Chapter 12: Sundown
Bastion watched through his ruined window as the cloaked figure galloped down the street and into downtown Glimmervale. A peal of thunder split the air and with it came a soft but insistent drizzle. He wondered for a moment if this was dramatic irony or if the vandal had friends in the clouds covering his escape. The drizzle intensified into a downpour, fast enough to allay any doubts.
He used an old Royal Guard spell to extend and sharpen his senses. He could sense only himself, his daughter-in-law, and his granddaughter on the property.
He knew that if Aurora were here, she’d tell him that it was just an isolated incident. That he should calm down, clean up the mess, and contact the sheriff in the morning.
But Aurora wasn’t here. And she was out because another batch of malcontents had attacked the boys.
He clenched his jaw and ran down the list of priorities in his head. As ever, his top priority was the safety of his family. His wife and sons were beyond his influence. Dee and Little Dee were here with him. That left his daughter, who was out visiting a friend.
Step One: Get Lula home.
That would come with an unwelcome complication. His first thought was to go and fetch her personally - would he bring Dee with him? Or would he leave them at the house, unprotected? Neither option was acceptable.
Step One: get backup.
Step Two: get Lula home.
He stepped back from the broken window and saw Dee stooping to clean broken glass from the floor.
“No, Dee. None of that, now. You get the little one and come with me.”
He strode through the house to the front door and threw open the coat closet in a burst of magic. As Dee arrived with his granddaughter, he pulled out their rain cloaks, fastening all three simultaneously and ushering the fillies out the front door. He paused on his way out and summoned the brick from the kitchen table. It hovered along beside him as he stepped out into the rainy evening.
He made his way across the street and past two houses, stopping at the door of the third. He knocked insistently.
“Lod! Bastion. Need a hoof with something.”
After a moment, the door swung wide to reveal a tall, stocky green earth pony. He trusted all of his neighbors, but given the circumstances, Lodgepole Pine was the obvious choice of allies.
His friend looked confused. “Bast? What’s the matter?”
“Had a little excitement over dinner.” The brick hovered past his head over the welcome mat so that Lod could read the text on it.
“Somepony put this through the window and onto the table.”
Lod leaned against the doorframe and gave an irritated snort.
“Well, there goes the neighborhood. Come in. All of you.”
The commotion at the door had attracted the attention of Lod’s wife, Juniper.
“Lod? Who’s at the door? Can’t you tell them they’re interrupting din- Bastion?”
Lod turned to face his wife as Bastion and the girls stepped across the threshold.
“June, Bastion’s had a bit of trouble with a vandal. He’s here with Dee and Dinky. I’m gonna step out for a bit and help him sort it out.”
Bastion gathered the Dees’ cloaks and hung them on a rack by the door.
“It’s true, June. Some young punk’s gone and put a brick through the dining room window. I need to get Lula home and I need to summon the sheriff, but first I need to be sure the girls are safe.”
Juniper nodded and waved the girls deeper into the house. “Come along, then. Let’s put a pot of tea on and have dinner.”
Dee glanced back at him. He knew that look. There was steel in that stare.
“Dee, you know if Lula were here to watch after the little one, I’d insist that you have my back on this. As it stands, I’d like if there were at least two adults here, in case there’s more trouble.”
Her expression softened. She nodded, and followed Juniper into the kitchen.
Lod grabbed his own coat in his teeth and flung it over his shoulders.
“What’s the plan, Bast?”
“Bring the sheriff. I’m going after Lula.”
Lod nodded, and the two old stallions galloped off into the rain.
Stargazer galloped into the light of his friends’ lantern and skidded to a stop. He’d been running top speed for the better part of an hour, and it was all he could do to keep his footing. By now, after the overnight trek from the valley to the icefields, the all-day reconnaissance mission, and the previous day’s activities, he’d been awake for nearly forty hours. Exhaustion was beginning to take its toll. He gasped for air.
“Guys! Mom. We found-”
Red was on him in an instant. “Wedge, honey! What’s wrong? Sit down. Drink this” She pressed him down into a seated position and before he knew what was happening there was a canteen at his lips. He took a long pull of the ice-cold water and took several deep breaths. The other three members of B Flight crowded around him, looking worried.
Soarin’ spoke first. “Bro, where’s mom?”
Stargazer shook his head.
