Ponies of the Dragonlance: Ponies of Autumn Twilight

by DeadEternal

Chapter 2: Escape along the road

They ran through Solace. They knew that Sprout would be on their trail in just a minute, and most likely a force of goblins with him. They had to get away as soon as possible, and on a path their hunters would not expect. Easier said than done. Sprout had spent his entire life in this village. He knew every street, every way, every path. So they decided to take the most straightforward way out of town: The western street, towards Maretime Bay. They knew they would have to leave the street at some point. Sprout and his mother would be able to tell where they were headed, and the street would be blocked by enemies before they could even get halfway to their destination. Especially because the way towards Maretime Bay lay between the sea and the Everfree Forest. The outskirts of that forest were mostly harmless, but nopony who ever wandered deeper into it ever returned.

They ran for about an hour before they stared feeling their bones. Because of their rather speedy laving of Solace, they didn’t have a chance to rest. They were tired, hungry and still shocked about what happened back there. Thus, they decided to leave the path and find someplace to rest for the night. It wouldn’t do them any good if they collapsed right on the street, even though that meant their enemies had time to prepare a blockade.

Slowly, their path only illuminated by Sunny’s lantern, they walked into the outskirts of the Everfree Forest. Pipp was the first to break the silence. “I can’t believe it! How, for ponies’ sake, could our sweet little hometown change so much in those five years? Today was meant to happy! A celebration! And instead, we are now fugitives! Hunted by ponies we have known for years! It’s not fair!” Tears started welling up in her eyes.

Zipp put a wing around her. “I know, sis. We didn’t even have time to say ‘Hi’ to mom. Nopony could have foreseen this. Forced to run away from home. It’s just not right.” She sighed. “But now, we have to try and make the best out of a shitty situation. So, first, we should talk about one thing: did anypony find out something during these five years? Pipp and I didn’t. The pegasi have retreated beneath the mountains. Their cities are in the caverns, protected by giant doors. Some of those doors could be as old as the Cataclysm, but if there ever was any kind of relief on them, they were destroyed long ago. There are no records about any time before or even short after the Cataclysm.”

Izzy shook her head. “The unicorns have retreated into the forests. No sign of anything old in there. Although they seem to be afraid of even the thought of magic or the gods. Mention one of these words, and they go all crazy, believing they need to have some strange ritual or they would invoke some kind of curse. Although..the same is true about mayonnaise. I have no clue what’s so bad about mayonnaise.”

“I have traveled the North,” said Hitch. “We heard something about an ancient empire up there, but I found no trace of anything like that. No ruins, no descendants, nothing. It was nothing but an icy desert. If there ever was an empire, it was completely obliterated. Although,” he opened his saddlebag and got out a helmets, made out of solid crystal, “they northerners seem to have quite a hand for handiwork. This thing looks amazing, and fits even better.” He smiled. “Oh, and I’ve heard that, even farther to the north, there is a civilisation of yaks, but the way there is deadly, with monsters hunting in the blizzards, and even if you would manage to cross the icy mountains, the yaks seem to be hostile to everything not a yak. So I didn’t try to get there.”

Sunny sighed. “I traveled through the great planes to the east. Some nomadic tribes of earthponies manage to live there, but they, too, aren’t very welcoming to outsiders. But it seems they have some kind of religion, praying to their deceased ancestors, calling on them for leadership. But as far as I can tell, it’s nothing but belief, not actually some kinds of spirits that help them, or even gods. Even further to the east, there is a mountainrange that was settled on before the Cataclysm. But the Burning Mountain hit Equestria just beyond those mountains. What could have been a fertile land centuries ago is now nothing but the sea, and most of those ancient cities in the mountains were swallowed by either the sea or the earth. No clue about the time before the Cataclysm left there to find. So, all those five years managed to do was getting us away from Solace, allowing Phyllis and Sprout to turn it into a corrupt place that welcomes goblins and rejects pegasi and unicorns. I’m sorry to have dragged all of you into this stupid idea of mine.” She let her head hang low.

Don’t beat yourself up, Sunny.” Izzy nudged her. “We all agreed. And imagine if we would have found something! We could have rewritten history! Back in Solace, we most likely wouldn’t have been able to change anything. Times are getting darker. That’s the way of the world.”

Zipp raised her wing. “Look, over there! A cave! Deep enough in the forest to not be found by Sprout and his goblins, but not deep enough that we would be entering the inner Everfree Forest.” Relieved, they entered the cave. Hitch took the first watch, Zipp the second. Sleep came fast.

