Railroaded
The sun rose on a new day in Felaccia. Lord Aquila Gildwing was crowned before the noon hour. The audience was his entire retinue of soldiers, as well as the lords who had sided with him. Word had already been sent to his family that they were moving into Castle Roc, and the Felaccian Solders under Andean were being sworn to Gildwing or executed.
A holiday was declared, but there was not much celebration going on, not with Gildwing’s squadrons patrolling the air and warships being loaded in the harbor. The new king squawked as he directed his army to prepare for the arrival of a second army: That of the Sandidry Desert’s legions.
Lord Tigris growled as he tried to keep up with the younger lord. “We don’t need Alazṓn’s equines!” He forced the word painfully through his owlish beak. “The Felaccian forces are plenty to conquer Equestria, especially with the death of Celestia. Then our vengeance will be fulfilled. We have no need of fairies and Arabian Stallions!”
“None of this would have been possible without the support of the Sirens.” Aquila kept peering east, from where Alazṓn Half-Djinn’s army would march. The lake separating the castle from the mainland would soon be all that separated their armies. He touched his thumb to the pommel stone of his Wyrmslayer to sense the comforting heat. “For the time being, we cooperate, until we attain a favorable position.” He sneered at the small, elderly griffon lord. “If you regret your decision to back me, then I’m sure Andean would be in a forgiving mood.”
“I doubt that much.” Bubo Tigris hung back when a shadowy smokey outline made itself visible before Aquila. He stared past the magical being, as though refusing to acknowledge its existence. He thumbed the blue ring on his right hand, twisting it around and flinching at a staticky shock.
Aquila held his head high as he addressed the formless shape. “Shadowfright, I presume.”
“You presume correctly.”
“It seems you failed in your primary duty, Fae Creature.” Aquila Gildwing sniffed in a manner that he attempted to make both dismissive and imperious. “Luna lived, and escaped our grasp. I doubt Jeuk will take kindly to yet another failure on your docket.”
“My mission is yet incomplete.” Shadowfright’s birdlike face appeared in the shadows of the hall. “As is yours, unless you wish to say you, too, have allowed Andean to live.”
“Don’t be foolish,” Aquila snapped, his voice rising just a touch. “It was a mere temporary setback. The old bird has no power in Felaccia, not anymore. Not while I wear the crown.”
“Yes, yes; you’re quite wise and powerful. Most impressive.” Shadowfright’s narrow, glowing eye glinted as it peered past whatever facades Aquila attempted to raise, scrying his very thoughts. “Now be a good little king and let me into the heart of the castle. If I am to slay Luna once and for all, there is something I require.”
“And that would be?”
“Magic, little king.” Shadowfright’s cruel beak curved into a crueler smile. “Oodles of it.”
King Gildwing gripped the hilt of his Wyrmslayer as he and Lord Tigris led the fairy down the long staircase to the heart of the castle. Past the graves of departed griffon kings, wise and wicked, down through the tunnels once excavated by changeling magic, into the wide chamber that held the control room for the Sunspear. The gemstones that made up the core of the mountain—the same mountain from which the castle was carved—glowed in a brilliant array of colors. Aquila Gildwing held back from the chamber, sealed with hexagonal plates of changeling-crafted resin. Even a moment exposed to that much pure magic could kill someone, overload their fairy strings until their very body erupted and tore itself apart. Only a changeling or someone very weak with magic could last long enough to operate it as it was constructed.
That, or someone without a body.
“Let me in,” Shadowfright rumbled.
Aquila cleared his throat. “You heard the fairy, Lord Tigris. Let him into the chamber.”
Bubo shot the king a look that could have rusted stainless wootz. He wobbled past the Fae Creature and approached the chamber in his own plodding, unsteady way. He slapped his gnarled cane against a resin window; perhaps to test its integrity, perhaps to voice his opinions in a non-verbal way.
Aquila turned away to survey the walls. More to distract himself from the fairy than for any sort of worthwhile exploration of history. The relief of River Cicada glared down at him imperiously, as though she considered him a usurper to a crown that rightfully belonged to him. “This is my kingdom, you old witch.”
“Heard of projection, little king?”
Aquila snarled at Shadowfright. “What?”
