Chapter 13: Sin's awakening
Several months after the explosion the world was trying it's hardest to survive. The ground was unfit for plants, making them grow sickly and weak. As a result, food was hard to come by. This hit big cities such as Canterlot the hardest, as what little food the farms grow are unwilling to give it to cities, which don't have much farmland. Ponyville was doing surprisingly well, or at least as good as it gets in this new world. Sweet apple acres still bore fruit, which was enough for the surviving citizens to eat meager meals. Rainbow, who had now recovered from her wounds, was flying through the sky, looking both for raiders and her friends,who she hadn't seen since she was taken to Fluttershy's cottage. She still had no idea what happened, but had a good idea of who caused it.. She knew the cult did this, there was just no other explanation. That bucking Gilda must have helped them, too. Rainbow was haunted by that day, if anything because she was too wounded to try to help her friends.
"Maybe," she thought. "Maybe...if I would have been there, maybe i could have stopped it."
She had these thoughts everyday. Her loyalty to her friends still shone in this dark world, and she searched the skies everyday. She gave up her search for today, and decided to land in at sugar cube corner. The cakes were at the front, serving a few customers. Pastries had stopped production, they were deemed an inefficient use of food. Now they mostly just served cider, which was still produced, as it would keep for a long time. Rainbow walked up to the counter.
"Cider." was all she said.
She put a couple of bits on the counter, and poured her some. She downed it quickly, and hung around for a bit.
"Did you find anything?" Mrs. cake asked.
Rainbow let out a sigh and shook her head. Mrs. cake looked as if she expected as much. Rainbow was about to head back, when some heavily armored ponies came marching down the street. Expecting a raid. Everypony either hid or grabbed a nearby object to hit with. Rainbow was about to do the same, until she saw one of them carrying a standard. With the royal symbol on it. She went out to investigate. The armored ponies stopped when she came out, but didn't seem to be threatening her. Rainbow got a closer look, and saw that they were wearing Canterlot guard armor.
"Hello civilian." said the stallion in front. We are soldiers of the Equestrian Alliance."
Rainbow heard of that name once before, from a colt who came wandering here from Cantelot. He was wounded, and didn't live much longer after he got here, but Rainbow remembered him talking all about how the Equestrian Allaince was "The last hope for Equestria."
"What do you guys want with a backwater town like ponyville?" said Rainbow.
"We've come looking for survivors. And recruits." the stallion said. "Any willing to join the fight to reclaim Equestria under the rule of Luna and Celestia is welcome to join."
Rainbow didn't even need to think about it.
"Sign me up!" she said.
She had been feeling that she was getting nothing done around ponyville, anyway. This could give her a chance to do something meaningful.
"All right, we'll need to test you first, see if you really are alliance material." said the stallion.
The stallion made a gesture, and one of the bigger soldiers walked up to him.
"Show me what you got." he said.
Rainbow dashed into him, and then delivered a kick on the way out. Her sparring partner was knocked back.
"Not bad." he said. "But let;s see if you can dodge!"
He swung at her, narrowly missing as she jumped out of the way.
"You're good." he said, then got back in line.
"Well done." said the stallion. "You're in. My name is Silver shield. I'll be your superior officer."
Rainbow got her first good look at the officer. He had a full beard, and his hair was a dark cobalt blue. He had a look of seriousness to his face, but it was a kind one. His armor was a golden color, unlike the plain grey of lesser soldiers. His skin was a light grey, and he looked to be middle-aged. His eyes shone a deep blue, like that of an evening sky, and he was an earth pony. He was very muscular, but in an stout sort of way, not like a bodybuilder. He reminded Rainbow of her own father, in a strange way.
"We should probably head back to camp to get you geared up." said Shield. "Anything else you had to do here?"
"Let me just say goodbye to someone." said Rainbow
Shield nodded, and Rainbow went back into sugar cube corner.
"Mrs. Cake?" said Rainbow.
"What is it dear?" said Mrs. Cake.
"I...I'm leaving." Rainbow said. "I don't know if i'll ever be back. I feel like i could be helping so much more if I join the alliance. I'll keep looking for Pinkie, and everypony else too."
"I understand." said Mrs. Cake. "You're welcome back here anytime. I hope you find what you're looking for out there."
Rainbow walked back out of sugar cube corner, and the soldiers left Ponyville towards Canterlot. They reached an alliance camp on a hill near the road. The plant life has been dead all around, but it was especially evident here. The ground was completely barren, no trees or even grass.
"Come with me." said Shield. "I'll get you registered."
Rainbow followed him into a large tent. Inside was some suits of armor, some blades, and a stack of registration forms.
He gave her a sheet, which she signed her name, age, height, and weight on. Shield took the paper, filed it in a cabinet in the corner of the room, and got her a suit of grey armor and basic hoofblade.
"I know it isn't much." said Shield. "But its damn better than anything else you'll find out there. Its starting to get late, let me show you to your tent. Seeing as you're new, you won't have guard duty for a while yet. Dunno' if we can trust your reflexes and vision to protect us yet."
He showed her to a small tent on the edge of the camp, which she got all to herself, seeing as the soldier count isn't exactly high. Inside was a bedroll and a place to put her blades when sleeping. She put them down, and laid on the bedroll. She soon drifted off to sleep. She was abruptly awoken by a guard, who told her some pegasi from New Cloudsdale have shown up, and they need all soldiers up, seeing as they have no idea what they might try to pull. She grabbed her blades, and walked out to see many pegasi at the foot of the hill. One pegasus walked up to them slowly, and showed his hooves so they knew he wasn't armed. Shield kept a blade pointed at him as he approached.
"Whoah buck!, chill man!" said the pegasus. "I ain't here to cause no trouble."
"Well, Cloudsdale has raided us before." said Shield. "I'm just taking precautions."
"We just wanted to do some trade." he said.
"For what?"" asked Shield.
"We know you got some military stuff, and we got some extra food." said the pegasus. "Cloudsdale is still pretty good for growin', cuz' we control the weather."
"Sorry, but no." said Shield. "We aren't giving you any weapons."
"Damn." said the Pegasus. "Well, thanks for nothin'"
The pegasi flew off to the clouds once more.
"Who were they?" said Rainbow
They're from New Cloudsdale." said Shield "They're a bunch of trouble makers. They act like they're helping, but they just take what they want. If I would have given him weapons i give him a few minutes at most before he tried to use them on me to take the rest. They're a bunch of arrogant buckheads. Anyway, I'd get back to sleep if I were you, you're gonna need it."