“We found it. We found the camp. But it wasn’t a camp, it was a city! A flying one. Like Cloudsdale. But on the ice. Mom stayed.”
Red ran a comforting hoof through his mane and began rubbing his neck.
“Honey, try again. With more details this time.”
He exhaled deeply and started over.
“We were out on our scouting run, looking for the enemy camp, and we found it. There’s a clearing, a ways up north of here. A big one. And in it, they’ve been building an entire cloud city. Not nearly as big as Cloudsdale but the same kind of design. Mom thinks it’s up here so they can build it in secret, and that they’re going to move it once it’s ready.”
He drained the rest of his water, and continued.
“We must’ve seen at least a hundred pegasi. Armed and wearing armor. I think Mom recognized some of them - at least, there were moments where she’d try to get a closer look at one, then get really mad. She sent me back with orders. She’s staying to keep an eye on things.”
Soarin’ stood up and went to his pack. “Orders. Got it. What are they?”
“Sleep.”
“You have got to be kidding.”
“I’m not, Soarin’. We’ve all been up since two days ago. She wants us rested, and then she wants us to meet her at dawn at a location she gave me. She stressed that she needed us rested and ready, and that she’s not even going to be at the rendezvous until dawn, so there’s no sense going early.”
Soarin’ pursed his lips. He looked petulant. “I hate it.”
“I hate it, too. That’s why…”
Stargazer turned his head and made eye contact with Spitfire.
“That’s why she put you in charge, Seven. She said she trusts you to follow orders.”
He reached down into his saddlebag and pulled out a folded-over piece of paper. Spitfire took it from him warily and stepped to the lantern to read it.
Earlier
Aurora was so mad she could spit.
Every one of these Wild Sky lunatics - every single one - was a cadet who’d either graduated from or washed out of her training program over the past ten years or so.
She glowered at the cloud city as the enormity of what she was facing pieced itself together in her head.
A cloud city can’t house unicorns or earth ponies.
A cloud city can’t be attacked by unicorns or earth ponies - except in the most imprecise and brutal ways by unicorn magic.
A substantial percentage of Equestria’s combat-trained pegasi were here, participating in this rebellion.
It’ll work, too.
The plan was obvious: consolidate power, empty the region of non-loyalists, retreat to the sky, and present independence to Canterlot as a fait accompli. If done deftly, with minimal civilian casualties, Canterlot would have no choice but to accept. Start a civil war over a few dozen homes in an empty town? Not a chance.
The slaughter of two non-pony communities should tip the balance, but that didn’t mean it would. Especially with no proof of responsibility.
She read the name over the nearest city gate for the umpteenth time.
New Pegasopolis
She knew exactly who was behind all of this, and cursed herself for trusting him.
“Stargazer!” Her voice was a harsh whisper.
Worry was written all over her son’s face. He was a smart boy. He could see that they were outnumbered, outmatched, and outmaneuvered.
“Yeah, mom?”
Instinctively she straightened up to deliver a rebuke for not calling her ‘Captain,’ but the words died on her lips. She hugged him tight.
“Son, I need paper and something to write with.”
In a moment, he’d dug paper and a quill out of his pack. She took them from him, and pressed the pad of paper against his back to write.
Spitfire.
It’s come to my attention that there’s a mess back at Camp Solar that only I can clean up.
If all goes well, I should be back by morning, and we can all go home.
I won’t lie, Cadet. I’m taking a calculated risk. I expect things will go well. You’re my contingency plan if they don’t.
Here are your orders:
- Get some sleep. You all need it.
- Let Stargazer bring you to the rendezvous.
If I’m not there, the following things become true:
- This team and this mission are now your responsibility.
- You and your team will no longer be Camp Solar cadets. Accept no orders from any officers affiliated with the Corps other than Thunderhead and myself.
- You will explore “New Pegasopolis.” You will determine the enemy’s intentions. You will find Bastion in Glimmervale, and together you will go to Canterlot for help.
Take care of my boys, Cadet. They’ll need you.
She folded the letter and looked up.
“Son, you go find your crew, you get some sleep, you wake up at first light and you come straight here and meet me at this exact spot. Give this letter to Spitfire. If things go south... she’s in charge.”
Stargazer opened his mouth to object. She put the letter in it to silence him.
