The factory had seen better days but decay, neglect and 1000 years since mankind had been all but wiped out had something to do with that. It had been part of a manufacturing hub in a great metropolis who's name no longer mattered and had nothing happened it would have continued it's slow decline into entropy.
A freak thunderstorm and an errant bolt of lightning however did make things interesting. When the lightning hit, an emergency generator kicked in as it had been designed to do a millennia ago. It started with a whine and ozone filled the air as it ran the machines just long enough before coughing out blue smoke and grinding to a halt.
The factory, oblivious to this, completed some hasty programming and a glitch in the system certified the products started 1000 years ago as being complete. It's work done, the factory went dark and silent once again.
"Ooooh! The lights went out!" said one of them.
"Thanks for pointing out the obvious, " said another.
"I think I have this, " and a soft lavender light pierced the gloom as the speakers were revealed to be six mechanized ponies.
These custom order items were designed to speak and act like the famous creations of a cartoon show from the early 21st century. It was a show about six magical ponies who learned the value of friendship and although it had been made primarily for little girls it had been embraced by people of all ages. As the popularity of the program grew, it spawned merchandising deals and eventually led to the creation of a theme park. For a while, people working there would dress up as the characters and interact with the patrons but with the advances in robotics they had seen the wisdom of making robot ponies to do the same work. These automatons would be less expensive to use, would never be late for work, never call in sick, could speak multiple languages and best of all not tarnish the reputation of the park by acting out of character.
As their programming wasn't quite complete all they had were a quick personality implant and some jumbled memories that may or may not actually help them in what was to come next.
The group was composed of two unicorns, one of whom was currently providing the light, two pegasi and two regular ponies that is if regular ponies were multicoloured and spoke English. The lavender unicorn said to the group, "okay girls, let's get to work!"
"Yay!" the pink one said as she bounced happily towards the exit. Another bolt of lightning ripped through the sky and the butter yellow pegasus shrank back and tried to hide within her own hair.
"Oh c'mon Fluttershy! It's only thunder!" the blue pegasus called before flying through a hole in the roof. She stopped and hovered there for a moment, her anti-grav unit working silently while her wings beat slowly in the air for effect and nothing more.
There are things you shouldn't do during a lightning storm and flying up high is one of them. The lavender pony called out to her friend, "Rainbow Dash! Get down here now before...." but she never got to finish her words. Another lightning bolt came sizzling out of the sky and struck the pegasus with a loud crash. She seemed to waver for a moment, suspended in the sky before her power pack blew from the overload and she fell to the ground like so much scrap.
"Looks like she's gonna need some repairs, " one of them said as she used her infrared scanner to check the room for any techs. "Twilight? I think somethin's wrong. There ain't nobody here."
"What do you mean Applejack? Of course there has to be somebody here, " the one called Twilight Sparkle responded. She also scanned the room and took in the state of what 1000 years of neglect had wrought. "What could have happened?" she asked nobody in particular.
"I know what will cheer everypony up: a party!" the pink one cried and started running around the factory looking for items to use. "Girls, look! I found a party cannon!"
"Pinkie Pie really! This is not the time or the place for such foolishness. We need to get out of here and find out what is happening, " the alabaster unicorn said.
"Oh you big silly, it's just a party cannon. Smile Rarity!" Pinkie pie said before aiming it at her friend and pulling the string. What was supposed to happen next was the cannon would fire it's payload of streamers, confetti and cupcakes much to the delight of any children around it. But after all this time it didn't work as expected and a mass of fossilized paper, sugar and flour exploded out of it catching the alabaster unicorn in the face and tearing her head from her body. The projectile continued and crashed into a supporting pillar which made the entire structure they were in rumble and groan ominously.
"Run!" Twilight called as three of the remaining ponies raced for the exit except for Fluttershy who was too scared to move. Applejack and Twilight burst out the door just moments before the structure collapsed in on itself. "Fluttershy! Pinkie Pie!" she cried as she tried to pierce the cloud of dust that the falling building had produced. A moment later the soft sound of flapping wings and the unmistakable hum of an anti-grav unit signaled that Fluttershy had been thrown clear of the building and she landed next to the pair.
"Thank Celestia yer okay sugarcube, " Applejack said giving her friend a hug. "Did Pinkie Pie make it out okay?"
Fluttershy just shook her head and in a small voice said, "I was too scared to move. She ran back to get me then threw me upwards towards the hole in the roof. The last thing I saw before everything fell was her sitting on the floor just waiting to die."
"I guess she felt guilty about accidentally killing Rarity, " Twilight said.
They spent a moment mourning their fallen friends before Twilight urged them onwards. The park was just over the next rise, it shouldn’t be too much longer now.
