The Fall

by Malicious-Badger

Part 2

Clearing.

I crawled out of my temporary placement, leaving the roots of the tree, and leaving the slight comfort they gave. I peered round the sides of the tree, as if I was hiding from a living being, and that I would not wish to be seen. As if there was something still alive out there, something watching me. As expected, there was no one there. To me, this as slightly reassuring, and slightly saddening; the fact that there probably was truly no one out there.

Outside the comfort of my tree, I started towards the only place I thought to go; home. It had taken me 2 days of so of telewalking, to get the 87 kilometers away from Ponyville I was, yet I knew it would take me half the time to get back. After about ten minutes of telewalking, I was already somewhere that looked unfamiliar. I most definitely did not pass that on the way going, it was truly a sight. Though I had never seen what I had seen on the way going, I knew I was going the right direction.

Before my eyes lay baron waste, hints of green lay scattered around but there was not much. There was nothing but trees brunt to a crisp, it was all dead, just death everywhere, and some animal bones could be seen along the debris. The ground was a warzone of tree branches and unidentifiable things. Though what I saw was not a pretty sight, the clearing did help me in some way; it allowed for faster, longer teleports, the lack of trees made the likelihood of ending up in one much less plausible. Magic isn't as easy as some people think, one little mistake and you are just as likely to end up inside of something, like a tree, than next to it.

It took what seemed to be forever of telewalking through new landscape that was getting old surprisingly fast till I finally was out, I cleared the forest or what of left of it. I had started moving at the break of day, and by that point it was pitch-black night. I needed shelter for some reason, and now that I think back, I actually don't know why, what was I sheltering from? I slept uncomfortably that night under the open night sky, my head lying on my saddlebags; a makeshift fort of debris sheltered me.

I awoke the next morning to rain; I guess that's what I was sheltering from, though with no roof over my head there was not much point. The sky was almost as dark as at dusk, but having it already been night it was surely sometime in the morning. I walked out of my so-called fort and, back then it still mattered to me, I took out my notepad and jotted some notes down; thought of dreams I had, thing I saw yesterday, myself trying to rationalize what was happening, I can't remember if I did a good job or not. For what is left now, to me, there is not rationalization, it just happened. Somepony did it; it could have been out of anger, or anything else that could drive a pony to the brink of insanity, but that doesn't matter anymore, whoever did it is probably dead, and it's not like we are able to turn back the time and stop The Fall from happening. I only wish I had a spell for that.

In the rain the first thought that came to me, remembering of what was probably yesterday, my sense of time gone, was; Why? Who would ever be so cruel? Why am I still alive? What if I'm the only one left? I had no explanations to clear the thoughts in my head.

Black.

I reached the ground. It was black. Just black, everything was black. The houses, what were left of them, the bones, of those who were recently living, the trees, which were the source of our food and air, the reason we live. It seemed impossible that a world could lack so much colour, yet what I saw in front of my eyes was not fake, it was monochromatic, it was a world that stopped living. In the wake of day, it seemed the night had painted itself on the ground, and that above us was the direction to our actual world.

It's been 2 months and things have started to regain colour, but it's still black. There is some life left here, I do have reasons to live, but we're not there yet. Once I had reached the ground, I gained a whole new perspective of the situation. I realized that I had lost everything, everything I held dear, and everypony I had promised to stand by no matter what. I not much for crying, but I couldn't help myself, I realized that I had feelings I never knew about; regret, loss, and most importantly guilt.

I felt it impossible to lift my wings; I could not take myself to see everything in whole. I grounded myself, something I never thought I'd do. I probably have not flown in 3 weeks now, and every time I think back to that point I can't help but thank myself, ever since then I've been able to live my life a bit slower, it's a lot easier on me.

Stuck on the ground, in the center of town I sat on my haunches, I sat there for quite some time, I was pouring my eyes out. I did not even try to comprehend what had happened, I just knew it did, and for some reason, to myself, I was responsible. My friends were all dead and I was sure of it.