“It’s nothing to do with you. You’re a damn fine leader, and I couldn’t be prouder of the job you’ve done. It’s….” She sighed.
“Son, this whole operation’s about to turn into a combat mission. If that happens…”
“Hell, if that happens, you need me in charge. But you won’t have me.”
She hugged him again. “Stargazer, if it comes down to it, and you can’t escape fighting, you let her give the orders and you follow them. She’s got the instincts and the talent to keep all of you safe - I wish there’d been more time to train her, but she’ll figure it out.”
Stargazer sighed. “I hope it doesn’t come to that”
She ruffled his mane. “Me too, son. Me too. Now off with you!”
She watched
When he was out of sight she wrote another note, even shorter than the first. She tucked it in the branches of an icy tree.
I’ll rip it up when I get back.
Spitfire folded the note and handed it back to Stargazer. Her eyes carried a silent question. Did he read it?
The look she received in return told her that he had. His eyes flashed to Soarin’, then back to her.
The meaning was obvious. They were going to need to work together to get him on board with this plan.
“For what it’s worth, Wedge… I’m sorry.”
There was just a hint of gruffness to his voice. “Sorry for what, Seven?”
“Team leadership is supposed to be your thing.”
Wedge looked away, leaned into a hug from Red.
“This isn’t a rescue. We might be flying into combat. It’s your area of expertise. Just…”
The raw emotion was evident in his voice, now.
“Spitfire, I’m gonna be blunt for a second here. Just… step up to it, OK? The three of us all know you can do this. We all know Mom made the right choice. But…” His gaze flickered back to hers and the intensity in his eyes drilled her in place
“But that means you can’t melt down about it. Understand? I’ve seen you get upset with yourself enough times to know it’s a problem for you - and I know you’re getting better about it. I know you can keep it together if you need to. I just…”
“You need to. Right now. You owe it to your team. The time for regrets and second-guessing is after all of this is over, and not one moment sooner.”
Spitfire nodded solemnly. She saw Soarin’ set his jaw like he had a retort for his brother. She set a hoof on his flank.
“He’s right, Soarin’. I needed to hear that. I’d never run away from the three of you, but... if I pick the wrong moment to run away from myself…” She trailed off.
“Anyway. Thanks, Wedge. I’ll… I mean, we’ll… We’ve got this.” She saw Soarin’s eyes soften and began to relax.
“Now somehow… we all need to sleep. At least, I know I do. I can’t even see straight anymore.”
Red and Wedge nodded, and Red led him to the entrance to their hidden campsite. Spitfire moved to turn off the lantern. Soarin’ continued to ready himself for flight.
“Soarin’. Sack time.”
He ignored her
Spitfire went to his side and nudged in between him and his pack.
“Gonna be awfully uncomfortable to sleep in your goggles, Eight.”
He reached around her and pulled his pack to him.
“Don’t make me pull rank on you, soldier.”
The flat, hostile stare she received in response stabbed icicles into her heart.
“Mom needs help. We need to go, now. I am going now, with or without the rest of you.” He raised his voice so the other two could hear him, “Frankly I’m offended that they can sleep at a time like this.”
Spitfire pointed an accusatory feather at his nose. “Soarin’ do not raise your voice right now. We are hiding from an enemy that outnumbers us twenty to one.”
He bit his lip for a long moment. “Okay. Okay. That makes sense. That, I can agree with. I’m sorry.” He nudged her aside and began strapping on his gravity blades and flight goggles.
She reached in to interfere and before she knew it they were wrestling over one of his blades.
“Let go, seven!”
“You first, you stubborn…”
Their momentum carried them into a crystalline tree trunk. Spitfire took the impact across her back and let out a pained yelp.
A look of extreme guilt flooded Soarin’s face. His grip on the blade loosened ever so slightly. It was all the opening she needed. She swept his hind legs out from under him and rolled up onto his chest, straddling him. She tossed the blade back into his open pack.
“I get it. You’re stubborn. You’re selfless. You want to act now. They’re some of your best qualities - most of the time. But I need you to help me out here. Think it through: she’s not at the rendezvous, she won’t be ‘til morning, there is literally nothing we can accomplish by going now except endangering ourselves and the mission.”
He looked away. She could see on his face that he knew she was right. She could also see that he would rather be wrong and go anyway.