“Don’t worry about it.” Shadowfright slithered his way across the room to the control chamber. He slipped through the door before Bubo had fully opened it. He hovered in a small safety room that prevented excess magic from leaking out of the heart of the mountain until Bubo pulled a lever that closed the outer doors and unlocked the inner ones. The fairy lost his already indistinct shape, taking on the semblance of smoke as he trickled into the pit dug into the middle of the chamber, vanishing from sight in the depths of the crystalline magical cacophony.
Bubo Tigris shuddered as he returned to his chosen king’s side. He glared at the chamber as one might regard a barrel of worm-riddled apples. “The one good thing I can imagine is that he and the alicorn might destroy each other.”
“Your prejudice betrays you,” Aquila muttered. “An immortal cannot be destroyed, and Luna is merely long-lived.”
No sign of life appeared in the midst of the whorling magic.
He swore beneath his breath. His blood-red cape billowed out behind him as he turned for the stairs. “Come! Alazṓn approaches.”
He was almost right. By the time he returned to the castles tallest parapet, the eastern shore of Lake Roc was peppered by legions of Arabian Stallions, kitted out in green, scale-like armor, wielding an array polearms with long, curved blades.
Each stallion was at least as tall as the average adult griffon. Though none of them had wings or horns, the greatest among their warriors was swifter than a pegasus, stronger than an earth pony, and had a closer connection to the stars than any unicorn. They thrived among the harsh conditions of the desert, loved the unforgiving depths of the ocean, and bowed to none but the lord who had conquered them.
Alazṓn Half-Djinn was a head taller than any stallion around him. So grand was his headdress and armor that Aquila could see him clearly from across the lake. His scaled armor was molded in the shape of feathered fins, like those of a flying fish. His helm was studded with enchanted jewels, incalculable protection spells laced among the gold leaf. He raised a hoof in salute.
Aquila raised his own talon in a fist.
“King Gildwing!” Alazṓn’s musical voice echoed across the lake, amplified by a spell. He spoke in perfect Griffish. “We seek safe passage through your land to Equestria, that we may partake in the spoils of war! What say you?”
Aquila Gildwing looked down at the lake, which was blockaded by griffon warships. Each warrior was outfitted with the latest model of volleygun. Each warship had their weapons trained on the sweeping, spiral-prow longships the New Babologna army had arrived in. The griffon king smiled at the Horselord. “Of course! We shall grant you both safe passage and brotherhood in the coming battles.”
Deep within the heart of the castle, Shadowfright waited. He needed only abide until the moment Lord Jeuk gave the signal, then his assault would begin.
He flexed his newborn claw and found it to be sharp enough to gouge solid steel.
There were only the six of them on the train. No tickets had been sold, no conductors had been allowed onboard, and the drivers and firepony’s jobs had both been replaced almost entirely by Spike himself. He’d been on enough cockamamie adventures with Twilight to know a thing to two about trains, so he could keep the engine running well enough. He was also the most suited among them to work with the coal cart, so long as he didn’t breath fire on it. The meager heat from the steam engine was plenty to deep-fry any pony who had an accident, but it merely left him nice and toasty.
That said, he wasn’t exactly eternal. He had to sleep sometime. So it was that he slumped off to bed, leaving Scootaloo and Button their turn at tending the boiler after a quick tutorial. Scootaloo hung out the window of the Friendship Express, watching the path ahead and occasionally glancing behind at the two mountains that dominated the northeastern sky. She leaned against the wood paneling and stared down at the tracks as they shot by in a blur.
Her anxiety wouldn’t go away. It wouldn’t even settle enough to reduce her fidgeting. Her parents headed south in a caravan, Applejack and her crew standing against the Sirens, the thought of meeting her biological father again… It was a whorl of emotions, a tempest within her brain, and she didn’t want to think about any of it. She glanced over her shoulder at the soot-covered Button Mash, who was shoveling coal into the oven. “Why the heck did we let Rumble join us? He could barely walk to the station.”
Button wiped his forehead and smudged the soot all the deeper into his coat. “Scootaloo, I kid you not, he told me to my face that if we left him behind, he would follow us. I figured that him maybe dying with us was better than him dying for sure all on his own.”
