The Fall

by Malicious-Badger

Part 1

Fear.

There is some that resides in us all. No matter how many times you try to laugh it away, there are some fears; derivative from our feeling that just wont surpass. At some point we all just snap, leaving us into a hopeless pile of deterioration; that of the mind. There is always something keeping us from ever truly being not afraid of anything, be it fear of failure, fear of trying, or yet; fear of loss.

It has been a week from what is now dubbed by me: The Fall. I myself was lucky enough to be pretty much on the other side of Equestria, in the middle of what was an extension of the everfree forest, a place where nopony ever went, when it happened, that is if you can even call what I have now lucky. There is not much point in anything anymore; I’ve lost all my possessions, all my friends, and pretty much the entire world.

I had been in the everfree forest for a reason, one that I can recollect quite well in fact, and in all actuality it was pretty much the only memory I have left that is clear to me, all the rest have dissolved, my mind is not as it was. I had been in the everfree, per request of princess Celestia. She had asked me to check out an area; identify whether or not anything was native to the area, and if the place was suitable for any standards of living. I would not remember my findings if not for my handy notepad, my last remaining possession, even my saddlebag got lost somehow. I’d state my findings but I find I rarely open that thing these days; rather I just keep it as a token of sanity.

I never realized exactly how much everything really meant to me, it took the most exaggerated of actions to discover those feelings. The Fall left me alone, alone in a place I was quite unfamiliar with, and alone in a world so large even if there were a few people alive, it was still empty to me.

The Fall was something that was not easily unnoticeable, I heard it form exactly 87 kilometers away from Ponyville, my calculated location at the time of occurrence. I heard it, and it was big, it came from all sides, everything was obliterated, everything except very certain, little areas of relief, such as the one I stood upon.

When I heard the happening, I looked up at the sky through the thick trees canopy to see a sight that looked much like Rainbow Dash’s sonic rainbow, just with a lot less of the colour and awe specter. However unlike the sonic rainboom that sent waves of spectra in a perfectly formulated circle outwards for lengths on end, the waves from the noise seemed thick, irregular, and layered, as if multiples of what came from the sound happened in multiple locations. It made my ears burst and my hair stand on ends.

I did what the natural instinct was to do; I hid. I cuddled myself up in a ball next to a large tree, whose roots were large enough to be trees that were planted sideways. There I stay for a while; minutes, hours, days even, I’m not quite sure, the sense of time seemed to dislodge itself from my brain as I sat there, scared, fearing what might have happened, fearing that when I would step out of this forsaken forest that what I would see would not be the same Ponyville, the same Canterlot, the same Equestria. Everything faded; the day was dark.

Guilt.

For some reason, I feel I am responsible; that the reason I survived was because of their deaths. I feel guilty for something I did not do, it was right there but it was also beyond my reach, it was out of my control. I know it has been a week, but it still doesn't feel right, I feel that I abandoned them all. I keep telling myself it’s not your fault, there was nothing you could do but I know there is something I could have done: anything. And now, with all this time I have, alone in this empty world, I just play what happened that day over and over again in my head, it never goes away.

I was right there, right above it, the day it happened. The Boom was enormous, it came out of nowhere, and it was not a rainboom, it was undeniably something meant for destruction, a one-time use thing. As whatever it was that made The Boom set off, the skis filled with smoke, creating layers of darkness of sizes ten times larger than the largest clouds I’ve ever seen.

I found it kinda ironic that I was about to do a boom of my own when it happened. I was about six kilometers from the ground, which is by the way freezing up there, when it happened. You see the thing is it was Ground Mare’s Day; a day all ponies in Equestria spend the day on the ground to give thanks to the earth ponies that always helped grow the food and to the earth that give us residence for our many homes. And as with most “special” occasions I was asked to do a trademark Sonic Rainboom. Which is not as easy to recreate as you think; having to go 340 meters per second and all. This is why I was six kilometers up in the air; that is why I am still alive.

After I saw that enormous cloud of smoke rise I just instinctively dived right down, towards the ground, as if doing the sonic rainboom, yet I wasn't. I flew as fast as I knew I could without breaking the sonic barrier, it was to dangerous to break, what with not knowing the conditions and probably horrid visibility that came with the smoke.

Once I reached the top of the cloud, I stopped, I was hesitant to go though, and I had no idea what it was or what it could do, as well as what was underneath it. It took me a few minutes, until I figured the longer I wait, the more likely those of which who needed my help, needed it even more. I dashed though the layer of smoke whilst holding my breath. Formed underneath the smoke canopy was a large smoke pillar the equivalent of half the size of Ponyville. This got me very worried, I was still high up, and could barely see the ground. Whatever was down there did not look right.

Tears streamed from my eyes as I flew and fell towards to ground, not from my sheer velocity, but from the sight I saw before me and for the feelings it retrieved. I still cry to this very day whenever I remember this part, though there is little water, and life left in me to do so.

What I saw before me that day, was something completely alien to me, it was a view of Equestria I have never seen before, and that view provoked feelings in me I never knew I had.

Locked.

Now after a week of recollecting my thoughts of events prior, I am still not over it. That day changed Equestria forever. That day also changed me.

Back then I would never have thought myself to ever become so sappy, yet the truth is that, once everything you love is gone; friends, family, home, there ain’t much else to do but spilt your losses. But splitting your losses when there is nothing left to split is difficult to say the least.