“Soarin’, I swear if you take off out of here I will chase after you. I will drag you back here, and I will hold you down ‘til first light.” She paused, then lowered her head til her lips where beside his ear and whispered, “I’ll hold you all night, if I have to.”
She saw a flash of recognition in his eyes. He stopped struggling and looked away.
“I won’t make you chase me.”
She climbed off his chest and helped him up. Then she pulled out the letter and offered it to him.
“Here, Soarin’. Read it. You’ll feel better if you do.”
Spitfire stared across the tiny campsite at Soarin’s back and mane, barely illuminated by a narrow band of starlight and the eerie green glow of the aurora borealis that filtered down from the narrow crack above. He was barely three feet away and yet the gap felt infinite. She knew she’d made the right decision, but she hated that she’d had to force it on him. She reached out to tap him on the shoulder, then pulled her hoof back.
“I can hear you doing that.” His voice was a soft whisper.
“Oh. Sorry.”
“What’s up, Spit?”
She let a childlike tone creep into her voice. “I was just wondering if we’re still friends?”
He sighed and rolled over to face her. The motion brought him nose to nose with her. He lifted a wing out in a silent offer to nestle up next to him.
“Just friends? I thought we were past that.”
She gratefully tucked herself into little spoon position.
“I thought so too but then I-”
“But then you what? Made me admit it was a bad time to be reckless? Made a good decision and enforced it, like a leader should? Did exactly what mom would want you to do?”
He wrapped her up tight. “Spitfire, just because I don’t like it, doesn’t mean I don’t agree with it. And just because I’m upset about it, doesn’t change how I feel about you.”
She grinned. “So you still think I’m a bossy screwball who’s going to get you in so much trouble and who might just flake out and run off the next time things get difficult.”
He chuckled. “Well, I mean… I disagree with that last part.”
She gave him a playful jab in the ribs. He chuckled.
“What? We’re already in so much trouble!”
She let out a soft laugh in reply. They both lay there quietly for a long moment. She rested her head on his chest, feeling the tension he was still holding in his muscles. He was wide awake.
“I’m sure she’s fine.”
“Mhmm.”
“I mean it… she’s the best.”
“Mhmm.”
“We’re gonna wake up, and go meet her, and it’ll all be-”
“Can we talk about literally anything else?”
“Sorry.”
They were both quiet again for a long moment.
“I think Snowball likes you.”
She could almost feel him roll his eyes.
“I think you’re lucky you don’t have frostbite all over. He’s growing on me, but he’s still an ice elemental.”
“What’s a little hypothermia between friends? Besides,” she laid a gentle kiss on his wing, “I have you to warm me up now.”
He traced one of his feathers from her chin to her ear and back down.
“Yes, you do. Always.”
She giggled. “Isn’t it a little soon to be saying things like ‘always’?”
“Nah.”
She arched an eyebrow. Several questions died on her lips. He continued.
“You are my Sunshine, my only Sunsh-”
She snorted and shushed him.
“It’s not fair, you know.”
“What’s not?”
“You have a silly pet name for me. I need one for you now, too.”
The two of them drifted off to sleep before she’d settled on one.
Bastion silently cracked the door to the master bedroom to see that Lula, Dee, and Little Dee were still sleeping soundly in the oversized bed. Just as they had been the previous time he’d checked. And the eight times before that. He walked the halls of his home with the measured, practiced gait he’d learned on night guard duty in the palace decades ago. Through the years in Glimmervale, he’d done this from time to time - whenever he’d felt off, like something was amiss. He’d learned to trust that feeling. Aurora might have teased him for it, but even though nothing had ever happened on the nights he chose to walk the rounds in lieu of sleeping, he’d never felt that the effort was wasted.
His rounds brought him back down to the dining room. The great shattered picture window was boarded up - Naturally, Lod had planks handy and the two of them had quickly remedied the great gaping hole in the house. The glass was cleared away, too. Despite his protestations, Dee and Lula had insisted on helping him clean up. He passed through to the kitchen and saw the first faint glow of pre-dawn light in the eastern sky. It’d be morning soon.
He reviewed the plan for the day. After breakfast, he and Dee would head to Camp Solar. They’d inquire if Thunderhead’s condition had improved enough for him to come home, and if it had, they’d bring him back here. Then he and Dee would proceed to her and Thunderhead’s home and pack some things to bring back. The family would be staying in the big house for the time being, until Bastion’s gut told him the danger had passed. For the tenth time that night, he was thankful that Dee was willing to humor him when he felt this way.
