Endgame

Endgame

Mommy, Are We Going To Die?

Moonshine The Brony

The town square was a dismal scene at best. There was death everywhere. Corpses lay strewn on the road where the wave left them, while survivors combed the morbid scene for other survivors. Looters were already fighting among themselves to claim the deceased ponies' valuables. The cries of pain and despair echoed throughout the city.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were busy moving the wounded to cleaner areas. They had just gotten finished moving a particularly heavyset Pegasus when they heard a familiar voice calling for them. "Fluttershy? Rainbow Dash? Ya'll there?" Rainbow Dash's ears perked up when she heard it. "Hey, that's Applejack!" she exclaimed excitedly. Fluttershy smiled slightly. "Oh good! I'm so glad that she's okay," she said quietly. Rainbow Dash nodded. "Yeah, lets go see how she is." With that, they both flew off to their friend's voice.

Applejack was appalled by the conditions she saw. There was no separation between the dead and the wounded; disease would spread around like cheap, chalky candy for Hearts and Hooves day. She would find Mayor Mare and advise her to separate them. She looked around the scene and took in a breath. "Fluttershy? Rainbow Dash? Ya'll there?" she shouted nervously, afraid that she'd not be answered. Seconds turned to minutes, and minutes felt like an eternity. Then she turned around. "Rainbow Dash? Flutter-OOF!" she grunted as a certain yellow Pegasus flew out of nowhere and gave her a huge hug. "Applejack! I'm so glad you're okay! I thought you were hurt, or worse! I do hope everything's okay!" said Fluttershy in her quiet manner. Applejack was flailing frantically, manically tapping Fluttershy's foreleg with a hoof and gasping, "I... can't.... breathe...!" Fluttershy gasped and immediately let go. "Oh dear! I'm terribly sorry, are you okay? I should have known better but-" Applejack cut her off with a hug of her own. Then she hugged Rainbow Dash, who rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, it's great to see you. Have you seen Twilight or Pinkie?" she asked suddenly. Applejack stopped hugging her and shook her head. "No... I wish Ah had, but Ah haven't seen them yet. They're probably okay though. Twilight's smart, so she'll get through this. Pinkie, on the other hoof..." She smiled, and all three spoke up at the same time. "Pinkie's just Pinkie!" they exclaimed in unison and all started to laugh, but it was a hollow laugh, void of the cheer that Pinkie usually brought. Rainbow Dash stopped abruptly, a frown pushing it's way on her lips. "Seriously, though. How's Rarity?" she asked. Applejack stopped laughing, and the other two noticed that her eyes were red and puffy, as if she had been crying. Applejack shook her head sadly, and Fluttershy gasped. "You mean...?" she whispered, barely audible over the moans and screaming in the background. Applejack nodded, tears trickling from her eyes. "She's gone, 'Shy." she whispered. Fluttershy collapsed in the mud, sobbing and shaking. Rainbow Dash wiped some tears from her eyes herself, but stopped to comfort Fluttershy.

"She's in a better place," she said gently. Fluttershy continued to cry, only managing to squeak out, "Anywhere's better than here now!" Applejack flinched, finding that she agreed with her. Are we the only ones being affected? Or is this a local thing? A new voice startled her from her thoughts. "Not everywhere's better than where we are now," it said. The three looked up to see who was talking and their mouths dropped. Standing in front of them, battered, bruised, and muddy, was the pony none of them expected to see. Applejack spoke up first. "Trixie? Is that you?"

~ ~ ~

Twilight Sparkle was a scary mare when she went into her panic episodes. She would only stop freaking out when ordered to by the Princesses. And Spike knew better than anypony that when she got that way there was no way to calm her down short of waiting a week or so. Twilight was approaching the fine line between worry and insanity now, and Spike had to escape. But the problem was that they were about ten feet under the Library.

Spike looked around the bunker. Essentially, that was what it was. A bunker constructed to survive the end of days, as Twilight called it. Twilight also called this place her "Emergency Living Quarters," or her ELK for short. The ELK was designed to have all of the necessities for modern Equestrian life; food, water, a stove, a fire extinguisher, a sink, some water purification tablets, and shelves of books. It was brightly lit and adorned with pictures of all of Twilight's friends and loved ones. It was, in a sense, a miniature home. There just weren't any windows. I have to get out of here! Rarity might be in trouble! Spike walked over to the door and pulled it open. Twilight was sleeping, thank goodness, so she didn't hear the creak of the hinges. Spike slid out the narrow crack between the door and the doorframe and got ready to close the door. He hesitated; the door wouldn't be able to open from the outside once closed. I'm sorry Twilight, but there's more at stake than just you, he thought. He flinched as he thought it, but he felt it was true. He would miss Twilight, that was for sure, but he would miss everypony else more if the world ended and he wasn't with them. With a rueful sigh, he closed the door with a thud.

