The piddling snowflakes which fell from a grey sky had begun to grow into piles of snow.
Fluttershy trudged through them as she approached the city of Canterlot. Around her were towering, ancient structures of stone. The buildings were designed from the architecture of a dozen ages and consisted of towering fingers of cathedral spires and below them, the relatively tiny buildings of the Equestria commonfolk, where they had once lived out their day to day lives. Street lamps stood empty and barren, the glass of their containers shattered and the candles within melted to the ends of their wicks.
Around her, a nascent blizzard was beginning to make itself known. Snowflakes streamed from the cloudy skies above and landed all about her; on her eyelashes, her wings, her muzzle. She stuck her tongue out playfully to catch one, only to spit out the ashy fleck. Even the rays of the perpetual dusk were mostly failing to grasp the ground and if the light was poor before, it offered nearly nothing to her now. Were it not for the lantern by her side, she would have been forced to stumble about in pitch blackness through the road leading into the old city.
She remembered how busy this city once was and grimaced in the face of the silent, cold atmosphere that had now seeped into everything around her. Nowhere to be seen were the haughty ponies of the nobility, nor the colts and fillies that used to play about under watchful eyes within the streets. All was still and empty, barren and hollow and many more adjectives besides.
Lining the streets, like the stagecoaches of old, were skeletons. Those ponies who hadn’t reanimated into violent skeletal monsters had simply withered and died, their bones stacked into huge clumps that littered the streets. They had been shattered and broken by some great force unknown to her and she shuddered to imagine what could have caused the damage she saw on the old bones.
As she trotted up to the entrance gate, she saw a pony. Through the folds of the long, draping cloaks it wore about itself, she couldn’t quite tell if the figure was a stallion or a mare. Even the pony’s mane was hidden by a large ten-gallon hat. Its back was to her and she took a moment to observe and learn as much as she could about the mysterious stranger.
On its side were saddlebags brimming with some kind of sparkling mineral. A gun holster bearing an incredibly large revolver hung from its side. Fluttershy felt a brief tinge of revulsion when she imagined the devastating effect the bullets of such a weapon would have on a pony. Looking at the shattered bones around her, she wondered for a moment if she already knew the answers to her dark questions.
Fluttershy called out to the figure and it did not turn around to greet her. She raised her voice slightly and at once, the pony whipped around.
A bubble of apprehension heaved in her chest once she saw that the pony’s face was hidden by a pair of goggles and a bandana. Regardless of its hidden identity, the pony began to trot towards her. She wondered if she could raise the crossbow at her side quick enough to get a shot off if it came to that, then felt disgusted at her automatic predisposition towards violence.
The pony silently raised a hoof in greeting. She returned the gesture and the two ponies stared the other down for a moment.
Then the pony suddenly spoke. “Cold weather we’re having, isn’t it?”
Fluttershy smiled. “Oh goodness, yes it is.”
“Heh, such a warm smile. Almost…” The figure pulled down its bandana to reveal a face with no skin or muscle, but only bone. “Warms my old bones.” It then produced a sound that may have been laughter.
“Uh...um…” Fluttershy struggled to speak.
“‘Uhm’ what? Are you scared of me?” The skeleton popped its goggles off to reveal two hollowed eye-sockets.
‘Well, skeletons are spooky. And scary.” said Fluttershy, shivering from a sudden gust that had drifted in from seemingly nowhere.
“Heh.” The skeleton spoke the syllable, not bringing itself to actually laugh. “So what brings you to the old city?”
The wind sharply blew around them with a ghostly whistle, knocking Fluttershy from her train of thought. She clambered back on and continued to speak. “Um…I’m...here to see a friend.” The answer sounded satisfactory to her without giving too much of her quest away.
“Oh my, you’re injured.” abruptly commented the skeleton.
Fluttershy suddenly felt self-conscious about the bandages on her sides. Before she could respond, the skeleton raised a hoof and began to gently prod her bandaged skin. She tolerated the strange action for a moment before her discomfort grew too high.
“Ok- that’s enough.” She shoved the skeleton’s hoof away and to her surprise, it popped off and landed on the ground with a dull clatter.