What…
He’d caught the faintest hint of motion out of the kitchen window. After a moment’s consideration he broke rounds and peered out into the dim. Nopony in the yard. His heightened senses told him there was nopony save himself and his girls on the property. So what had?
The sky.
Dark shapes in a dark sky. Two square formations of pegasi, moving like platoons of soldiers on parade, gliding down from the Glimmerfang Glacier and into town. His gut told him that something was very wrong with this picture.
“Rise and shine, girls! Up and at ‘em, we gotta move!”
Spitfire awoke to the shocking cold of an icy tongue leaving a trail of frost up the side of her face and into her mane. Her whole body recoiled back into Soarin’. She felt his warm breath on her neck as he uttered a groggy grunt.
“Snowball? How did you…”
The winter wolf’s head stuck out from the icy wall of the crevasse beside her. The rest of him was nowhere to be seen. He licked her again. She raised a hoof to scrub the icicles out of her eyebrows.
“I did not know you could do that.”
Soarin’ groaned and squeezed her tighter. “Sunshiiiine it’s still dark out. Send your monster away and come back to sleep.”
As Spitfire gazed up at the early morning glow in the little sliver of sky at the top of the crevasse, she realized with a rush of embarrassment that the ice elemental had just saved her from a massive tactical error. She hadn’t set up a watch rotation. She’d just let all four of them sleep without any sort of alarm to wake them at dawn.
This whole leadership thing is going just great, she thought.
“Thanks, Snowball.” She inhaled deeply and bellowed, “Up and at ‘em, B Flight!”
Bastion and his girls headed up the mountain path to Camp Solar at a full gallop. Dee had wanted to fly on ahead but he absolutely forbade that she take to the sky or split the group. Part of him still held out hope that he was overreacting - that there was some perfectly innocent reason for pre-dawn military maneuvers over Glimmervale - but his gut knew better.
It couldn’t be Corps training: he’d seen more ponies in the air than Camp Solar’s roster could account for.
It couldn’t be Royal Guard activity: he’d have known about it ahead of time.
He didn’t want to use the term invasion force, but nothing else fit. And for all that the Corps was technically non-military, they offered the best hope of organized resistance to whatever was happening in his town.
They rounded the final switchback and the camp came into view. Bastion’s heart turned to ice as he skidded to an abrupt stop. He reached out telekinetically and stopped his daughters as well.
His voice was sharp, like a steel blade. “Girls, run.”
“Dad? What are you doing! We have to warn-”
He pointed to the sign above the gate. Instead of Camp Solar, it read Fort Hurricane. The pony standing watch turned and rang an alarm bell.
“They already know. Now GO!”
A squad of armed and armored pegasi flew down and encircled the group. As a unit, they extended gravity blades.
Dinky began to cry.
Bastion cursed himself for his miscalculation. He quickly evaluated his situation.
Can’t fight - too many. No armor. No weapon. Three civilians to protect - He glanced at Dee and corrected himself - Two children to protect, one partner. Still too dangerous.
Can’t surrender - Death sentence, given the attack on the boys.
That left him one option. He squeezed his eyes shut and cast a spell that he knew he didn’t have the strength to cast properly.
He heard a loud pop and saw a flash of purple light in front of his eyelids, and for the briefest moment he felt the mountainside fall away beneath his hooves.
B Flight streaked low over the treetops on their way to the rendezvous. The brilliant red dawn illuminated the icy foliage beneath them like a crystalline cold fire. Under any other circumstances, this would have been an exhilarating flight. Spitfire kept her eyes trained on Wedge as he guided them to the point where they were supposed to meet the captain.
After an hour flying at top speed, he plunged down into the forest. As he landed, he held up a hoof to caution the others.
“I caught sight of the city - better to move in on hoof from here.”
Spitfire nodded, and saw the others nod as well. They continued through the forest. Occasionally she saw a swirl of pale blue light dance across the ground under the icy groundcover. She was beginning to recognize that this light was Snowball, following along with them, unseen in the ice.
After another ten minutes of travel the forest thinned out, and the city came into view. It was a vast, imposing tangle of classical columns and domes. Spitfire could see the resemblance to Cloudsdale, but this structure had none of the color of home.