That day The End happened was Ground Mare’s Day, a silly holiday if you ask me, instead actual work getting done, they celebrate the work that should be done, that they’re not doing. In any case, it was Ground Mare’s Day, and normally I would be there in the town center, partying along with the rest of the ponies, and having good times with my friends, but it just so happened to be the day that the southern field would turn sour, so I had to call it in this year. My friends were slightly disappointed, Pinkie most of all, but they understood, and I told them to carry the party without me. I told Rainbow too that I should be able to see her boom no matter where in Equestria I was, I guess that made her happy.

It had been a long day of work, apple bucking the entire south field, but it was finally done, Big Mac and I just had to put all the apple baskets into the apple cellar. Now usually the both of us would do this, but I let Big Mac off this time due a slight knee injury he was having, seeing as he already worked it in slightly in the south field. To this day I wish I hadn’t.

I was lucky; I survive by pure chance, though sometimes these days I wish I hadn’t. I was busy transferring the baskets of apples from the barn down to the cellar, when all of a sudden the cellar door closed on me, by some chance, to this day I still don’t know how. A thing about my cellar, is that it is made from many materials; concrete, steel, and wood as a varnish. So when the door closed I was pretty much stuck in a seven-meter square bunker. After the door was closed I was stuck in the dark, and not knowing why the door had closed I just went up to try and open it, I couldn’t, it was heavier than usual, it was stuck. After my failure of trying to open the door, I just sat down next to a pile of apples in the dark, I was sad that I would miss Rainbow’s rainboom.

Then it happened, I never actually saw what happened, but I heard it. Back then I thought it was the rainboom, it was not until later, when I dislodged the door that I later found out what happened.

Once I had finally dislodged the door, the first thing I saw, was nothing. I mean I definitely saw something, but it was as if there was nothing. There were apple trees everywhere, the barn was gone, and I couldn’t even see Ponyville in the distance. Everything was black and scorched, worse yet, there was a seared and charred corpse, that most definitely of Big Mac a few hundred meters to the side. This was the first body I saw, and it was surprisingly, not the worst.

I didn't believe anything I saw, I closed my eyes as I backed up slowly into my cellar, I tried to fall asleep as if it would wake me up from this nightmare that was reality. I stayed there, alone, in my cellar, for what seemed like an eternity.

Comments

[CluelessDetective]

September?

[Tyek]

I like the idea but "Now after a year of recollecting my thoughts of events prior ..." does that mean that each of them survived on their own for a year without finding each other? Surely Twilight would have been able to send up a signal like a flare to attract attention, and Rainbow Dash would be visible up in the sky.

Also, where did they get food? With no farms, any stored food that survived would run out quickly.

And what did they do in winter when it snowed? (Thinking out loud here.) Hmm actually, the seasons are changed manually by ponies aren't they? With no ponies around, the world is stuck in the same season. Same with the weather. Hang on a sec, the sun and the moon are controlled too. So either the Princesses survived and never bothered to contact the other survivors or they're dead and Equestria is stuck with an eternal day. Which would roast the planet, Then again, the laws of physics are bent or broken in so many other ways on this show so who knows.

Haha, I guess I didn't mean to analyse it this much. Don't mistake critisism for hate anyway, this is good work and it was fairly well written. I'd like to see more. Thank you.

[TAB]

Tracking, needs to be a little more clearer, though.

[Malicious-Badger]

272910 don't worry, i have it all planned out. and i don't quite see that i have hinted that they DIDNT find each other, however you have a point and thanks for your constructive criticisms.

as for food: keep in mind AJ has a cellar filled w/ apples, and twilight can conjure stuff w/ magic, and idk bout RBD but im not there yet.

[Malicious-Badger]

272431 why yes actually, if you have seen this on deviant art (i high doubt any1 would have though) the description mentions that this story was quite inspired by that song, actually thats why i started writing it. good on you for noticing :)
i guess it's kinda what happened with rainbow factory :)

[Malicious-Badger]

273081 would you care to explain a bit? if you mean the tracking of who is speaking at the time, then i can tell you that the way i intend to write is it will always be written in this order; Twilight, Rainbow, AJ

[The Grey Pegasus]

So half of the 6 survived? Alright... The plot (ot the way you conveyed it) needs work. While some stuff doesn't make logical sense (as mentioned above and stuff) some things just need to be cleaned up. On Twilight's part mostly.

So what I understood is that Ponyville just got nuked. Okay then.

Few grammatical stuff here and there, but it's still good.

[Malicious-Badger]

274908 well, tbh if you read carefully, both twi and aj mention seeing layers/multiples of the bombs layers, indicating that most of equestria got bombed, not nuked, as nothing would really survive a nuke like the way i describe some things. especially not a year w/out getting radiation poisoning. i do understand that twi's part is a bit weird, but do keep in mind i have no editor to tell me im writing something stupid. i just write what sounds good. hopefully, p2 (which is already written) should maybe make stuff a bit clearer.

and about how the sun and the moon rises, if you wondering, dw, i got it figured out, when i get to it (which will probably be in part 4 or 5).

[Mrantefjant]

= X(
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

[Malicious-Badger]

277916 i didn't want him to die, but i think he gave his life to save his sister. how else did the door close and get heavier idk, cuz idk wat happened either.

[maximus25]

Why does this say it updated today when there's still only one chapter?

Not complaining, but it went to the top of my tracking page and I was like, "Sweet, update!" Then saw it still only had one chapter and was all, "Wat?"