Pas D'arms: Earthquake

Prompt: Where was your character during the Earthquake? What did they experience during or directly after the quake?

 

 When the first rumbles began to shake the packed earth under his hooves, he thought that perhaps he’d missed some sort of announcement. He thought that maybe there was some sort of stampede to reach the training grounds and that he needed to get the hoof out of the way before someone trampled him on the way to a training dummy. 

It took him a moment to realize that while the sound intensified, growing to a deep sonorous growl as though something huge was bearing down on him, he did not hear the sound of hooves. He didn’t even hear the tell tail pattern that would have indicated it was something enormous. It was just… shaking. Shaking as though the earth itself the castle and the training grounds sat on were nothing more significant than a fly and the earth were giving itself a good shake to be rid of them. 

 He heard other recruits shouting, panic in their voices and couldn’t blame them. He felt it too, this wasn’t something they could kick, or bite, or fight with weapons or magic. He felt as though the shaking were even trying to take the word from him as he struggled to keep his feet and try and think of what to do. Surely someone needed to be out here, taking control? 

 “Stay away from the walls or things that could fall!” He shouted, feeling as though he were trying to yell around his own heart in his mouth. “Get under a doorway or a table if you can find one!” 

 Who had even taught him that? He remembered it as a sort of vague lecture that might not have even been related to earthquakes. Maybe it had been something about mining? He just remembered at the time the teacher's voice had almost been enough to put him to sleep and now it filtered back into his memory and made everything feel like a terrifying dream. 

 Definitely a terrifying dream, as his shouts seemed to only reach some ears, some of the newer pages, and even some of the Squires seemed to either have not heard him or have found themselves unable to obey because of the shaking. There was screaming now, and he heard things crash and beak and crack. A sword rack shook itself so hard that the weapons hurled themselves to the ground with a loud crash. 

 Tiles were shaking themselves free, he could see them starting to slide, and felt a burst of panic, trying to stumble his own way toward the middle of the court yard. Maybe he could use his magic to pull them away from the path of the tiles? By the Alicorns what if the whole castle came down? It sounded as though the world was ending and he just couldn't concentrate!

 And then she rose into the sky like a falcon, though instead of trumpets to announce her meteoric rise into the sky it was the sound of shattering tiles and falling weapons. 

Princess Dawn Breaker, though for a moment he didn't know how to interpret her flight. Was she leaving them all behind to the ruin? Was that something princesses did? 

 There was another smash of tile on earth, making him flinch, and then he realized that at some point while he froze and watched her rise, the earth had stopped shaking. The chaos had not stopped though, and there were shouts of fear and cries of pain that seemed to be coming from everywhere, and some of the others clearly needed to be taken to the infirmary as soon as he was sure it was safe to take them. Broken tile edges were sharp, and some had taken bad falls besides. 

 He didn't know what had happened, he wasn't sure what would happen next, but he wouldn't be seeing a bed soon. There was clearly too much to do.