Wedge led the party to a copse of trees on the edge of the forest.
The copse was empty.
“This… this is the place.” The worry in his voice was palpable.
“I don’t understand… are we early?” Red asked.
With a sinking heart, Spitfire stepped to the head of the group and turned to face her teammates. She shook her head. “If anything, we’re a few minutes late. The captain isn’t here.”
A grim-faced Wedge waved her over to one of the trees. A folded white paper sat tucked between branches. She plucked it out and unfolded it.
Hey, kid.
Guess I didn’t make it back.
I believe in you, Sunshine. You got this.
Trust no-one.
Take care of my boys.
Clean up my mess.
Avenge me.
In that order.
~Lightshow
She shared a meaningful look with Wedge and crumpled the note before he could see it.
Avenge me.
She pushed back the fear and revulsion that line had caused and cleared her throat. Her voice came out much weaker than she intended.
“Right. I’m sure something came up. We have orders. We’re going in there,” she pointed at the city, “we’re finding out what it’s about, then we’re going home.” She sidled up between Aurora’s sons and laid a wing across both of their shoulders. “Given what we know, the captain’s either in there, or waiting for us back home. Let’s go.”
B Flight wandered through the empty streets of New Pegasopolis. For the first hour of their exploration they’d expended a tremendous amount of effort to remain stealthy, but in the intervening time they hadn’t seen a single solitary soul. As far as they could tell, the city was empty.
Well, not entirely empty. There were storerooms full of supplies, armories full of gear, cafeterias full of food, but no ponies, and nothing to tell the story of where they’d gone or what this city was for.
Soarin gave an angry snort.
“We’ve been at this long enough. We should go.”
Spitfire nodded. She felt uneasy that they hadn’t found any real intel, but she could see no reason to stay. She turned to Wedge.
“You sketched out a map, right?”
He nodded.
“Well… it’s not nothing. Let’s get out of here.”
Another voice split the air. “Stargazer? Soarin’? Spitfire? Hellooo?”
Red canted her head to the side. “Is that Moonglow?”
Spitfire held a hoof to Red’s mouth and shot a panicked glance at Wedge. It definitely was the voice of sergeant Moonglow, the friendly, bubbly officer who’d taken over B Flight’s training when Thunderhead had been hurt.
Wedge’s return gaze was hard and skeptical. She nodded her agreement.
Trust no-one, the letter had said.
She turned to look, and saw Soarin’ in the middle of the street, waving up, shouting “Hey, Sergeant! Down here!”
Spitfire scanned the sky through the doorway of a New Pegasopolis cafeteria. In a far corner, Stargazer had his maps laid out and was plotting a course for B Flight’s return home. Red had commandeered the kitchen. Moonglow sat at the nearest table with Soarin’, remarkably bright-eyed and amicable given the news she was delivering.
Spitfire had heard the tale twice already. It all squared with what she already knew, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that it didn’t add up.
“Run me through it one more time.”
Moonglow gave an impatient smile. “Of course.” She graciously accepted a hot tea from Red.
“From the beginning, then. Wild Sky has seized Glimmervale. The city is under martial law. Captain Firelight and several of the sergeants are traitors, and are in league with the bad guys. Aurora came back to town late last night and busted Thunderhead out of the infirmary, where he was basically a prisoner. He was too sick to leave behind, so she stayed with him and sent me to find you. Honestly I would have been right at your meeting place, right on time, except I had to sneak out of town at dawn!”
She drained her tea.
“Aurora wants us to stay here and wait for further instructions. It’s well stocked, it’s abandoned, because all of the bad guys are in Glimmervale, and we’ll need a place for her to organize a resistance.”
Spitfire glowered. “I don’t like it. Moonglow, it’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just… Well, for example, why didn’t she send Dee? Or better yet, leave Thunderhead with Dee and come herself?”
Moonglow’s expression turned somber. “We can’t find Dee. Or Dinky, or Bastion, or the other sister. They’ve just… vanished.” She held up her empty mug. “Red, could you bring me another cup of tea?”
Spitfire shared a glance with Soarin’ and Wedge.
Red gave her a reassuring smile as she brought Moonglow a fresh mug of tea.