Scootaloo rested her chin on the windowsill. “I coulda made him see reason.”
“I doubt it.” Button sat back and took a breath. He watched the needle on the pressure sensor wiggle, nibbling his lower lip as it rose up, then resumed its intended level. “He’s more stubborn than some Apples.”
“So am I.” Scootaloo turned around; the cold air rushing past and the hot air inside the steam engine had left her uncomfortable no matter what position she sat in. She spread her wings to cool the undersides, flaring the feathers and wincing when ash snuck its way between them.
She looked Button over as he nervously glanced over the various dials attached to the train’s controls, predominantly the speedometer. She hadn’t hung out with him much when they were kids; she wasn’t much interested in video games. Not her medium. She’d had more fun hanging out with his more outdoorsy, cavalier older brother. That had certainly ended in disaster.
She didn’t blame him for Lickety Split’s actions. She just saw Split’s face every time she looked at Button’s. She forced her blood pressure down. Kept it from boiling over. It wouldn’t help anybody to get mad at Button for something he had nothing to do with. In fact, she explicitly wasn’t mad at Button. Just at someone with a very close family resemblance.
Usually she didn’t have any trouble separating the two of them, but ever since Lickety returned…
“If you need a break, Apple Bloom said she’d take over at any time.” Button lowered his right ear, peering at her out of the corner of his eye. “I know you’ve been sitting there since we left Ponyville…”
“I’m in here because I don’t want to be back there. Right now. Currently.” Scootaloo gave her wings a flap of finality, which only served to stir up coal dust Button had spilled on the floor. She and Button hacked up a lung before she could muster a mumbled apology.
Button walked to the opposite window to get a breath of cool, fresh air. When he returned, it was with a morose frown. “I’m just saying… you’ve been under a lot of stress lately. Maybe talking it over with Sweetie will help.” He gave her a shrug and raised an eyebrow. “Maybe talking it over with Rumble will help.”
She cracked a grin and let out a strangled laugh. “Next you’ll say talking it over with your brother might help.”
He let out a rush of air that might have been a laugh if it hadn’t hurt coming out. He fumbled for an expression before settling for a small, partially-sincere grin. “I’m not that crazy.” The grin faltered a bit. “So you are thinking about Split.”
She shook her head with a groan. She peered back out the window, less to check for obstacles than to avoid one. Spike had said the rails would run pretty straight until they got over Ghastly Gorge, at which point they should wake him up. No need to worry about adjusting the train’s speed for curves or elevation. Still, the wind blowing past had the side effect of cooling her head.
When she came back inside, she figured she was chill enough to answer without regretting it. “How can I not? He just drops back in after seven years… I hate him, Button. I hate him so much.”
Button blinked rapidly before turning his face away from her. “Yeah, I know.”
“And I don’t know what to do about it.” Scootaloo wrapped herself up in purple-feathered wings and tucked herself into the corner of the room. “I know I’ve been acting irritable ever since he came back, but I… I can’t help it. I feel like I’m hurting you guys. I know you don’t deserve my… my bad attitude. I’m sorry.”
“Scootaloo…” Button shrugged. He opened up the oven and scooped a shovelful of coal into it. “I don’t think a single one of us blames you for being upset. With everything that’s happened lately, we’re all hurt and confused. It’s just that your issues hit closer to home, I guess. I wish…” He leaned his chin on the shovel’s handle and stared at the dancing flames.
Scootaloo lowered her ears, pointing the nearest towards him. “Wish what?”
“Wish I could take it back, I guess.” Button Mash glanced out the far window, to see the sky darken as sunset approached. “Wish I could undo what he did. Wish I could, I dunno, take all the bad deeds he did and put them onto me.”
“That’s crazy, Button.” Scootaloo took a swig from a canteen and grimaced when she found it lukewarm. “Then I’d just hate you instead of him.”
“Exactly.”
She tightened the canteen’s cap well past a watertight seal. “No, see, ’cuz it wouldn’t help anybody. You’d just be the problem instead of him.”
“But then he wouldn’t be a problem.” Button sealed the oven and shivered as the boiler hissed. “Then he might have a chance at a normal life.”