I honestly didn't want to do it, but I knew I had to. I needed some sort of closure I guess you could say. I knew I was in the center of town, as the burning black wreckage, and skeleton of town hall lay few meters to my side, this meant I was close to sugarcube corner. I headed in that direction. Night was approaching.

Usually it wouldn't take me half a second to get to sugarcube corner, but everything was different on the ground, walking felt unnatural for some reason. It took me 10 minutes to walk to the location of sugarcube corner; I do believe I got lost along the way.

The usual ginger bread house styled house was now something along the lines of a bunch of burnt toast held together by butter. It looked very unsafe, but it was the only way I could convince myself I was not dreaming, or even better that I might not be alone, I mean come on; it is Pinkie Pie after all. I entered the archway that used to be a door, and I had to go no further, there was a hole in the ceiling where the roof had collapsed, under it lay the most Pinkie Pie of corpses. It looked like she was serving everypony cupcakes and otherbaked goods for groundmares day to the population of Ponyville. The way she lay looked as if she was busy yelling something very Pinkie Pie like, like something: I hope everypony is having fun! Or These cupcakes are delicious, everypony come, take one. I didn't need to see anything else, I exited and went to find some place to lay my head, someplace surrounded by the dark of night, not the dark of death.

Mourning.

Enclosed by my bunker of solitude, knowing I couldn't fall asleep, I didn't know what to do. It was as if somepony took away my ability to close my eyes properly. They stayed open, open to the horror of lay beyond my cellar door.

I knew I couldn't stay in my cellar forever, yet I just couldn't bring myself to see the outside world again. I thought to myself Everything I worked for; gone, everything I loved; gone, I had nothing anymore. Though I could not prove my friends were all dead, the mere fact of the matter is that I could only assume the worst. Judging by the amount of explosion rings in the sky and the effects of them I saw on my farm, it was highly unlikely for any of them to have lived, to be honest.

I cried at the fact that my life's work was gone, keeping the farm was the thing that kept me running, and it was the only thing that kept my hooves moving. It was the only thing I knew to do well, my cutie mark seemed obsolete now, though that was the least of my worries.

After a moment of crying over my family's business it struck me that even worse; not only my business was destroyed but so was everypony else's; Rarity's Boutique, Pinkie Pie and Sugarcube Corner, Fluttershy's animal care, Twi's Library, and whatever it was that Rainbow did, if that filly ever actually worked.

See as how I was working when this whole End thing happened, I had assumed that they were working too, except for Twi' who I knew was out in the Everfree, it was sad to me; the thought that she died alone. Her last words to us were "Don't worry, I'll be perfectly fine, and I'll be back before the week's end." She wasn't coming back that week.

I just couldn't keep helping myself; I kept spewing tears. It was the thought of never seeing any of them again. It was the thought of how I was probably the last pony alive in Equestria. It was the thought of how any of the other would handle it.

Rarity would surely be a disaster, that pony can't even get her hooves dirty, let alone live in a world of black soot and smog. That pony would be killing herself lickety split. Her fashionable class would be very much so useless round here; nopony would be able to see her, and prettifying everything wouldn't help at all.

Pinkie Pie, well, lets just say I'd be worried for that one. The story Dash told us of Gummy's after birthday party, was probably something that would give the same effect she would have now, just that this is about 100 time bigger.

I don't know how Fluttershy would cope, how does one who's special talent is loving everything live when there is nothing left to love, I know she could take care of others, but could she take care of herself?

Twilight would probably drive herself crazy to find a spell that would fix this all.

And finally Rainbow Dash. The most loyal of friends, she always acted free and independent, but I'd assume she'd stay right by her friends. I sighed, it was raining.

Comments

[Malicious-Badger]

286846 ummm... i don't know really. if it's still not working you can always read it here: http://maliciousbadger.deviantart.com/#/d4rnket
i'm sure it got published. i wouldn't know what is wrong with it.