---

When the sun rose the next morning, the companions were already on their hooves. “Pony damn it! Raw roots for breakfast,” Hitch sighed. “I could kill for a serving of Alphabittle’s spiced potatoes.” His friends chuckled. “Hey, a full grown stallion like me needs his nutrients!” When his friends just continued chuckling, he sighed.

Zipp spent most of her watch and the following morning with sharpening her wingblades, although she knew that soon she would need to replace them. “We should be able to make good progress today. Sky’s looking clear, no storm. Still, we should stay in the forest as long as possible. Less encounters that way.” The other companions nodded.

After breakfast, they started moving out. In the early lights of morning, the forest lost some of its spookiness of the night, and Izzy did her best to raise the mood of everyone else by singing songs. Soon, they all started to lighten up, their worries banished for the moment.

They had been walking quite some time when the forest got so dense that the only ways were either deeper into the Everfree Forest, and thus into the dark parts, or onto the road. The choice was all to easy. The road seemed empty, and they decided that, at least for the moment, they would travel along the road. Far to their left, they could already see the sea. It would be two more days to reach Maretime Bay. Not long after, they heard a cart moving in the opposite direction.

“Into the bushes,” Sunny whispered. “We don’t know who goes there. It could be friend, foe or stranger. Better not take any risks.” Her friends nodded and joined her. All except Hitch. “Hitch! Come on!”

But the stallion shook his head. “I’ll stay out here. If they are foe, they do not seek for one pony alone. If they are friend or stranger, maybe they can help us, at least with good food.” Sunny nodded slowly. “And trust me, I’ll be as careful as I can be. No risks will be taken.”

Then they stopped their conversation as the cart came into view from behind a curve in the road. It was pulled by two ponies, and two others were walking besides it. Their faces, or even their tribe, were indiscernible because they were wearing heavy cloaks reaching down to the ground. Not even their hooves could be seen.

Hitch settled down, facing towards the strangers. Pipp, staying in the bushes, got nervous. “Sunny, something about those ponies doesn’t seem right. They send shivers down my spine. We’d better stay ready to help Hitch if things go south.” She mounted her crossbow on her belt. It could be loaded, drawn and triggered by mouth using a mechanism. Sunny nodded, drawing her dagger, Izzy readied her hornblade, and Zipp had already put on her wingblades in the morning. Now it was time to wait as the cart pulled closer. When it was just a few legs away from Hitch, the ponies stopped and who seemed to be their leader shouted, with a hollow, lisping voice: “Hail, wanderer.” The sound of the voice managed to send shivers down everyponies’ spines.

But Hitch didn’t show this. “Greetings to you too, travelers! It seems we both have chosen a poor day for the road. I have been walking many a mile today, yet you are the first other ponies I encounter.” Sunny thought she heard a slight snicker from one of the travelers, but if that really was the case, she didn’t understand why. “Have you seen other people traveling the road today?”

“Nay. But the wind is cold and carries a storm. This may be why you won’t find other wanderers on this day. We would not be on the road ourselves if we didn’t hear about a miracle.”

The companions in the bushes looked at each other as Hitch spoke. “A miracle, you say? And it lies in the direction of Solace? I come from Solace, and I haven’t heard of any kind of miracle. Tell me, what kind of miracle could you be talking about?”

The strangers looked at each other for a second, before the answer was given. “We carry with us a friend. The shadow of death is already lingering above his head. When we heard that there was some kind of healing in Solace, we traveled from camp a few hours away from here towards Solace as soon as possible. If the tale we heard is wrong, our friend will die just as he would have done without it. If the tale is true, he may still be saved!”

“I’m sorry that I can’t help you. I wish you all th-” Hitch was interrupted as Sunny jumped up, carrying the lantern.

“I can help you!” Sunny jumped out of the bushes. The strangers looked at her, and beneath their cowls, she saw gleaming eyes. Hitch, too, looked at her. “I have been the one who healed Phyllis in Solace. Well, it was this lantern, to be exact.” She walked towards Hitch and whispered to him. “Follow me. If they try something, it’d be better if you’re by my side.” He nodded, and together they closed in on the cart. “Where is your friend?”

The leader of the strangers led her behind the cart and showed them another pony, completely cloaked in the same kind of garment. But just as Sunny climbed onto the cart, it started moving, bursting free from the restrictive cloak. Sunny screamed at the sight.