“Then what about you? Cuss it…” Scootaloo hissed out a breath. “I guess only a sibling would go out of his way for someone like that. There is no way you being hated would be better than him. We tend to like having you around, Button. All of us. Sweetie especially. Rumble especially.”
“I know it’s worthless to wish it.” Button glanced her way, then let his gaze fall to the floorboards. “I know.”
Scootaloo narrowed her eyes and pointed at him with a wing. “He hurt you, too. He doesn’t deserve your forgiveness if it’s just going to lead you to self-loathing.”
He let out a sharp, short laugh. “People who deserve forgiveness don’t need it. They’re already innocent.”
“Then don’t worry about it.” She hugged herself tight with both wings, facing the rear of the cab. “I’ll chill out after a while. Just like I did last time.”
“Just like last time.” Button Mash lowered his head. “Yeah. I just wish… I could do more.”
“It’s not your job to do anything. Don’t put that on yourself.” Scootaloo tapped the canteen against the wall, and could almost hear it over the chuff of the engine. “You have your own problems to worry about without also worrying about mine. Or his.” The sound of the wheels against the train tracks changed pitch. New terrain. They were approaching Ghastly Gorge. “Time to get Spike. Sit tight, I’ll be right back.”
Button watched her go with a frown. “I’ll be right here.”
The Friendship Express was a small train, usually only used to ferry passengers from Ponyville to Canterlot. It had been built for old Ponyville, from before Ponyville became a full-fledged city-state with a population to match. It had only three passenger cars in addition to its engine, tender, and caboose. It didn’t even have a kitchen car. This made food preparation… haphazard at best.
Sweetie Belle balanced a tray precariously on the bench as she put together a simple supper of sandwiches and water. Spike slept in the next car back so that his snoring didn’t disturb the others. That left Applebloom and Rumble to accompany Sweetie, the former staring out a window and the other attempting to get comfortable despite his bandages.
She passed a plate with a dandelion sandwich to Rumble, who accepted it with a nod. “Thanks, Sweetie.” He winced when he grabbed it with the wrong foreleg. When Sweetie lowered her eyebrows, he waved her off with a shaking hoof. “Don’t worry about it.”
“You’re crazy.” Sweetie Belle touched her frameless glasses before turning away with a huff. “We’re all crazy.”
“What else can we do?” Rumble bit into his sandwich and leaned back against the window. He gave her a devil-may-care smile that never reached his eyes. “If somebody wants to carry me, I’m open to the idea.”
“I might end up carrying all of you.” Apple Bloom was the next to receive her supper. She looked at it with a blank expression, sizing it up but coming to no conclusion about it. That same malaise accompanied each bite that followed. She picked a pencil from behind her ear, scratched a note in her notepad, then scribbled out that very same note. “Did you take your Ambrosia for today?”
“Yes,” came the answer from both Rumble and Sweetie.
“Good.” Apple Bloom sighed, and for a moment Sweetie thought she saw a tear in her eye. The tall earth pony slapped the notepad shut and kicked it across the cushion, letting the pencil clatter down beside it.
“What are you working on?” Sweetie said, taking a seat opposite Apple Bloom.
“Nothin’ that matters.” Apple Bloom shook her head. “If we’d had time to go back to my lab I might be able to make somethin’, but… Nothin’ worthwhile. Nothin’ I’ll ever use.”
Sweetie sucked on her lips, hesitant to speak what she’d already figured out. She figured if Apple Bloom really didn’t want to talk about it, she’d say so, so… “Is it about you and Spike? The potion?”
Apple Bloom’s frown said that was exactly the case. “It doesn’t. Matter.”
“Sorry.” Sweetie rubbed the back of her head, trying to smooth down a mane that hadn’t been treated since the party. Come to think of it, neither she nor Apple Bloom had even slept since before the party. “Maybe you should get some rest instead of wracking your brain over something you can’t… work on.”
“Tried to sleep. Can’t. Maybe if I’d gotten to visit my lab I’d have been able to work on somethin’ real, but all I can do is think.” Apple Bloom rubbed her forehead, partially to hide the fact that she was also wiping her eyes. “If I ain’t thinkin’ about formulas, I’m thinkin’ about how we’re supposed to ‘Forge Loyalty among the dragons.’ If I ain’t thinkin’ about that, I’m thinkin’ about…” She waved her hooves in the air. “Everythin’ else.”
