//------------------------------//
// Part 6 
// Story: The Fall 
// by Malicious-Badger 
//------------------------------//

Blink.

Regardless whether it was dark or not, I had leave. Too much time was taken recuperating lost memories, staying with Spike, seeing him, seeing home; there was nothing but remorse.

On the streets of Ponyville again were the bodies. I had almost forgotten they were alive once; they didn't matter to me though. Yes they were ponies and yes they were important to somepony but, not to me, no, I wanted somepony special, I wanted the pony that did this all. My remorse turned into rage, the exact thoughts were buzz in my mind, a constant irritant, I knew it would stop till it was all over and I got what I wanted.

Canterlot was my only hope. I could see it in the distance, and to be honest it seemed worse for ware, but then again it was home to Celestia and Luna, and even my brother and parents. Everypony left that I cared for, with the questionable uncertainty of whether they were dead, was in Canterlot. 

As I was about to leave it started to rain. There came a green glow from upstairs; though Spike was dead, his magical essence still had some time before it would die out. Spike's magic was limited at best, but there was one thing that he was really good at. I put my journey on hold for a minute as I went upstairs to go investigate. At first glance everything seemed the same; Spike still lay peacefully in the bed, which was neatly made, and the room was in the same state I had left it in. Being skeptical I thought that surely I hadn't mistaken myself, and I hadn't, I definitely did see something

I walked up to Spike, the source of the glowing. Small amounts of green smoke were seeping out of his mouth, spilling onto the floor. The smoke didn't not rise because it was magic, but because it was cold, those were the final flames of this dragon. On the floor next to Spike, besides the bed, was something that I almost missed, it was so small that it was not something to notice at first glance. Spilling over the bed and onto the floor the hazy green smoke blanketed a rolled up parchment. I had never received letters from anypony but Celestia before, which could only mean one thing, that letter that I saw on the ground, was either a last letter Spike left me for when he died, or it was from the only other person who could send letters this way. 

I edged closer, I sought the knowledge of what the letter was but I was afraid for a while to pick it up, lest it hold some unbearable truth. There was no royal seal on the letter, and the reason it was rolled up seemed to be because of dried blood that it was sprinkled with. Something was truly ominous about the letter, but I couldn't wait any longer. Levitating it out of the green fog that strewn across the floor I brought the letter up to my face; flecks of blood and parchment flew off as I did. I opened the parchment and braced myself for what I might inside, but it was nothing like I expected, though I don't really know what I expected. With a look of shock horror I finished the Letter. Filled with rage and other emotions; I finally learnt the truth.

For a second Twilight's mane was ablaze, and amidst the flames a bright purple spark from her horn eclipsed the room. When the light restored she was gone.


Limp.

I awoke from my unconsciousness. It was still dark out. The rain had stopped, but not the bleeding. Beneath me was a small pool of blood; it had painted my blue coat a deep red. My mane was wet a frazzled from the rainfall, though it too became a monochromic red. My colorful spectrum of coating was gone, and I felt I ceased to be the same pony.

Slowly I rose to my feet. The blood dripped from me like an ink stain on a paper; myself being the words, I was incomprehensible, my writing was meaningless, and I was nothing but messed up lines with scratches through it. As I rose, the pain started to bloom. It came from my wing but spread all the way to my legs. I shakily remain in one place, my legs were not able to move and flying was not an option.

I moved. It was only a small step, but the pain jolted through me. Another movement, and I heard a rip; the cuts were ripping, going bigger. My wing had already lost all connection, and all I got from it was pain. My wing stuck out to one side; I tried to pull it in closer so it would be of less stress, and less likely to rip, unfortunately, it was well and truly broken, I could not move it. With my foreleg, in attempt to shut the wing, I moved it backwards, and pushed my wing to a close. I could feel the bones hitting each other, I could feel the cuts pushing together and closing. It was a horrifying experience, and in turn I let out a scream of immense pain. 