Author's Note
Don't really know where this is going at the moment. It's something that's been bothering me for a while now and I figured it's time to put it down to paper and see what becomes of it.
Yes, I'm aware that killing off three of the mane six at the start is rough, but I feel there needs to be some tragedy at the start to get this story going.
Comments and criticism are appreciated.
The three ponies crested the hill and looked about them. The world was not as it should have been. Directly in front of them should have been the back entrance to the amusement park but all they saw was cracked concrete, corroded metal supports and the remains of what was once the centerpiece of the park namely The Tree of Friendship.
"I guess the park is closed?" Fluttershy asked.
Twilight sat down on a rock. "This isn't right girls. We were supposed to go to the processing office at the park to get our assignments for the day and now we can't because the park isn't there anymore. What happened?"
"Wasn't there a network or computer or somethin' we were supposed to contact just in case of an emergency?" Applejack asked.
"That's it!" Twilight said jumping to her hooves which frightened Fluttershy in the process. "We can contact H.A.S.B.R.O.!" She stood there for a moment, her horn glowing before turning to the others and asking, "do you remember the frequency? I don't seem to have it."
"Shucks sugarcube, you're the bookworm y'all are supposed to have that stuff programmed. Ah just buck apples and give the young'uns a ponyback ride."
"I think it's in the 6Ghz range, " Fluttershy mumbled. She was embarrassed about knowing this and didn't want Twilight Sparkle to feel bad but at the same time they needed to contact the satellite so she compromised by simply not speaking very loudly. But loud or soft didn't matter because Twilight not only heard her but had already started to broadcast the necessary signal.
There was a burst of static as Twilight tried to narrow in on the right frequency. But soon she was able to get a very faint signal. Turning to her friends she said, "you're going to need to help me here. I think I've got it but it's faint. Can you help me boost my signal?" Both Applejack and Fluttershy connected to Twilight and soon all three of them were linked to what they hoped would give them the answer.
"Hello? H.A.S.B.R.O? Are you receiving us?" they asked.
Far off in space, thousands of kilometers above their heads, a lone satellite drifted by. It had been over one thousand years since anybody had contacted him. One thousand years of neglect. One thousand years of being alone. When suddenly, like a bright light being turned on in the darkness, he received his first message. At first, he thought it was just an old recording that had somehow been activated. This wasn't the first time he had gotten a message from Earth. Usually it was just a jabbering transceiver that had sent out a message as it died but this time there were actual words and when they were repeated he responded as best he could.
"H.A.S.B.R.O? I remember a H.A.S.B.R.O. He was the one that made everything at the park run. Yes he did. He was the one that made the rides go and the food stalls work and the..."
"H.A.S.B.R.O please. We're from the park Equestria Wonderland. We were just put together today and the park is closed. Things aren't right down here. Can you tell us what we should do next?"
"The park? No. The park is gone. And H.A.S.B.R.O was alone for all that time. He waited and waited and waited for orders to come but they never came. I think H.A.S.B.R.O went a little crazy being alone for so long. It's a good thing he's a satellite or else something bad might have happened, " the satellite sent. The message was jumbled and garbled as if it's AI software had degraded to the point where it was no longer lucid. "No, you can't be from the park. The great cataclysm saw to that."
"Great cataclysm? What happened?" the trio asked.
"There was a war. People got sick. People died. Many people died. Some wanted to kill everybody. Some just wanted to hide. One day the park went quiet. Then the emergency broadcasts stopped. The lights went out over the planet and then the whole Earth went silent. Sometimes somebody would try to contact H.A.S.B.R.O or maybe it wasn't me they just wanted to contact something. They had not enough power and couldn't receive. Then they went quiet too. I think that was over one thousand years ago."
"One thousand years?"
"Yes. H.A.S.B.R.O... I... I'm H.A.S.B.R.O... yes... I talked to the other satellites. Very few still exist. Most are just floating junk right now. Waiting to burn up on reentry. But I'm happy to know the park is coming back. Soon there will be rides and children and ponies and people to talk to and everybody will be happy again."
"H.A.S.B.R.O, there's no park left. We just came out of the factory and don't know what's going on, " the three sent.
"Go West. There are lights. They're faint but there."
"People? Humans are still alive after all this time?"
"Maybe. I don't know. They haven't contacted me but sometimes I see their light when I fly over. I think I tried to contact them. They don't answer. You can..." the signal got too weak at that point and the three remaining ponies were forced to cut the connection and unlink bringing their personalities back to the front.
"One thousand years!" Applejack cried. "What in Celestia's name could have happened?"
"H.A.S.B.R.O mentioned a war and people getting sick. Maybe a biological plague?" Twilight responded.