Sweetie slipped her glasses off and stared at the smudged lenses. “I still can’t believe… Celestia…”
Rumble shifted into a seated position. He raised his voice a little to carry across the aisle. “I almost feel like we shoulda stayed with Applejack. Maybe fought to free everybody the Sirens captured. But… But what could we do? Somebody has to gather the Elements. At least we’re doing something.”
All three of them found their eyes drifting towards the bag that held the Element of Kindness. It rested on a bench near the rear door, sealed with a heavy metal clasp. Even so many meters away, they could still feel its presence, radiating like a miniature sun.
Sweetie wanted to hold it. The thought of it frightened her like nothing else. She wanted to reach out and cuddle it close to her chest, maybe even replace her enchanted necklace with the Element. She had no idea why the thought came unbidden to her mind. She had no idea why she was dwelling on it, even considering it. She had already made up in her mind to volunteer to carry the bag, even though Spike was the primary carrier. He made the most sense; his strength and durability was unquestionably the greatest among them. But she couldn’t shake the feeling. It made her twitchy just being near it.
Were all the Elements so alluring? Would her desire to hold them grow with every Element they collected? Could the Elements of Harmony, long since considered powerful artifacts of good, have a dark, seductive side? She knew that any one Element used by itself could become something ugly…
Sweetie was vaguely aware of Rumble talking, on the edge of her perception. “Maybe we’ll find some sort of alchemical lab you can get ingredients from. I know one of the Elements is supposed to be in the Zebra Lowlands—”
“Maybe I should go to the engine!” Sweetie knew the outburst had come from nowhere. She didn’t even know if the other two were feeling the same way about Kindness. She stood up and turned away from the surprised expression Apple Bloom gave her. “I’m probably not strong enough to shovel coal, but I could be the lookout…”
“I’m sure it has nothing to do with being around Button.” Rumble’s eyebrows danced, but his grin faded when he saw her furrowed brow. “You good?”
Sweetie cleared her throat and rubbed the surface of her green gemstone necklace. “Yeah, that sounds right. We haven’t really had any time since the attack… It’s been hard on all of us, and—”
“Everybody hit the deck!”
The scream came from behind Sweetie, preceded by the front door slamming open. The voice was Scootaloo’s, shaky and strained as if she’d just flown with all her strength. Sweetie was smart enough to know that if Scootaloo sounded like that, she was deadly serious. She dropped to her belly and covered her head.
The windows exploded inward. Sweetie was showered with glass. Some of it bounced off her coat, some of it left small cuts behind. The car shook as something heavy landed on the roof. Sweetie crawled forward, scuffing and stabbing herself with more shattered glass, until she could grab the bag from its bench. She tied the strap tight against her torso, then finally lifted her head enough to look.
A small, thin airship kept pace with the train. She could see a purple unicorn manning the ship’s wheel, her eyes glowing like some sort of storybook monster. Sweetie ducked away just before the mare released another wave of magic at the train, causing the near wall to buckle. The wheels nearly left the tracks.
“Dr. Midnight! Hold your fire!” The large earth pony stallion who had attacked them before, Caution Tape, swung into the car. His coat radiated with a magic shield powered by light riot armor.
Rumble lay near him, his muscular body jammed between two benches. He struggled to free himself, but his injuries were making it hard to move his limbs. He certainly couldn’t move his wings, not without risking tearing the stitches in his chest. His eyes widened as Caution raised a hoof, aiming for his head.
Scootaloo wasn’t in much better shape. She was being held foreleg and hind by Rhombus, who had swooped in the moment the windows were gone. She was screaming and swearing unintelligibly, while her attacker seemed deaf to her hatred. He relished every jab and shake, grinning as he held her tight.
Apple Bloom had been hit the worst. She had been right next to a window when the first blast had hit. She found herself nursing a bleeding head while Lacer the Displacer wrapped her in his two toothed tentacles. Sweetie could barely see him, as his body blended in with the shadows as if they were one.