The skeleton shook its head and laughed. “You won’t get very far in the old city with injuries like those. But I’ll be your escort.”
“No, I’m fine. And, um, I-I need to get going.” said Fluttershy, pushing the skeleton aside and quickly trotting away.
As she trotted, the skeleton called out to her again in a shrill rasp. “I need something from you!”
She pushed her trot into a slow gallop, her injuries a constant thorn in her side as she ran. She could hear the dull hoof-clops of the skeleton behind her as it ran to catch up with her. Pushing herself into an even greater speed, she cleared the gates of Canterlot.
**********
In a moment, she grasped why the skeleton had called it the ‘old city’.
The buildings themselves appeared to have aged immensely as if they themselves had been withered by the same catastrophe that had decimated their population. Long cracks ran through the walls and windows of the city’s structures, Everywhere were the ruins of the quaint domestic life that had once been lived by the citizens of the city; tables still held moldy food and drinks, the stalls of artisans still stocked with items. It was merely the ponies themselves that were totally missing from the city.
Her ears strained to hear anything from within the cobweb alley-ways and empty streets that confronted her. They heard no sound save for the slow, steady trotting of the skeletal gunslinger that had made up its mind to stalk her. She hoped beyond hope that there was a pony somewhere to help her, but she still did not know if anypony besides herself had managed to survive the withering of Equestria.
She trotted down the street and allowed herself room to breathe. There seemed to be no threats here for once, besides of course her stalker. The city was free of bones to her relief, in contrast to the chaos that lay outside. She turned to the building nearest to her and began to size it up. It was a cafe, its paint worn like some antique artifact in a carnival sideshow. Tables had been arranged out front, bearing their own plants with brittle, dead leaves.
A pile of clothing sat in one of the chairs. As she peered at it curiously, she found it to be an aristocratic ball gown. It was quite frayed and wrinkled, with large clumps of dust gathered within the seams of the silken blue dress.
Rarity. The name bursted into Fluttershy’s mind. It was the exact kind of thing that the mare would have made. In fact, the dress positively reeked of her, from the intricacy of its design, to the bob of purple hair that bursted from the top.
Fluttershy trotted up to the inert gown, hoping something beyond hope. She reached a trembling hoof forwards and gently prodded the back of the garment.
To her amazement, the clothes began to shift as the pony within turned around to face her.
“Rari-” The words caught in her throat once she saw the face of the pony. It didn’t have the white fur of her friend, but bore a dull, grey color. Its hues were contrasted by a pair of sparkling yellow eyes that sat beneath a chipped horn. Within the face were deep lines and wrinkles of age.
“Rare what?” The mare’s voice had a gravely, withered edge to it. “It’s certainly rare to see another pony around.”
Fluttershy reeled for a moment in her shock at finding another survivor. Then she remembered her stalker. “Um, I don’t know who you are, but there’s a very strange skeleton followi-”
The mare threw her head back and let out a laugh so soft it was barely audible. Fluttershy took a step back and the mare locked eyes with her. A sharp tongue flickered between her lips, then she opened her mouth and began to loudly warble.
Fluttershy looked about her in panic. What horrors within the city would be stirred by the strange song of the insane old mare before her? As she continued to sing, her voice increased in power until the windows of the old city began to shake. At once, she shut her mouth to cease the cacophony.
Fluttershy waited for the mare to do something else, but she merely sunk back in her chair and continued to stare into nothingness. That oddity having run its course, the pegasus then turned to the cafe itself with a note of curiosity. Surprisingly, the windows of the old building weren’t quite empty; she could see a grimy light making its way known as a soft glow in the window panes. With nowhere else to go inside of the former capital of Equestria, she strode past the freak that lurked outside, to probe the inside.
**********
The scene that greeted her was as dismal as she had expected. A few moldy barstools had been pulled up to a counter, behind which resided a rack of dusty wine bottles and glasses. They took all shapes and sizes; triangles, regular cylinders of wine, trapezoids, rhombuses and many others, some of which she didn’t quite recognize.
