What We've Lost

When was the last time you actually laughed...

"We lied..."

"Hmm? What was that?" Spike asked from his spot across from me. I don't know how long it's been since we made it to town hall but it feels like ages since I've moved. That poor filly... What did she do to deserve this? It's all my fault...

"We lied to her... Flora. We told her she'd be okay... a-and... and now she's dead." I looked over at Spike in fear and sadness. By the look on his face I guess he shared the sentiment as he stared blankly back at me.

"Why is this happening?" I asked no one in particular. "What did we do to deserve this? We're not bad ponies are we?" Spike just continued staring at the floor. I slowly stood up from my spot on the floor and walked to Spikes side and rested my head on his shoulder. I felt his flinch back for a moment before resting his head on mine.

I'm not sure how long we sat in silence but eventually the darkness took hold of my eyes and dragged me into a restless slumber.

Shooting up in a panic my eyes scanned the room around me, jumping at shadows. I felt a scratching around my stomach and I looked down to find an old wool blanket. Spike was no where to be seen and I felt strangely vulnerable.

"Spike?" I whispered out into the dark room I found myself in. "Spike!" I tried again, a little more panicked than before, but no one returned my calls. Swallowing my fear I moved the blanket aside and cautiously stood up to look around. It was fairly hard to see given that the lights were out and the moons light barely shone in from outside.

Holding a hoof up against the wall I began my careful trek through the halls. It was eerily quiet in here which had my hopes of finding other ponies in here slowly crumbling away like the thoughts of having a normal life again.

I stopped when the wall my hoof was on suddenly ended, telling me that the hall either turned, or just split off from here. Not knowing the layout of the building at all I followed the wall around the corner. Without being able to see I walked right into somepony.

"AHH! GET AWAY! LEAVE ME ALONE YOU MONSTER!" I screamed as I tried desperately to find something I could use to defend myself. It wasn't until several moments later when I realized I wasn't getting mauled and eaten that I stopped flailing and squinted into the darkness. Spike was standing before me with a concerned look on his face and a flashlight in his claw.

A light blush came to my face as Spike helped me up and I brushed myself of the dust on my coat.

"Are you okay Molly?" He asked as he looked on in concern.

"I'm okay Spike. Where did you go? I woke up and I was all alone. I didn't know what happened to you... I was so scared..." I was near tears as Spike rushed up and gave me a hug. I tucked my muzzle into the crook of his neck as tears began to flow down my face. "Don't leave me alone like that again... please."

"I'm not going anywhere, I'm sorry. But you fell asleep and I couldn't so I figured I would explore town hall a bit. From what I can tell there's nopony here. I did find some medical supplies though, so that's good." Spike said with a slight grimace on his face. "There's still a lot of this place left to explore though, come on."

I nodded quickly as I wiped my eyes clear of tears and followed his lead. I know he was putting on a brave front.I could see in his eyes he was just as scared as I was but I'm glad he was trying to stay strong for the both of us.

We walked through the quiet halls for a few minutes before something finally clicked. "Hey Spike, have you noticed how all of the furniture is missing?" At this Spike took a good look around.

"You're right! There's nothing. No vases, tables, chairs. Nothing. I wonder where it all went?"

Keeping that thought in the back of my mind we ventured on until we came to another split in the hall. "Well I guess that explains the lack of furniture." Spike said with a confused look. Blocking on of the hallways was a veritable mountain of chairs, desks and small tables. It rose as high as the ceiling and looked to be a few meters thick at least. That left the hall to our right and a door to our left.

We were about to head down the hall when we heard hoofsteps. They were faint at first so we stopped and craned our ears. It sounded like they were getting closer. Spike aimed the flashlight down the hall just in time to see one of the creatures shamble around a corner at the end of the hall.

"Oh no..." Spike whispered as he slowly backed towards the door behind us. He wasn't paying attention to his footing and he tripped a little and dropped the flashlight. It hit the floor in what sounded like thunder and almost immediately the creatures head shot our way and it let out a feral growl as it began to charge our way.

Quickly turning around I tried the doorknob but it wouldn't budge. Panicking I started banging on the door and jiggling the knob with all of my might but it just wouldn't move. "Spike! What do we do?" I screamed as the monster continued to charge down the hall, closing the gap on us quickly. It would be mere moments before it was upon us and ripping us apart.

I was about to slam the door again when it suddenly shot open and a pair of brown hooves reached out and pulled Spike and I inside before slamming shut once again. All I could hear were my own screams as I looked around the black room in fear.