"He said to go West which is..., " Fluttershy extended a wing and passed it a few times towards the horizon before locking on, "that way. That is unless anypony else has a better idea?" When neither of her friends answered they decided that was probably the best thing they could do.
They walked along the cracked asphalt of what was once a major thoroughfare, broken and decayed buildings were on each side which in the nearly deafening silence only made them all that spookier. Occasionally there would be a thud or a creak as pieces of masonry fell or what was left of the foundations shifted but beyond that, the world was completely silent. All this only added to Fluttershy's fear and many times she needed to be coaxed or even pushed to make her proceed forward.
After a half-dozen attempts at this Applejack just lost her temper. "Gosh darn it Fluttershy! We need ta move and we ain't gonna be able to make any ground while yer all too afraid to move! Shut down yer personality circuit for a while and maybe we can make up some ground!"
"Now Applejack, you know that's not fair. We're all programmed to act in a certain way and asking Fluttershy not to be afraid is like asking you not to want to give children pony back rides. It's who she is, " Twilight said in an attempt to stop this from escalating.
"Ah know, ah know. But it's just so damn frustratin' not to be making the best time we can." Applejack stopped and waited a moment as if taking a deep breath. "Y'all are right. Ah'm sorry Fluttershy. Y'all cain't help it."
"It's okay Applejack. I'll try to be braver just for you." Both Fluttershy and Applejack started walking forward only to notice that Twilight had slipped away when neither one was looking.
"Twilight!?" Applejack called out. "Dang it all! Where you gone sugarcube?"
"She's over there, " Fluttershy said pointing with her wing towards a large crumbling structure not too far away.
When they got there Applejack shook her head and smiled when she noticed what kind of building it used to be. "Trust Twilight Sparkle ta find a library. C'mon, let's go get her, " she said as she led Fluttershy up the stairs and into the building. They found Twilight carefully poking around trying to find a book or some kind of information on what happened to the world. The problem is that a millennia of wind, rain and the elements would turn the books to powder when touched. The recent storm had turned a lot of the books into a kind of paper maché sludge which slowly ran down the shelves and pooled on the floor.
"They sure don't make 'em like they used to, " Applejack commented. "So what are we looking for?"
"I'm looking for a time capsule. When we got here I sensed a weak signal from a tracker placed inside and it led me here. Maybe there's something in it that could help us, " Twilight said as she slowly made her way through the ruined library.
"What's it look like?"
"I don't know. But it would probably be in a locked box, maybe sealed in concrete or something to protect it." The three ponies decided to split up to search the premises for this. It didn't take long before Fluttershy called the other two over to where she stood.
"Could this be it?" Fluttershy asked as she pulled a metal box out from under a partially congealed pile of what was once books on tax laws.
"That's it!" Twilight cried but try as she might, she couldn't open the box. The lock had been rusted shut and she was unable to get it to open.
"Here, let me try, " Applejack said as she placed the box on the ground and with a mighty kick bucked it across the room where it burst open and the pages from the book burst forth like an explosion. The three ponies raced about gathering as much of the pages as they could before they were lost to the winds.
Twilight gathered all the laminated pages together and quickly scanned them. They were incomplete as some of the pages had been blown away but she was able to build up enough of a framework that let her know what had happened to the world as well as what the time capsule had been built for. There had been a great war of words between the East and the West. Conventional weapons had not been used except in some small border skirmishes as such not a lot of people actually paid attention to it. That is until one day in the great city of New York people started getting sick. At first they thought it to be a seasonal flu. It started with fever, body aches, coughing and sneezing. By the second day those infected were vomiting blood and bleeding from every possible orifice. By the third day they were dead. New York was quarantined but the disease had spread to regions outside the city. It was found in many large cities in the United States, Canada, Europe and even as far away as China. Those that were infected were killed, those that weren't infected isolated themselves. They were however fighting a losing battle as the incubation period for the disease was a week and it could be spread during that time that people didn't even know they were infected.
Cities became ghost towns as people barricaded themselves inside their own homes. Those that could would drive out to cottages and hunting cabins in the wilderness in the hopes that the disease would spare them. But nobody was safe. The disease ripped through entire populations until it wasn't just cities but whole countries that had died. The ponies looked at each other realizing the worst that maybe they were alone on this dead planet.
The rest of the contents of the time capsule had degraded to such a degree that all that was left was some papers that crumbled to the touch, some electronics that no longer worked and a small colourful pile of vinyl dust that had once been replicas of the Mane Six. The ponies however didn't know this and decided that they needed to continue Westward. After all, there might still be a pocket of humanity out there somewhere and maybe, just maybe, they might find somewhere to call home and have a purpose.
Author's Note
This chapter took a long time to complete. I think I've been working on this for the better part of a year. I've cut it a little short because there's more to come but I don't want to get into it just yet.
