Her Eyes Reflect The Stars

by Lynwood

Blood

I returned up the pass and through the town gate as fast as I could, praying to whatever princesses remained that the Rarity would survive the Wastes, but when I reached my house, I pushed the thought from my mind. We'd done all we could for the Element. It was up to her now. I left the Rarity's shawl there, tugged my chest plate over my barding, and slapped my helmet on.

Sure Shoe met me on my way back outside. "Spearhead!" he said, his normally cheery red face a pale pink. "Flitterwing just finished her scouting flight. She saw them coming up the other side of the ridge. There's a lot"

I realized our night was going to be every bit as bad as we had feared. "Have we got everypony up there? Are the fire-flasks ready?" I asked him.

"Almost." Shoe swiveled his head around, looking down the street. "The stragglers are heading up now, and we're as stocked as possible."

"Good," I said. The sun had passed the tips of the peaks around us, and the shadows had already begun to bathe the valley. "Let's hope Luna's looking out for us tonight."

As we hurried to the wall I studied my near-emptied town with worried eyes. We'd done all we could. Windows were boarded, lights were put out. The foals and the elders were all together in Willow's home, protected by her and Furrow. Every able-bodied pony left was armed and bound for the ridge palisade.

They were just beginning to arrive when I climbed up onto the wall-walk. We could scarcely hear one another over the gurgling moans that filled the air.

"Steady!" I shouted over the Childrens' unholy roar. "Not one gets over this wall, you hear me?!"

I never got an answer. The surge of Children slammed into the wall hard enough to make it creak. Ponies scrambled to light the braziers as we hacked at too-long legs and tongues with our blades and our unicorns blasted down the Children that could still fly. We shoved and sliced and chopped, but we could only do so much. I nearly broke down when I saw Sure Shoe get snatched out of the sky and pulled down into the fray of teeth and gnashing crystal, but I had no choice but to keep going.

I feared for the palisade beneath my hooves dearly. It kept groaning and shuddering under the weight of so many Children. Again and again, we had to shore up the worst sections, first with the spare logs, then the disassembled log sleds, and then the shafts of broken spears and pikes. Gray blood mixed with red as it flowed down the logs and stained the slush below, but we kept going.

The night was a blur. I remember smeared bits and pieces, watching ponies get bitten and pulled off the wall, having to put down a lengthening Hammerhoof. Our ranks had been thinned, but we had killed so many Children that I'd begun to hope.

But then, as we shouted with ragged throats and pitched the last of our fire-flasks into the throng of Children, we heard a horrific screech that frenzied the Children. We felt the ground shake and the wall groan, and then we saw it, stomping through the Ashen Children and brandishing its bladed claws on long, insect-like segmented arms.

The machine was enormous.