fast, otherwise death by suffocation would be inevitable.

Vinyl and Twilight frantically attempted to dig, making little progress; they hit each other several times by accident until Vinyl finally poked a hoof through the top. She pulled her head out and gasped a breath of air. She felt relieved and horrified at the same time. She could breathe; two gryphons were sitting outside their cage, laughing at them, Gilda and another one that had been previously identified as “sergeant.”

Vinyl pulled herself out of the snow, and continued to dig into it, digging until she felt Rainbow Dash’s head, clearing away the snow and allowing the still unconscious Pegasus to breathe, something she was still doing.

Twilight pulled herself out as well, clearing away the snow around their fallen friend. They’d narrowly escaped a horrible death, and not by much.

The two gryphons were still laughing.

“What is going on here?! Sergeant Ironfeathers! Explain yourself!” an authoritative voice boomed.

“Just having some fun with the ponyfolk sir!” Ironfeathers said.

“Sergeant I expected better from you. This is NOT how we treat prisoners. You’re dismissed and both of you can expect formal reprimands in your permanent files.” The authoritative gryphon said.

Gilda and Ironfeathers stopped laughing, marching away in silence.

Vinyl looked over at this new gryphon as she walked over to the cage and unlocked the door.

“I’m very sorry for this, I expect better from soldiers under my command,” The female gryphon said, she entered the cage and helped Vinyl and Twilight clear the snow off their friends. “Damn them,” she said as she got a look at Rainbow Dash. “How long as she been like this?”

“Better part of two days,” Vinyl said, not sure how she felt about this seemingly kind gryphon.

“She needs medical attention,” Twilight said pleading for any help that would be given.

“I tend to agree, I’ll have my medical staff give her the best care we can... They don’t exactly know anything about ponies, but it’s better than her being left out in the cold.”

Vinyl nodded, picking up Rainbow Dash and carrying her to the gryphon’s infirmary, following the kind gryphon that helped them. Vinyl set Rainbow down on a bed inside, and turned to look at the gryphon. She clearly had some kind of authority in the camp. The ponies guessed that she was the one in charge.

The trio went back outside, and the gryphon turned to look at them. “I’m lef-tennant Razorwing, Third Artillery Brigade. I’m in charge of this garrison.”

“I’m Twilight Sparkle, this is my friend Vinyl Scratch, our other friend is Rainbow Dash,” Twilight explained. “Um, what’s Artillery?”

The gryphon lieutenant smiled. “I’ll show you,” she turned her head upward looking to a gryphon that was flying above them. “Bombardier Iorntalon? Spot me a target! Anything that’s not us.”

“aye aye sir!” the airborne gryphon called out, picking up a pair of binoculars from around his neck and looking around the landscape with them, clearly he found something that he wanted, and called out to two gryphons near a large, irregular shaped metal object, of which neither pony had a clue of what it could be. “Fire mission! Grid two-three-two-three, Fire!”

Neither unicorn understood.

One of the strange metal objects erupted in smoke; an extremely loud explosion from them sent the two ponies to the ground in surprise. Twilight figured out what they were quickly, they were guns. Really big, really loud guns, they put the gryphon’s rifles, of which she already thought were very dangerous to shame.

The gryphon lieutenant didn’t even flinch. “You hit anything Iorntalon?”

“Just some bridge over some river that nobody’s using.”

Twilight frowned; they’d clearly destroyed the bridge that they’d used to cross the S. Germain.

“What was that?” Vinyl asked, returning to her hooves.

“That, my little ponies, was the Quick Fire 26 Pounder,” Razorwing said with a smile. “Standard field gun of the Twin Royal Armies.”

...

Rainbow Dash perked her head up. She could have sworn that she’d heard a soft explosion somewhere in the distance.

“Did anypony else hear that?” Rainbow asked.

Twilight and Fluttershy looked at her confusedly.

“Hear what Rainbow?” Fluttershy asked her.

Rainbow looked out the window into the countryside, seeing nothing out of the ordinary.

“Maybe I’m just hearing things...” Rainbow said with a sigh. “I’ve got stuff I need to take care of. I’ll see you girls later.”