The rear door of the car ripped off of its hinges. A very angry dragon hefted the door and hurled it like a javelin. It sailed over Sweetie’s head and struck Caution in his blind eye, knocking him off his feet before he could hurt Rumble. Spike shot forward on all fours, impervious to the scattered glass and intent to take Caution out of the fight immediately.
Lacer gritted his teeth and tightened his tentacles around Apple Bloom’s throat. She gasped for air, unable to reach him with her hooves. He extended the claws on his right paw. “I was gonna take you in alive, kid, ’cuz of the solid you did me on the airship. But I guess that ain’t happening.”
“No!” Sweetie Belle screamed. She grasped a shard of glass and plunged it into what she hoped was his shoulder. He cursed and flinched back, enough so that Apple Bloom was able to move her hind legs. She kicked him in the chest and sent him flying head-over-tail into the next car.
“Nobody move! Or I’ll cut her throat open!” Rhombus had a wing wrapped around Scootaloo, with a wingblade held at the ready among his feathers. He pressed the blade against her skin, and she stopped squirming.
Spike also stopped charging. He held his breath, only moving when the car rocked back and forth on unstable wheels. “What do you want?”
Caution got to his hooves. He rubbed his bruised and battered face and backed away from the smoking breath of the young dragon. “Honestly, Spike, we don’t want bloodshed. Not with what we know about Scootaloo.”
Spike’s claws flexed. “I’ll believe that when you stop chasing us. Or maybe when you stop pressing a knife against her throat.”
Rumble held perfectly still. He was still stuck between benches, but he also stilled his breathing to the point where it looked like he might pass out. His eyes flicked between Spike and Scootaloo, panic writ large across his face.
Sweetie clutched the bag tight. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Lacer once again tie Apple Bloom up with his tentacles. His claws were extended and at the ready.
It didn’t make sense. There was no way Rhombus and Caution would be willing to kill Scootaloo. It had to be a trick. A trap. A diversion from— “Spike, duck!”
Spike lowered his head just before the dark magic from Dr. Midnight sailed through the broken windows. It would have blown his brains out of the side of his head if it had hit. The air crackled with the aftereffects of Sombra’s crystalline spell, swirling with fear and anger.
The train lurched forward. Sweetie felt the g-forces press her against the crumpled bench as the train took a turn too sharp. Her stomach swirled as she imagined the wheels lifting from one side of the tracks. Button was still at the driver’s seat, with no idea how to handle the train. The hum of the train over the tracks changed pitch as they reached a bridge, one that spanned the depths of Ghastly Gorge. One wrong move could send them leaping from the rails, and a wrong move here would leave them careening into the aether.
When the wheels came back down, Scootaloo used the momentum to throw Rhombus off of her back. His head hit a bench with a satisfying thud, and his wingblades scattered amongst the broken glass. He grappled with her half-blind, snagging her neck with his foreleg and puling her down with him.
Caution launched a kick at Spike’s head and connected. The dragon jolted, but his armored scales absorbed the impact smoothly. Spike grabbed Caution’s forelegs and held tight, and the massive earth pony jolted him left and right. Sweetie saw his forearms flex, but not his claws. Most of Spike’s struggle seemed to be with preventing himself from crushing Caution’s hooves to a pulp.
Apple Bloom rolled, scraping both her and Lacer’s skin with razor-sharp shards. He reached for her vulnerable underside with his claws, but she was too big around for him to reach. Something painful crunched in his hind leg, and he switched to biting at her neck. Sweetie batted at his face with her sandwich plate. She struck so hard the wooden plate snapped in half against his skull.
Scootaloo leaned her hooves against Rhombus’ throat, pressing her entire weight against him. The train left the bridge and hit another curve in the rails. She found herself lifted into the air by both momentum and Rhombus’ superior strength. A bolt of magic from Dr. Midnight shot past Spike’s head and nearly struck Scootaloo through the heart. Rhombus was able to jerk her out of the way just in time.
“Enough with the magic, you old hag!” he screeched at Dr. Midnight. There was no way she could have heard him over the rushing wind. He yelped in surprise when Scootaloo bit his fetlock.
