Ghost of the Everfree

by David Silver

44 - What we Can Do

Apple Bloom wiped her forehead clear of sweat. "We ain't gettin' any farther." She turned the same hoof upwards. "Time to get up an' outta here."

Diamond nodded slowly. "We've done all we can. All we could even try to do is... help ponies that won't ever know it." A subtle way to avoid saying dead. She was busy not looking at any of those ponies. "Whoever did this, we need to punch them, in the face."

Silver offered a hoof down from above. "Come on! Let's get out before we get hurt, too. This, like, entire train could fall apart."

They could hear the soft groans of tortured metal. It could become a squeal of collapsing metal at any moment. That threat was more than enough to get them moving, hurriedly climbing up towards the exit.

There was only one conductor waiting for them by the exit. He hurriedly rushed towards them as they climbed up. "Oh, thank Celestia! I thought you might have gotten hurt. Please, this way."

Dry scampered around the conductor, but stopped to wait for the others. "Um, thank you. We're fine... Some ponies are very not..."

Apple Bloom was back to her usual self. "Did all we could. Let's get out of here afore we join the hurt ponies..." She looked to the conductor. "Are there any other hurt ponies?"

Silver nodded firmly, throwing her head towards Scootaloo and Diamond following her. "We can help get them out of here."

"You did fine." The conductor pointed for the ragged exit. "More than fine, but it's time for all of us to get off this train. No more arguing."

Dry cocked an ear. "Be right there." He left the others to scurry up from seat to seat.

The conductor waved a hoof at him. "We gotta go. Everypony else, this way." He began shepherding the other foals off the train.

Dry popped up into the next car above. He could hear scared noises. He knew scared noises. That a pony was making them meant they were still a pony. A pony that could be saved. "I'm here..." For what good that was... "I'm here to help."

The noises led him to a stallion, huddled under a bench. Their eyes were closed tight and they weren't moving aside of shivering. "Sir?" Dry climbed up to be on top of the same bench the stallion was curled in. "Sir, can you walk? We have to go, sir."

"Nnmmo."

"No?" Dry leaned closer to the quivering stallion. "No you can't walk?"

The stallion lashed at Dry, hoof flying through the air. "I can walk. I can walk real good!" But he wasn't. He hadn't even stood up, still curled miserably.

"Sir?" Dry peeked back down where the others were. "We have to go... You could get hurt. You don't--"

"Of course I can get hurt." He sniffed loudly. "I just was. I will be again... It's not safe... They said it was safe..."

"It's not safe."

Those words seemed to startle the stallion. "W-what? You're... supposed to say it's safe."

"It's not safe," repeated Dry, just as certain. "It's very dangerous... We have to go... It's dangerous."

The stallion sat up slowly. "It's not safe," he joined in repeating. "Why should I go? It's just as dangerous..."

"Less dangerous." Dry pointed downwards. "Less. Not safe, but less dangerous."

"Less..." The idea seemed so enticing. Less dangerous... That was good. He stood up on shaking legs. "Where is less dangerous?"

Dry pointed down. "Away from the train. We need to escape."

"Escape! Yes. Yes... Of course. Escape. Less dangerous." He scrambled up next to Dry. "That way? That looks... dangerous?" He was looking down the sharp fall, with only other benches to break the fall. "Very dangerous."

"I'm here. I will make it less dangerous." Carefully, Dry stepped down to the next seat. "This way. No jumping."

He followed, slowly. His fear-numbed limbs only let him go so fast, but he was following. A loud screaching groan of metal brought him to a complete stop. "Danger!"

"Danger," agreed Dry, shivering with him. "We have to escape. This way." He pointed down urgently.

Dry didn't get a chance to hear the response. The squeal of compromised metal filled his ears as the train gave way. With a severe yank, the bench under them surged to the side, leaving them floating in the air, but even that was for the barest instant. They were falling, hurtling towards jagged metal and dissolving train.

He grabbed for the stallion and curled around him, praying feverishly to Luminace, that she might shield them in that moment of utter terror. It would be so sad to never get a chance to speak to his new friend...

Pain ran in a dull thud. They had landed, and they didn't split in half, or get impaled. "Move!" They weren't safe, that much Dry knew. "Run!" He detached from the stallion that was doing much the same. They took off running away from the train, wobbly from the painful impact of their fall. The train listed over and fell several feet off its tracks, giving up even managing that much.

Apple Bloom crashed into him, practically forcing him to the ground and putting a bottle to his lips. "Drink!"

So he drank. It was only then that he could feel pain. With the spike of the moment fading, the pain came on him. That fall hadn't been harmless, or painless, just delayed. As he chugged down the potion Apple Bloom offered, it all came back, reminding him of how badly he'd taken that fall. His manic run had done his legs no favors.

But he was alive, and being nursed with the restorative brew. He would see another day... "Sorry," he got out, spitting the bottle aside. "Sorry."

Apple Bloom shook her head. "You ain't owe me anythin'. Just glad yer alright." She fetched a fresh bottle. "Still hurt? Drink up."

"You must be running low." He didn't reach for the bottle. "How many do you have left?" Apple Bloom looked guilty, no answer coming. "Give it to him." Dry pointed to the collapsed form of the stallion he'd fallen with. "I'll be alright."