“I’m sorry, Moonglow but it’s too risky. We’re too exposed here, and abandoned or not, this is enemy territory. Two of us should stay in the forest around the city, while the other three go back and meet with the Captain.”
There was a thump and a clatter from outside. Spitfire, Soarin’, and Wege all turned to see a squad of armored pegasi alight in the plaza and dash toward the cafeteria.
“I’m very sorry you feel that way, Spitfire. Perhaps my friends can convince you otherwise?”
Spitfire heard the sound of porcelain breaking against the stone floor. She whipped around.
Moonglow stood towering over Red’s crumpled form, her gravity blade extended. Straight through Red’s neck.
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My little ponies,
Welcome to the third act
I cannot believe the clifhanger you've made on this chapter!
It's a form of cruel and unusual punishment!
8962295
welcome to the third act
8949894
I love this. Thanks for sharing! This describes a lot of my feelings for this story really well. Gotta say though, I have the opposite feeling about good characters surviving. The story has such great potential to add weight behind Spits and Soarin as they've appeared in the show, and having any OC survivors that have to hang out with them 'behind the scenes' shakes up the effect.
Either way, I'm sure the author has his own plans and I can't wait!
Whaaaaaaaaaaa oh sweet biscuits I hope you update soon. THIS IS KILLING ME.
Also missed a period, 'cloud city can't house unicorns or earth ponies'. Figured would give a heads up!
8964137
I'm
Hoping to be quicker and more productive in June.
Stupid featherbrains.
No elegance and refinement like us... SEPHERIACORNS!! *flaps his 6 wings and blasts thing with 3 super-long and, like, totally awesome horns while laughing madly*
How did spitfire not see that coming.... too cheerful, abandoned place and all.
Then Red.
...but ...but ...
That can’t be right. I liked the secondary couple ...
You are cruel to leave us hanging here.
Dam good story though.
8966014
I will provide you with a chapter 13 just as quickly as I am able.
welp, moon is now on the shit list
Downvoting as requested, your dumb shit is bad. There, do I get a cookie?
Now, y'all got any more of them chapters?
8972580
thanks friendo!!!
8963337
Glad that we share the same sentiment about WSY! I too think that surviving OC's would detriment the credibility of this story but this big military family is just too damn memorable, everypony stands out as unique, believable characters. It's up to the author himself to decide how the story will go tho so we'll see about that.
For now I'm perfectly content with what we already have.
Dang it Spitfire, you should've seen that coming!
Would really hate to see Red go, as I enjoyed Red X Wedge quite a lot but it's up to you the author to decide how this story flows. For now I'll just pour myself a cup of tea and wait for the next chapter!
Also, have a long-overdue like.
8975195
Well... Suffice it to say that I don't necessarily think there's a linear relationship between character suffering and character growth. I definitely agree than an author shouldn't stay their hand when a traumatic event can serve the story, but at the same time it's also a mistake to just be gratuitous with it
8975293
Pssst... kill your darlings.
8975509
But muh darlings
Just found some time to read the new chapter.
Welp....
8981864
OK but besides that part how was it
8983071
Really good! The big reveal and transition to the new story arc was very well done and the plans and motives of the bad guys feel quite natural and believable. I knew things would get worse, but the rate at which it all went south took me by surprise. I somewhat expected them to get caught, but certainly not that somebody would get outright
killedmurdered(?).Bastion's point of view of the things going on in Glimmervale while the gang's away is quite interesting as well.
What I'm looking forward to the most is seeing how Red's death(?) will affect the group dynamic and especially how it will affect Spitfire, considering her earlier doubts about leadership and that she was supposed to keep them all safe.
One thing that I found a little strange was that Aurora:
a) basically left them behind on their own while running off alone without telling them anything about what she was doing or even what she knew/suspected of the enemies plans, and
b) that she would send them right into the heart of the enemy base, knowing there would be a fairly high chance of them being captured.
8984033
hmmmmmmmmmm
1) hmmmmmmmmmmm
I forgot how great this story was, and how much I love your characters. Also, oh @!$%^&#$##@!@#$@#%#$^%$^&$.
Really excited to see more of this! I am a huge Spitfire/Soarin fan, but had not read this one until now.
Oh, but that last line
No! Not Red! Not one of your well written characters I've grown so attached to! How could you?!
Eagerly awaiting the next chapter....!
I like it when the red water comes out...