Rumble stood up, having extracted himself from his prison. He held a hoof tight to his chest. Sweetie saw blood leaking into the bandages. He extended his right wing, scooped up one of Rhombus’ scattered wingblades, and shot it out the window. The airship jolted in its flight path as the doctor avoided the blade. He cursed under his breath and scooped up a second knife. “Come on… Hit something, idiot.”
He picked it up wrong. The blade bit into his wing muscles. He cursed louder, fervently enough to make Sweetie blush. He ducked out of the way as Dr. Midnight retaliated with a blast of fear and crystal.
Spike found himself pressed against the open windows on the left side, away from the airship. He leaned out over blurringly fast rocks, such that even a dragon would be battered to a pulp, even if his scales didn’t break open. He could have won the game of wrestling, Sweetie knew. Could have won it easily. Simply crush Caution’s legs and fling him out into the rocks. But he wouldn’t, she knew. He probably couldn’t even fathom it. But she didn’t know how else to get out of this. She didn’t know how else to escape these hunters besides killing them.
If they didn’t kill the hunters, the hunters would most certainly kill the seekers.
Unless…
She pulled her necklace off and sung as loud as she could. It wasn’t enough. The wind from the open windows and the rattle of the train, combined with the sounds of scuffles, meant that her mind-controlling music was completely neutered. Stupid! She grasped Lacer’s ear with a jolt and shouted directly into his brain. “Let her go, you moron!”
To her surprise, he did exactly that, his eyes unfocused and his limbs limp. Her jaw dropped and she turned to the other two assailants in the car. Maybe… just maybe. She tugged on Apple Bloom to help her to her feet and together they raced towards Spike and Caution. Apple Bloom’s shoulder threw Caution off of Spike, and Sweetie’s screamed command left the stallion dazed and confused. They all ducked from another blast from the airship, and Rumble launched the bloodied wingblade the doctor’s way. He missed, but he bought them another moment’s respite. Spike and Apple Bloom together lifted Rhombus bodily and chucked him down the length of the car, letting Scootaloo at last breath free.
“Come on!” Spike tugged Apple Bloom’s foreleg towards the door. “We’ll detach the car! Hurry!”
They climbed onto the tender, gripping the guardrail as if their lives depended on it. Spike and Apple Bloom both lent their forelegs for Rumble to lean on when he climbed over. Sweetie’s hoof slipped as she went over the gap. Scootaloo caught her; when she turned to thank her, she caught sight of the airship adjusting its position. Dr. Midnight was preparing to launch another spell, this time when they were exposed to the elements. There was no wall to hide behind.
And there, to the rear, she could see Lacer the Displacer recovering. He shook his head and tucked his wounded leg against his torso. He still had five working limbs, plenty to propel him forward at blinding speed. He locked eyes with her and scrambled forward, over the fallen Rhombus and Caution.
Spike snapped the chains and started to unhook the coupling, before outright tearing the metal apart. He cupped his mouth in his claws and shouted to the engine. “Button! Open her up all the way! Open the throttle all the way!”
Sweetie kept her eyes on the oncoming Displacer Beast. He had tripped on a wingblade but was once again bearing down on them. Her ears burned as she felt the pressure of the airship dropping alongside them, the cold eyes of the doctor boring a hole in her head.
Behind her, Button Mash grasped the large, red lever and pulled it until it stopped moving. Fire roared and water boiled; the chimney belched white clouds and the wheels spun wildly. They doubled, then tripled their speed. Scootaloo’s open wings almost pulled her from the tender, but Spike snatched her out of the air and held her close. They pulled away from the detached cars, and the airship was completely unable to match their pace.
As if out of spite, the doctor fired the largest blast of Sombra’s magic yet. It struck the tender in the rear, hot with anger. The railing Sweetie was leaning on fell away into the passing rocks. Only the swift hooves of Rumble stopped her from joining them. She hung over the tracks, unable to pull herself up, and with Rumble too weak to do so himself. The bag slipped down her shoulder. She shifted to keep a hold of it, and nearly pulled Rumble off the train with her. They hung suspended, as Spike and Apple Bloom struggled to squeeze along the narrow walkway and help them.