Rainbow exited the Library, looking down the high street to find Sugarcube Corner standing on the lot in which it belonged. Rainbow did a double take when she saw it; she’d been so used to it not being there. She figured, what the hay, and decided to stop by and check the place out.

She entered; it was mostly empty, save for a single grey coloured Pegasus buying a Muffin from Mister Cake.

Derpy looked at Rainbow Dash as she walked in, jolting her head to the side, trying to silently communicate for Rainbow Dash to join her while Mr. Cake wasn’t looking. Rainbow understood and sat down with her.

Derpy casually ate her blueberry muffin in several bites, after finishing the entire thing; she leaned in close to Rainbow and whispered to her. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

Rainbow Dash gave Derpy an odd look, the wall-eyed Pegasus had always been known to be the odd one out in Ponyville... but something inside Rainbow Dash told her that Derpy was onto something.

“I... I think I know,” Rainbow Dash said. “I just... I’m not sure what to do.”

Derpy smiled at her. “I’ll help you. Meet me later at the place.”

Derpy got up and walked out of the sweet shop. Well, Rainbow thought to herself, that was useful.

Meet me later at the place. Rainbow Dash was sure that was the single vaguest statement that she had ever heard in her entire life.

Rainbow Dash exited the sweet shop, discovering that there was a single cloud in the sky over Ponyville, it annoyed Rainbow Dash to no end that somepony left it there, she wasn’t the only weather pony in Ponyville, but clearly she was the only one able to do the job right.

She spread her wings and flew up to the cloud, but found herself not dissipating it. Instead, she found a scroll of parchment sticking out of it. That was odd too; paper shouldn’t be able to do that.

She picked it up and unrolled it.

Face east. When it comes, we must have our backs to it so it thinks no one is paying attention.

Well that didn’t make sense either. No, she took that back, it did. The Alicorn that called himself Overdrive used to sit on a cloud facing east all day when he was still alive... Did he write this? What did they need to have their backs to? Now Rainbow had more questions than answers, and she was growing frustrated because she knew that no one could answer them. She kicked the cloud, causing it to dissipate. For what it was worth, the skies were clear, unfortunately, it was the only thing that was.

Rainbow flew back to the ground; she tucked the note in a safe place until she needed it later, if at all.

Rainbow Dash looked down the high street to find Derpy Hooves was trotting at a good pace down it. Rainbow decided to follow her, figuring that she might be going to the place wherever that was.

She followed Derpy several hundred metres down the road to the outskirts of Ponyville. The walleyed Pegasus stopped walking, sitting down in the middle of the open field. She spotted Rainbow coming towards her and waved.

“This is the place?! We’re in the middle of nowhere!” Rainbow cried out in annoyance.

“Uh huh!” Derpy said with a smile. “The place is far away from Ponyville where nopony can hear anything.”

Rainbow wasn’t sure why, but that statement made her feel extremely uneasy. She shook the feeling away, this was Derpy Hooves, quite easily the most friendly Pegasus in Ponyville. Why in the world would she have any reason to be uneasy around her?

“You’re not supposed to be here,” Derpy said. “You need to be somewhere else.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Once again, thank you for being ever so helpful Derpy,” she said, her voice brimming with sarcasm. “And just where am I supposed to be?”

“Not here.”

This was getting her nowhere. “Is somepony playing a joke on me? Because you’ve never been this useless before!”

Derpy frowned at her. “Do you want my help or not?”

Rainbow Dash merely sighed. “Yes. I do, if you can help, please, do.”

Derpy’s smile returned. “There is something else you need to learn before you go.”

Rainbow Dash sighed again. “Yes?”

“Close your eyes,” Derpy commanded.

Rainbow Dash was getting fed up with the grey Pegasus, but humoured her by shutting her eyes tight. She felt a sharp pain in her flank; she opened her eyes and let out a scream in pain. Jaunting from her side was a long knife that had been planted through her left wing.

She looked at Derpy, who was grinning mischievously at her. “Don’t. Trust.”

Rainbow began gasping for air, and fell over onto her side, her eyes began to close and she felt the life slipping away from her.

Then... there was nothing.

Comments

Okayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy...............Dash's vision quest seems to be taking a turn to crazyland. Good thing that paranoia is going to have to be her new best friend if she and the others want to survive in the new, more dangerous world that's outside Mother's loving embrace.