Whistling Rain

by Schwabauer

Chapter 2

The train being ridden by the Elements of Harmony and their escorts chugged into the station, steam spewing from its top. Its brakes squealed as it came to a stop, stopping squarely in front of the platform. Once at a full stop, it bled off remaining boiler pressure with a hiss, filling the platform. Before it had fully dissipated, Twilight and Spike led the way off the train, closely followed by Applejack, then Rainbow Dash and Rarity. Pinkie Pie bounced out with a couple of laughing guardponies, With Fluttershy emerging last, the captain alongside her.

Twilight was greeted by her eagerly awaiting brother’s yells for her. She emerged from the light steam cloud, waving her hoof at him before trotting over. They greet each other with smiles and a hug, withdrawing after a moment.

While the siblings greeted each other the escort began to unload the train. They quickly removed the elements and handed them to Spike, who was nearby and excited to help. Next, they pulled out the warm coats, followed by spears and swords. The rest of the Elements hovered nearby, chatting, and laughing while waiting to depart for the fort to the west.

“Twilight, it’s great to see you again, although I wish it were under better conditions. It seems like every time I get to see you you’re saving the world from one thing or another.” Shining’s voice was filled with melancholy as he said this.

“I wish the same, Shining. But before we go for the forts, what do you know about this issue? What have these invaders been doing?” inquired Twilight, giving Shining a concerned look.

“So far? So far, they are just causing psychological damage and scouting our western borders. No intentional killing. Breaking into unattended farms and looting things. Trivial things that do not really make sense. Books. Single meals. Tools. No money, not substantial amounts of food. Barely anything.”

Twilight thought on that for a minute, before responding with a tentative question underlining her voice, “But... why aren’t they attacking? Nothing else we ever face has been so... slow to act.”
Shining Armor smiled gently, and set a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder, looking like an instructor imparting important information.

“Twilight, this enemy is not like most of others you have faced. It’s more like the Changlings. This enemy is an army. An army that is learning about us, in order to defeat us. It may not make sense to us as of now, but it must make sense to them.”

“I see, Shining. Do you think we have the time to meet Cadence?”
Shining sighed deeply, responding slowly, “Unfortunately no. She’s busy taking care of official royal duties, and I could barely get away. You need to leave immediately. Twilight.”

Twilight nodded, and sadly responded with, “Well, the sooner we finish this the sooner I can see you two again!”

“Yes, I suppose that’s true Twilight. See you soon.” Shining laughed lightly and waved at her. Over the course of her conversation several nearby carts had been loaded up with two weeks worth of supplies. Already larger earth ponies amongst the guard were hooking themselves up.

Twilight trotted over, antsy and wanting to get moving. She approached Captain Grapefruit as he finished placing a bundle of fire wood onto the top of the third cart. He turned and his armor made noticeably less noise, a thick parka underneath.

“Ah, Ms. Sparkle, I’m glad you finished up with your brother. Put on one of the parkas and we can get going. If ms. Rarity allows it, that is. She has been insisting on modifying the parka. Something we don’t have time for, as I’m sure you know. Could you please convince her to…” he trailed off, looking for a polite way to put his frustration into words, “convince her to not immediately tailor the parka to her wants?”

“Of course, Captain, I’ll do it right away.” Twilight then spent the next several minutes managing to convince Rarity to not design and put together a new parka, and to take the bland ones offered by the guard. Barely managing to that is.

Once Rarity was in the parka the elements were finally ready to begin their path towards their latest enemy. They quickly made their way out of the shielded capitol, and into the frozen forests and tundras of the Empire.

The wind howled through the air, whipping and pulling at their parkas. Twilight staggered when the wind first hit them, unprepared for such harsh weather. Despite Twilight’s thick, well made parka, she felt as if her bones were freezing up.

Due to the severe cold and other conditions immediately surrounding the capital the group’s progress was slow initially, having to forge through freshly fallen snow to find and follow the roads. In several points the snow covered company found themselves trotting on frozen grass and dirt, rather than cobbled road.

When these events happened they were forced to backtrack, and find the place where they deviated from the designated path. Forging off the trails wouldn’t be an option here, with the snow covering many landmarks and creating new or false ones.

When the snow died down, their speed increased, and, Twilight at least, could see much farther than she could before. Distant snow capped trees could be sent, the snow pilling up to their branches and making them appear as cones jutting straight from the ground.
Captain Grapefruit lead them further on, occasionally checking the map and brushing snow off posts along the road. Twilight continued to trudge along behind him, the rest of the elements trailing not far behind her. Spike was huddled against her neck, the snow stacked higher than he was tall. The rest of the company were surrounding the carts, pushing snow out of their way as best as possible, while also providing protection from any attempted assault.

The unrelenting progress forward, led by Grapefruit and spearheaded by the elements, eventually led them too a small village, the majority of it’s carefully constructed huts and walls shielding large portions of it from snow drifts.

AS the column drew closer, a few tired, cold citizens of the empire exited their dwellings, curiosity bring them out of their warm havens. Many of them were surprised to see so many guards marching into the cold village.

Captain Grapefruit ignored them, continue to lead the Elements of Harmony and his company out and away from the village. Twilight on the other hand, she paused for a moment. Her scholarly side and gotten the better of her for a moment. She looked at the small, diminutive villagers, and observed that they wore even thicker clothes than herself.

Twilight halting led to a slight confusion amongst the guardponies, their instincts on which herd leader to follow fighting each other. One a biological need to follow the lead of the herd leaders, the other a drilled in need to follow the commanding officer.
The confusion brought about the mixed instincts soon was wrestled under control, the guards continued on, ignoring the immobile scholar. Twilight continued her silence observation for a moment, before noticing that the rest of the column was on it’s way out of town. She hurried to catch up, rejoining her friends near the front.

————————————————————————————————————

Along the frozen shore of the Empire a sad, decrepit pony shambled. Her gaunt body showed weeks of starvation, skin hanging off the bone. She looked hungrily for some sort of vegetation in this barren hell scape.

Her wandering, long and unfruitful as it was, slowed. Her pale green body gave out, failing her. She lay face down in the snow, her consciousness drifting away. As she felt it was her end, a uniformed crunching of snow sounded in front of her.

When the green earth pony awoke next, she was not in the afterlife, much to her suprise and relief. She was in a long, narrow bed, bundled in linens and blankets.

Looking to the side a row of more beds lay, same on the other wall of the room. The majority were empty, but a few had strange bipedal things in them. One was nursing a bandaged appendage, while another sat beside him chatting merely in some harsh tongue she couldn’t comprehend.

Once these bipeds noticed she was awake a four more entered, dressed in fancy suits. They spoke at her, to no avail. After a moment the began slowly hitting their chest and slowly saying something.

“Ckirederf” Said one, using finger to poke his chest.

“Lrak” Said the second.

“Snah” Said the third.

THe fourth elected to remain silent, instead gesturing at her, indicating something. After a moment of this, a light went off. “Crystal Fir”

All four nodded with slight smiles.

Comments

[Blueshadow_the_pony]

“Twilight, it’s great to see you gain, although I wish it were under better conditions. It seems like every time I get to see you know you’re saving the world from one thing or another.” Shining’s voice was filled with melancholy as he said this.

Pretty sure it should be "again" not "gain". And I would remove know from that one sentence, reads easier

[Schwabauer]

11312143
Thanks for the edits. I don't know how it slipped past me.