But I wasn't about to let myself die in a ditch, not after all that has happened, not after everything Equestria had been through. With all the strength left in my body and with all the willpower I could obtain, I forced my legs to move, one step at a time. Bearing through the pain I climbed forward, trying and willing myself out of the ditch. The climb was though and all the while I felt my bone splintering, my wing tearing at the opening. There was no way to describe the pain.

I finally made it. I hobbled onto the road, a bloodied mess. I thought the road would fare better travel than the ground below, but it seem it would make no difference. The road was just as much ground as the ground was road. I became frustrated, everything was wrong, nothing was worked; even I was broken. With a wail of discontent, spite and malice toward whoever was responsible for this all, I, in my mangled state broke down and cried. 

Through the tears and blood that ran over my eyes, I was barely able to see the fragmented road ahead in the nighttime. I looked ahead, with my blurred vision I looked off towards Cloudsdale; there was no way I was getting there now. I turned my head to look back.

As Rainbow Dash looked down the road something caught her eye. A bit of colour flew onto the road carried by the wind. It wasn't a figment of imagination either. A brown object sat in the middle of the road a few tens of feet away. Rainbow stopped crying for a second, her sorrow was counteracted by curiosity. There was something familiar about it but from the distance she was at it was indistinguishable. She wanted to get closer and see what it was, though unfortunately, as much as she wanted to move, her limbs would not allow it.


Bare.

Minimum movement came from my bucking legs; slowly I had allotted most of my energy to keep them going. Though at first glance my injuries seem superficial, they were quite substantial; none were deep or life threatening but the sheer amount of cuts and bruises left me limping. I had been walking for a little while and it had stopped raining. But even though it had stopped raining, the night was cold and without my hat my head was bear. The wind gusted and chilled the top of my head, as my mane blew quite uncontrollably; if Rarity was still there to see that she would have dropped dead anyways. My looks were not faring quite well I realised.

I looked down at the ground to a puddle to see my reflection. I was not the same mare I was before. My hat was gone, my hair was looking an awful lot like Pinkies, which made me chuckle slightly before it made me sad again. I was covered in dirt, mud, dead leaves and twigs, and through my coat, my skin was a mess of purple, red, and black, the scratches on my face appeared too, give me a rugged and worn profile; in all it looked like I had been through a lot and had seen the majority of my days. I would sometimes, before all this happened, think about how I would look when I got older, I believe I was not far from how I could be. 

Often times, when dogs get sick, they go away, and find a place to die alone, in peace. Though not that I need find a place to be alone, for obvious reasons, the thought of being at peace did not sound so bad. Suicide was becoming a prominent idea in my head, and to be honest I was slowly, starting to really consider it, but then I heard it.

There was some noise, and it wasn't coming from any of the dead scenery, no, this was an unnatural noise, something you wouldn't find out here. It sounded like crying. The noise was very much so distinguishable; it was somepony in pain. It was somepony in pain! I was not the only one alone, somepony else survived!

I had to find whoever it was! I had to find them and help them, they were screaming and crying in pain. The sounds of desperation echoed over the sides of the dead forest coming from the road some distance behind me. I turned and ran towards the noise.

Applejack ran back through the forest as fast as Rainbow Dash could fly. She ran faster, though carefully avoiding anything that might lead to another injury. The sound was becoming more predominant, and the question still posed to Applejack was; who was it that survived?

Applejack came back onto the road. At first glance there was nothing ahead of her, but through the crooked and uplifted layers of the road, Applejack spotted a red pony lying on the ground, wailing in what seemed to be terror; though pain was the probable reason. The red mare did not see Applejack coming, not could she hear her. Furthermore, slightly beyond the red pony was something oddly familiar to Applejack, unbeknownst to her that object was her hat, and that pony was none other than Rainbow dash. Applejack was about to call out to the distressed rainbow dash when she managed to get stopped right in her tracks.