In the bushes, the other companions had been ready to attack in case of a trap. But just as the scream rang through their ears, something else happened. Zipp, starting to run, suddenly felt a weight on her back and heard her sister scream. Izzy joined in just a second later as another attacker came out of his hiding place above her. ‘How, for ponies’ sake, were they able to sneak up on us like that?’ Zipp thought as she turned around, throwing her attacker off.

Hitch, torn between assisting Sunny and the others, suddenly had his own problems on his hooves as all the travelers got out of their cloaks, revealing their true appearance. He gritted his teeth. He didn’t have time to equip his steel gauntlets before the fight started. Suddenly, a wave of rainbow light, accompanied by a scream unlike anything any of the ponies had ever heard, burst out of the cart.

Sunny had been paralyzed when the creature removed its cloak. It wasn’t a pony. Its furless skin was covered in brownish-red scales, its mouth filled with sharp teeth, and on its back were leathery wings, not unlike those of a bat. Yet the overall form was still ponylike. Before Sunny could react, it grabbed the lantern, and it reacted. The creature let go of the lantern with a scream so terrifying that it got Sunny out of her paralysis. The wing that grabbed the lantern was scorched up to the shoulder, and the creature gleamed at it. Before it recovered from the sudden shock, Sunny was upon it, and sent it flying with a buck against its breast.

Zipp slashed with her wingblades at the creature that attacked her. Its scales were the least intimidating feature, but they proved valuable against the sharp blades that didn’t do much more than slightly cutting through. Still, she had the reach to keep it at bay. For the moment, at least. Izzy, on the other hoof, took a much more aggressive stance. She slashed and stabbed with her hornblade. Her enemy was already bleeding from multiple wounds, but the same was true for Izzy. Pipp was just drawing her own little dagger, seeing that her crossbow would be too much of a risk for her friends. With a warcry she jumped at the one attacking Izzy. Not expecting the sudden attack, the creature tried to evade in the last second, but it wasn’t enough. The dagger penetrated deep through the scaly skin until it sliced the beating heart in two. Pipp, with a triumphant look in her eyes, tried to pull the dagger out of the corpse. But somehow, it didn’t work. She pulled and pulled, but the blade wouldn’t move. Confused, she looked at the creature, and let go of the dagger with a small scream. It had turned to stone, and her dagger was trapped in there!”

“Wow. Lucky I didn’t stab it to death with my horn, eh?” Izzy nudged Pipp. “Good job!” They turned towards Zipp’s opponent.

Hitch had been stunned for a moment by the rainbow light coming out of the cart, but snapper out of it as the creatures in front of him snarled. With only his hooves as weapons, he seemed to be easy prey. The first creature jumped towards him, just to get a well-aimed buck to the head. Without a sound, it collapsed, the body turning to stone. The other three started to encircle the single Earthpony. Against three opponents, Hitch knew he wouldn’t have a chance if nopony came to help him. Then he heard a thud, and one of them went down, a crossbow bolt though its head. The other two attacked, their eyes glistening with pure malevolence. Hitch bucked in the direction of the first one, but it dodged the hooves. Hitch already saw himself being torn apart by those muscular jaws, when one of them was stopped mid-charge by Sunny, who jumped on its back. The last one reached Hitch, its sharp teeth tearing deep into his flank. Hitch screamed, and the creature turned around for a buck. Although stunned by the pain, Hitch managed to at least partially dodge it, but it still hit his head, knocking him out. Izzy and Zippy, charging from the bushes, made short work of the last remaining creature. Zipp cut through its legs, and Izzy slit open its throat. With a last gurgle, the last enemy turned to stone.

“Hitch?” Sunny cried, kneeling besides her friend. “Hitch, come on. We need you!” The fangs had left deep wounds on his flank, his headwound bleeding across his face. “Please, Hitch…” Sunny lowered her head. Those wounds could easily spell the end of a pony, especially the headwound. It could easily be that his skull was broken. She grabbed the lantern. “It’s all because of you stupid thing! Now help him!” She touched the lantern to Hitch’s flank. A soft shimmer of rainbow washed over the body of her friend. Slowly, the deep gashes healed over, as did the bleeding wound on his head.

Hitch slowly rose, still staggering. “Wha- What happened?” He looked around, holding his head.

Sunny hugged him, opening her mouth to say something, but Zipp’s shout reached her before she could say anything. “There’s more coming!”

Comments

[NobodieZ]

Well done on this chapter.