More important than such trivialities to her were the ponies who resided at the bar. They were an odd, ancient crowd. Their skin was pulled so tightly over their bones that they looked like skeletons at some bizarre festival where the goal was to dress like ponies. Moth-eaten clothing adorned them and several wore hats and other accessories of the nobility that had once resided within the old city. None of them looked up or did anything to acknowledge her as she strode in, save for the bartender, himself barely more than a skeleton.
The old stallion had no mane to speak of save for a few grey whiskers. Fluttershy was taken aback when she saw how far the pony had withered; if it weren’t for the two bloodshot eyes that cautiously watched her, she would have thought him already long dead.
At once, he began to speak in a voice with little more power than a whisper. “You are not withered. How odd.”
Fluttershy suddenly thought of how vividly her coat shone compared to the half-dead ponies in attendance at the bar. Though her hair was greyed, enough pink had worked its way in to allow her to retain some semblance of her youth. She ran her hoof through it with a tremble of trepidation.
“No, I suppose I’m not.” The bartender and her locked eyes in a weird moment where neither spoke. Then she took a seat.
He slowly cocked an eyebrow at her. “How is that?”
She looked at her hoof and her eyes trailed their way up her leg. “I don’t know. But I’m on a very important mission and-”
Something overcame her and she turned around. Through the window of the bar she could see the gunslinger staring at her with the hollow pits where his eyes had once resided. She shivered and returned to face the bartender.
“...a mission. Well, would you like a drink?” His words came slowly and what little inflection that they possessed was forced.
“Um, well, I don’t drink.” she muttered meekly.
“Heh.” The bartender grasped a bottle from the top shelf and then seized a glass. He put the two together and with a swift movement removed the lid from the bottle. “The only drink around here is...misery.”
Fluttershy watched as a trickle of dust poured from the bottle into the glass. Then the bartender collapsed on the ground.
She leapt to her hooves. “Are you okay?”
Dashing behind the counter, she tried to help the stallion to his hooves. Even as she grabbed at his body, his skin sloughed off to reveal dry bones underneath. There was no blood or gore present within his body, but merely bones that had been covered by a thin layer of dead skin.
She held the layers of dead skin in her hooves and thought of a snake shedding its skin. Pushing back her fear, she looked to the other bar patrons. Their skin was peeling off in long layers like the wrappings of a present being removed. They fell from their stools one by one, their dust-filled glasses falling to the ground and shattering. From outside came a tremendous howl as the wind began to blow with a ferocity she had never seen before, then all was still.
“Confused?”
Fluttershy whipped around to face the gunslinger. She looked about herself for an exit, only to find that he was standing before the only one in the building.
“Why are you following me?” She tried to put some force behind the words, but they were as meek and timid as anything she had ever said.
“I don’t want to hurt you, truth be told.” As he spoke, the remains of the bar patrons suddenly erupted into black flame.
They sprang from their bar stools with a start and the gunslinger drew his revolver. Before the first one approached him, his gun let out a tremendous crack, tendrils of smoke creeping from the barrel. With two more booms from the firearm, the skeletons in the bar had been blown into chunks of bone. He drew several bullets from his saddlebags and reloaded, then turned towards her.
Fluttershy cowered in her corner, quite unsure of what to do. She thought of raising her crossbow to strike the stranger down, but her curiosity was overtaking her. “Why do you follow me?”
“I need you to talk to someone for me.” plainly stated the gunslinger.
“Um…” Fluttershy pawed the ground and turned her head to the side.
He continued to rasp at her in his ghastly voice. “We just aren’t on good terms is all. Anyways, here’s his address.” He drew a letter from his side. “Follow up if you care to. Or don’t.”
“Tall about wha-” Before her question was answered, the skeleton dropped the letter on the bar and quickly made his exit.
Stowing it away in her saddlebags, she took out her journal and rooted through it for a moment. Nowhere was there mention of the exact location of the fountain of life, to her dismay.
With nothing particularly better to do, Fluttershy opened the letter and read its contents, noticing that the address inside was within Canterlot. She trotted out the door and continued on her quest.