Lacer stood in the door frame of the detached car, growling with teeth bared. He looked down at the speeding rails, then at the fleeing tender. He backed far enough away to give himself a running start, then leaped, four claws ready to sink themselves into Sweetie’s skin. She met him eye for eye, the wind whipping at her and causing tears to flow. His grin widened as his arc carried him over the gap, to end with her and Rumble’s deaths.
A chunk of coal flew through the air and smacked him across the eyes. When he could open them again, he was staring not at Sweetie Belle, but at the wood and steel of an unyielding railroad. As Sweetie watched him fall, she saw a blank expression overtake his muzzle, tinged to the core with deeply bitter regret.
If the impact didn’t kill him, getting run over by three passenger cars and a caboose did.
Spike reached them at last, hefting Rumble onto his shoulders and allowing Sweetie to once again set her feet on firm-ish ground. They watched together as the detached train and the airship grew smaller and smaller, before finally vanishing out of sight roughly an hour later.
“This train gets up to a hundred-sixty kilometers per hour,” Spike said with a weak hiss in his voice. “There’s no way that little sloop catches up.”
“There’s no way we keep this speed up.” Button waved him into the engine and pointed at the interior of the tender. “We’re almost out of water.”
“We’ll go until the train runs out of fuel. Then we go on foot.” Spike looked at the others, leaning heavily on the wall of the cab. “Then we rest for the night.”
A chorus of nods answered him. They crowded the small cabin, squirming to the sides whenever Spike needed to feed the fire.
Sweetie kept the bag close. She kept Kindness close. She hadn’t been able to look away when Lacer met the end of the road. She hadn’t been able to unsee the sorrow on his face. The realization that he’d made the wrong choices. The fear of what he was about to experience. She wanted to throw up, or weep, or just scream. But she held it in. For the sake of everybody else’s wellbeing, she held back.
She wasn’t the only one who looked haunted. Button huddled against the far wall, rubbing arms that wouldn’t stop twitching after his ordeal driving the train over uneven terrain. Rumble sat beside him, with Scootaloo gingerly touching up his bandages. None of the stitches had broken, by some miracle. But it had been close. He wasn’t going to be able to walk far, if at all. Scootaloo had ended up with her face buried in his feathers, meager bandages covering her own wounds.
Apple Bloom was the only one who didn’t look tired. She didn’t look like much of anything, by Sweetie’s judgement. She just stared into space, barely acknowledging what was going on around her. Spike spoke to her directly a couple of times, but never got more than a hummed agreement.
Sweetie Belle looked up at her tall friend. She raised a hoof to touch her shoulder, in some faint hope of helping. But she paused. Something caught her attention from the corner of her eye. Black dust on a yellow hoof.
Apple Bloom hadn’t done any of the coal shoveling, but her hoof was stained black from gripping a piece of it with all her considerable strength.
So it had been Apple Bloom who saved her and Rumble!
Oh.
Oh.
Lacer’s last moments flashed before her eyes. She imagined the same scene was on repeat before Apple Bloom’s.
She rested her hoof on Apple Bloom’s shoulder, then leaned her head against her. Apple Bloom didn’t protest. They sat there, the six of them, until long into the dark hours of the night, when the train finally ran out of steam.
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Before I read this, I must know: How did the Dazzlings escape the Equestria Girls world?
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Details can be found here: In the Absence of Sunset Shimmer, which you've commented on previously. But also there are new Sirens who were introduced throughout the series, mainly in DayBreak and the last chapter of Scootaloo Will Fly.
With everything pointing towards Sweetie Belle being the next Bearer of Kindness, I'm wondering which of our heroes will be next. My head says Scootaloo gets Magic and Button Mash gets Laughter, but the others aren't so simple.
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Not saying exactly what i've been foreshadowing, but I've perhaps been foreshadowing certain things for each of the seekers since at least Scootaloo Will Fly!. Sometimes a little subtle, sometimes with the weight of a clue-by-four to the head. A lot of it has to do with word choices they've used when talking to each other and about each other.
The most specific foreshadowing I can remember mostly happens in Scootaloo Will Fly, Lightning Struck Home, In the Absence of Sunset Shimmer, and Rhythm and Rhyme. And here of course.
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My theoretical list has me wondering how you'll pull it all off, honestly.