Silver suddenly hugged Dry, the power of her faith running through him in a powerful healing wave. "My hero! Never do that again... But, like, that was... really good." She smooched the top of his head, able to snuggle more as Apple Bloom went to help the stallion.

"Are you alright?" Dry sat up to look over his girlfriend/maybe fiance. "You look... alright."

"I'm, like, fine." She waved that off. "I wasn't the one climbing up a breaking train to rescue somepony. I thought you were a big scaredycat. Why'd you do that!?" She stomped a hoof down. "I thought you'd get hurt... or worse."

"I prayed... That was not a smart idea... I was dumb... But I lived." Dry sunk with self-defeat. "But it was dumb. I lived because I was lucky. That is not a good way to survive."

"Right?!" Silver swatted at him. "But you didn't say why."

"Why?" He considered back to that moment. "I could hear the sounds of fear... I know that sound... I... couldn't... I didn't want to abandon them."

"Aw." She hugged him firmly and close. "Today has been exhausting... and we're captured."

"Captured?"

As if prompted by his question, a loud bark of an order rippled over the dizzy crowd, "Everyone on your feet. If you can't stand, remain where you are for medical attention. You are now prisoners."

Silver inclined her head at the shout. "Our big rescue ended before we even got there... Oops?"

Dry fretted his hooves together. "What? But..." He glanced over the crowd. "We could run. We could hide."

Silver touched her nose to Dry's cheek. "That wouldn't help them, and could get them hurt, or worse. Let's hide in the crowd?" She let him go and stood up, marching to join those who were obeying.

"Hide." That was a concept he knew. Hiding in a crowd? Sure... He marched in the same direction, but not right next to Silver Spoon, lest they give away their connection. The others didn't pop up immediately. "Good." They were hiding in the crowd too, or so he hoped at least.

A pony approached on a great beast. A horse. Full sized compared to the ponies, it was like Celestia, but a lot less arcane, or comforting. "Is this everyone?" the pony demanded with a frown on his face.

"All but the wounded," assured a lanky pony. Dry's eyes widened. A ghost pony! Their deer-like proportions were a giveaway. "The wounded are being gathered, Sir."

"See that it's done quickly." He wheeled his horse on the crowd. "You will all follow me. We're going into town, as you planned." He smiled a cruel smile. "Just as you wanted."

Nervous whispers rose all around Dry.

"Where are they taking us?"

"Are we prisoners?"

"I want to go home."

"This is my home..."

Dry had forgotten that option, that some ponies might actually already live in the besieged town, trying desperately to get home. That was not the way they'd wanted it, Dry felt sure. He kept his mouth shut and walked.

He sidestepped, avoiding the heavy steps of that horse. The pony atop it glared down at Dry. "You."

"Me, sir?" He pointed to himself.

"Yes, you." The pony leaned in from his horse, quite a bit higher. "Native born, hm?"

Dry started. Right! He had become an Equestrian pony. There was little hint of his Everglow roots, unlike the Everglow invaders... "Not from this town, sir."

"Hm." He looked at Dry skeptically from above. "Deviants, letting such little foals wander on their own." He scowled at others near Dry. "Are any of you their caretaker?" They shook their heads quickly. "Figures... Stay in line." He urged his horse forward, away from Dry.

Dry let out an uneasy breath.

"We know." A mare walking beside him had spoken without turning her head. "You and the others worked so hard for us... We won't turn you over to them."

"Yeah," agreed a stallion on the other side. "We lost enough today..." Soft murmurs rose with it. The ponies seemed sure in not giving up Dry's actual purpose of being there, not that Dry had told them. Still, it meant he had found a good herd to hide among. He was just another foal, and the ponies around him were willing to play the part of his parent.

He could only hope the others had similar look.

The town they had set out to came into view, below them as they hiked. "You'll be given food and a place to rest, when we arrive and not a second sooner," came the shout. "Move!"

They walked at the rate their captors set, a brisk march down into the captured town. Maybe he could help? It felt unlikely, but Dry kept the shard of hope alive in his chest. Luminace didn't save him just for him to do nothing there...

He couldn't prove his patron had done anything to spare his life, but he was alive, and he would... He would try his best.

And he would survive. Those were the two things he felt confident promising himself he'd try to get done. It hit him.

As an Equestrian pony, he looked more like the foal the Everglow ponies treated him like.

Maybe that could come in handy.

Author's Note:

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

Oh dear, some Everglow House idiots have decided to Portal around and thought, this place looks rich and unprotected. Take it?

No visible telegraph lines but those would be known about if these guys are having no trouble with the train or brutalisation, so unless theres any escapees or signalling it will be at least until the return train doesnt arrive that anything wrong is known unless they announce it themselves?

How is Everglow control over magically manipulated stellar bodies, unique or just extremely rare, and which Houses can afford them?

[David Silver]

11481055
It's free real-estate.

[badninja]

I wonder how these Everglow ponies will react when they attract the attention of Discord, Celestia, and Luna? They are analogous to three of their major deities after all.

[redmar]

some points might actually already live in the besieged town

I think that should be ponies not points.
Also this is an interesting development but I think that those Everglow invaders will find this was not a good idea. Given that ponies have died already they may not have the option of returning to Everglow if there is a confrontation.

[David Silver]

11481176
Fixed!