4 - Securing Manehatten
Luna and her trusted turrets appeared outside and the difference was palpable. The thread was still coming, but it was a lighter downpour. "Is the end in sight? Burn it all. The city is not safe until it is all removed." She got to flying, carrying Spike and Trixie to where their flames would do their best.
Trixie sent off bottle rockets towards smaller pockets of thread, a triumphant smirk on her face. "They fled before my Great and Powerful display of might!"
Spike shrugged at that. "I doubt that. They haven't exactly... said anything. Can they talk, or just land on stuff and cause--" he paused to gust his flame, sending a clump of thread into a cheery inferno. "--trouble? Hay, the stuff that lands is barely moving, just kinda wriggling."
Luna scowled, veering towards the southwest where the thread still fell the most densely and decorated the streets in an unwholesome display. "We must clear things. At least we have discerned how to fight back, and that is a worthy goal on any day."
A feline shriek turned their heads towards a small cat that was panicking, thread falling around it as it darted wildly, trying to avoid it.
"I got this," assured Spike, washing the area the cat just darted out of with fire. The thread combusted easily and started spreading to all the rest that had gathered in the area. The cat only seemed to grow in its panic, leaping suddenly over the thread, but its trajectory had it coming down in the middle of the stuff.
Luna thrust out a hoof, the cat glowing with her magic as she grabbed it from mid-air and gently moved it to a safe patch of cleared street. "Poor thing. Let us pray ponies have obeyed the warnings to be indoors at this time."
They saw no ponies, but that was no assurance. If any were caught outdoors, there wouldn't be much left to note they had been there, just more well-fed thread. Soft distant shots pricked their ears and they began fighting towards it, clearing a path through the fallen thread as Luna soared towards the louder bangs. Coming around the corner, they saw a police pony firing shots into the tuberous growths of the thread, backing away with little success. "Requesting backup," she called, though she had no radio that they could see. "Anypony?"
Slipping between places, Luna appeared just over the pony. Trixie's magic exploded outwards, supported by dragon's breath as they created a safe area around the harried policepony. "Are you safe?" asked Luna, looking under herself at the figure that was already sinking to their belly, heaving.
"I'll... be alright. I got cut off while I was busy trying to make sure everypony else was safe." She raised a hoof to wipe her brow. "Thank goodness you came. My gun wasn't doing much." Not that he gun did much on the best of days, shooting little cork pellets that annoyed the ponies she shot with it more than anything else, as if ponies had need for real bullets. "I think they liked being shot!"
"Fire." Spike gave a powerful thumbs up. "Fire works."
"Indeed." Trixie nodded as she looked around. "The rain appears to be stopping."
Luna straightened herself as she took to the air. "It does..." The murderous silver clouds were passing the city, but that meant... "These things will devour the countryside. We must do what we can." She lifted higher to the sky, but the clouds were not drifting from the city. They faded away shortly beyond the city, leaving the sky clear as if nothing had happened. "It... stopped?"
Trixie buffed her chest with a hoof. "It knew we were too much for it."
Luna shook her head softly. "Of this I have doubts, but very well. If we do not have to pursue it there, we can finish cleaning the city. The fall has ended, let's be sure nopony gets hurt by what's left." Both of her flaming turrets groaned, but they got to work, washing away what thread remained on the city.
Twilight soared in from the south, skirting along the updrafts from the ocean beneath her, her eyes set on her target ahead. "I'm coming," she promised no one in particular, aimed directly for Trottingham. She could see the coast just coming into view and smiled, feeling hopeful somehow. Surely it couldn't be as bad as they feared. Perhaps she'd find a few frightened ponies and they'd have it straightened out in no time.
This cheerful mood began to sour as the land became less of a slice across the horizon. The more she could see, the less she liked what she saw. The ground starting from the sandy beach and working upwards were blighted and torn as if somecreatures had waged a great war across it. The lush trees that she had associated with the area were completely absent, replaced with empty and pitted earth in all directions.