~ ~ ~

"Trixie? Is that you?"

The blue pony standing in front of them was indeed Trixie. "Yes, it is I, Trixie," she said without any of the usual flair or confidence. Fluttershy's eyes widened. "Trixie, you look awful! Oh, I'm sorry if you're offended," she added quietly. Applejack walked over to Trixie. "Sugercube, why are ya'll so muddy?" she asked kindly. Trixie smiled sadly. "Thanks for your concern, Applejack, but I don't deserve your kindness," she replied in a despondent tone. All of the ponies were taken aback by this.

"Trixie? Is there something wrong?" asked Rainbow Dash with an unusual gentleness. "Where's your usual confidence? Your air of importantness? Your cape, for Celestia's sake?" Trixie's eyes flashed with something that Applejack and Rainbow Dash couldn't read. Fear? Anger? Betrayal? Fluttershy picked up on the look in Trixie's eyes, though. It was the same kind of look that baby animals had when they lost their parents in a fire. It was loss.

Fluttershy remained silent though, mostly because she didn't want to open fresh metaphorical wounds, but she hated to admit that she was interested in Trixie's story, however tragic it was. Trixie looked at the three with a rueful smile. "I honestly don't deserve friends as great as you," she whispered. She sat down in the mud and a tear fell to the ground. "I'll tell you what happened. It all started in Canterlot. I was visiting Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns and applying to become a student there. My magic isn't at Twilight's level, of course, but I have been improving. I had just barely passed the test and hatched a dragon egg without a problem. The judges were impressed, and Celestia herself congratulated me for making it in, and was asking me if I was getting along alright. Then..." She broke off, tears landing in the mud silently.

"There was an earthquake. It was bad, and it caught us all off guard. Celestia had no time to cast a barrier. The school collapsed, and I remember screams. There were children in there!" she shouted, pain so great it was almost tangible evident in her eyes. "We saved who we could, but there were too many too help, not enough time. The school wasn't the only building to collapse. Most of the castle and the city were destroyed. The only good thing was that we were still being supported by the platform. You know, the platform that holds up Canterlot?" she added when she noticed the confused looks on the listeners' faces.

"The whole city's supported by a platform?" asked Rainbow Dash. "I thought it was carved into the mountain itself!" Trixie shook her head. "Just a bit of illusory magic thought up by the Princesses. It's supposed to make it look more impressive. Anyway, the platform is supported by seven support columns. The earthquake knocked down two of them. If four go down, then the city falls. We were scared. The city was in danger. I heard a foal talking to her mother. She was only seven, but she was asking a question even adults wouldn't dare ask. 'Mommy, are we going to die?' That's what she asked. The mother fell into hysterics after that. The Unicorns that were left of us had to evacuate other ponies. I was levitating a husband and wife down when somepony shouted. They shouted that there was a landslide. I quickly levitated the couple onto a balloon and sent them on their way here, where I thought it would be safe. I guess I was wrong. Anyway, the landslide took out the last five support pillars." There was silence as the listeners took in what Trixie had said.

"Canterlot has fallen," said Trixie, "but it gets worse. I surrounded myself in a barrier, which I've apparently gotten better at casting, and bounced down. I lost consciousness when I hit the ground, but my barrier kept me alive. When I came to, the sun was exactly in the place it was before, though it had to have been a couple of hours. I thought that was odd and went to go search the rubble for the Princess, who I thought was simply to move the sun because she was helping others. Instead..." her voice faltered as tears started to flow. Fluttershy tentatively leaned forward and hugged Trixie.

"There, there. It can't be that bad," she said, not quite believing it herself. Trixie looked up at her with an expression of which had seldom been seen before. It was the face of somepony who had given up the will to live. "Princess Celestia... she was laying under a huge slab of concrete. Her neck... it was broken..." she fell to her knees. "Celestia is dead!"