She drew a soft breath, ears pinning back against her head as she beat her wings all the faster. Perhaps the ponies she was going to rescue needed her more than she had dared ever imagine. Where the ground was not completely barren, she could see strange tarry like sludge that lingered, lifeless as the rest. There was just... nothing, and it unnerved her. "Anypony? Anycreature at all!" she bellowed out. Shouldn't the town be about there?
Oh...
Her wings went limp, barely keeping her aloft. There was the city of Trottingham, or what was left of it. She could only know most of the buildings that were once there for the strange graveyard of the stone in the houses. Chimneys stood in defiance, reaching to the sky as skeletal fingers jutting from the pitted and scoured ground. The castle was still there, she noticed, veering towards it. "Maybe somepony is there..."
She started to wonder if anyone was there at all, even a single soul. "Anypony?" She didn't like how her shout echoed off the cleaned ground beneath her. "I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, and I'm here to help!"
Movement! Someone was standing on the parapet of the castle, waving at her. With a relieved smile, she soared towards them. "Oh thank harmony itself. Tell me you're not the only one."
"I'm not," spoke the elderly stallion. "They're inside, too scared to come out. The way I saw it, wouldn't be the end of the world if I ended a full life, so I volunteered to come see what the noise was. Morning, Princess."
Twilight hiked a brow at the elder. "Brave, but thank you. I should see them. Are they alright? Are... they all there?" She glanced towards the destroyed town. The odds that they had all escaped seemed so small, but she had to hope...
"All the ones that made it out, I think. ain't not a soul picked through the town." He pointed out into what had been a city. "If you want to look, feel free... I'll let the others know you just happen to not be a talking whatever those were."
"Wait!" Twilight thrust a hoof in his way. "What were those? What did this?!"
"It..." He crashed to his haunches. "It was like a rain, gentle even, white, in the dark of morning. We woke up to it. Landed and it ate and it ate and it ate. It ate our houses... It ate our friends..." He shook his head slowly, looking away. "Almost ate me, got lucky... Turned it all to more... stuff... then rotted away, just like that. Just... gone..." He rubbed behind his head. "Even ate itself, in the end. Nothin' left... Not a thing..."
Twilight drew a sharp breath in more of a hiss. "Are the ponies here in the castle alright? I mean, are they... do they need medical assistance?"
"Nope," sighed the older pony. "They made it in one piece, or no pieces at all. The help they need is up here." He tapped his heart, then up to his head. "Go on, if you can... maybe you'll get lucky and find somepony."
"Right." She turned to the city, eyes closing a moment. "Right..." The odds had been set quite low, but it was her job. "I'll be back." She threw herself off the parapet, diving into the city. "Help is here!" she hollered, but it echoed back in otherwise silence. Not even birds responded. There was nothing alive in her sight.
Her ear twitched, a faint sound teasing it. She veered sharply to the left and landed just in front of what was once a house. "Is somepony there? Anycreature at all?" She wandered slowly, straining to hear it again.
There, a soft whimper. She hurried to the fireplace it came from and peeked inside, but there was nothing there. She frowned, but there it was, from the fireplace. She thrust her head into it and twisted it around, looking upwards. A bundle of fur was caught in the chimney itself. "I'm here!" she suddenly blurted, grabbing the furball in her magic and gently drawing it downwards.
It writhed in her grip, trying to stop itself. "It's alright, I'm here to help. You can come out now."
"No!" came a sharp wail from the thing even as it was drawn against its will into the light, revealed to be the soot-covered shivering form of a filly. "Momma said to wait!"
Twilight carefully set the filly down, dusting her off even as she held the filly carefully, lest she run off. "Your mother put you in a safe place, and it worked. The danger's past, you're safe. Where did your mother go?"
The filly's eyes were as wide as they could be as she looked around, shaking harder by the moment. "Where... is everything? Where..." Tears began welling in her eyes. "Where's mom! Where's me mum! Mooooom!" she called, shaking violently. "Mom!"
Twilight cringed at the breakdown, ears folding back and down, her heart lurching with sympathy. "She might be at the castle." She pointed towards one of the few things still standing. "But I need you to calm down, please..."
The filly drew a sudden snot-filled snort, just to burst into a coughing fit, the soot not treating her lungs well. "It was dark... she woke me up, screaming and... s-scared. I never saw her so scared. She... She put me in there." The filly pointed at the chimney. "She said stay in there, stay and don't come out... There wasn't room for her."
Twilight winced, nodding at the chimney that barely had room enough for the filly. "Then...?"
"I... heard her... She shouted, said to stay there, stay... She... She..." The filly was shivering harder and harder.
Twilight set a hoof on her little shoulder. "That's enough..." She could put together what happened. The filly's mother was unlikely to be at the castle, likely having been devoured by... whatever it was. "You're safe now... I want to keep looking for other ponies that may be stuck or lost. Do you want to come with me, or, no, no... Forget I even said that. I'm sending you to the castle right now."
"Right now?"
Twilight pointed at the parapets and waved. She could distantly see a hoof waving in return. Good, the old pony was still there. "There's a nice old stallion that will help you, alright?"
The filly blinked, confusion winning over terror for a moment. "Nice old stallion? Where?"
With a bright flash of magic, Twilight answered that for her, teleporting the filly just beside the stallion and to safety.
She had a city to search thoroughly. Where there was one survivor, there could be more, and she set herself to the task of making sure they were found and gotten to safety. It was the least she could do.
It was all she could do, she realized, muscles going slack a moment. The enormity of what had befallen the city was too much for a moment before she could regather herself.
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I'm picturing the wood, plaster, and straw constructions of Ponyville and wincing already.
I think Twilight and Luna are both going to be very sick to their stomachs when they see the difference. I hope the nation will be ready when they get this casualty report.
Good thing the Trottingham Castle had lead and stone roof, instead of sheet and timber, otherwise the Keep would have been just as empty as the town, but the chimneys are not only large enough to stand in, but a lot of places are simple visibly open to the sky, unless due to Pegasi they have bars and diversion traps which the Thread fell into instead?
9679760
ourproperty.co.uk/content/uploads/2017/02/roof-1252356_1920.jpg Many chimneys are not open to the sky.
9679579
I'm picturing that great big forest right next to Ponyville... that's my little bit of existential dread for the day right there.
By seeing what worked in Manehattan and what failed in Trottingham, a lot of communities are going to quickly refurbish their buildings with slate shingles and stone tiles. Those that don't will risk the painful deaths of those trapped inside what they hade thought were safe structures.
Oddly enough, glass greenhouses should also be quite safe from the thread...
9679833
Yeah, greenhouse glass seems thick enough. Thread can score holes through thin metals, so it can probably melt through thin glass too. Thread could get through something thin like tinplate (canned food metal), but greenhouse glass is much thicker, so it should be fine. Structural steel and steel plating are fine against thread, and apparently so is cookware metal. One character in the Pern books was able to protect himself using a big pot lid. Thread can cut right through thin metal wires though.
9679818
I have to wonder if Everfree might even survive a Fall simply because whatever happened to turn it into what it is today is so damned mysterious and apparently powerful.
9680043
"Contact lost; presumed eaten by the locals."
9680043
I could see the Everfree resisting Thread, much as the vegetation on the Southern Continent was able to for... reasons.
Ouch, poor filly. This story may need a dark tag.
In the original story, thread was caused by a planet/asteroid/something that moved close to Pern in orbit at certain periods of time. The settlers did the best they could, because it's not like they could just stop the comet from coming back, right?
Celestia and Luna have more options. I suspect a lot of creatures will want to Luna to grab that comet and chuck it into the sun, or Celestia to grab the sun and chuck it at the comet.
9680752 Counterpoint: Timberwolves get threaded and become Timber/Thread wolves.
9685292
That will prevent future Passes, but the Thread already in Equus' orbit will continue to fall until the clouds of it are gone.
9685292
So basically....they should yeet a heavenly body. Only in Equestria.