Lullaby Moon

Lullaby

"Darkness... Madness... The sad sad cries of the dying, and the lifeless silence of the dead. All of these things were brought before me... On that fateful day... I used to be a nobody... except to a few... Please, sit down, and I will tell you a story, the last story I will ever tell."

A little girl stood there, staring at the fires set before her, the once fruitful plains of equestria, now burning, dying. The lifeless silence of the dead echoed through the air, the girl couldn't be more than thirteen years old, it was surprising she made it out of the disasters that had previously occurred. She has vibrant red hair, and a rather slender body, she wasn't athletic, and nothing made her look it, she was just a normal girl, not smart, not tough, not fast, just normal. She sighed as she looked over the destruction, a tear coming to her eye, "the darkest dreams of man were once realized by soldiers, a weapon of mass destruction..." she sobbed as she spoke, her words soft, yet echoing with the wind, "man cried for help, help from the thing they had created..." She collapsed to her knees, sobbing loudly, "but man had no aid, for they had taken all help from themselves!" She started to cry, curling up into a ball, "and now here they lay, waste for the land..." She started to cry louder, but as she did, she could hear footsteps coming towards her.

"Strong words for a child," the voice that came through her tears sounded confident, strong, and yet she could hear a hint of sadness, for her. As she looked up she could see a man, he looked rather burly, not the toughest, but she could tell he would be able to make any fight a good one. He chuckled and offered his hand to her, "no point in laying on the ground, not much left to lay on anymore anyway," He smiled at her, she looked at his hand for a second, and after a little hesitation, grabbed it, and let him help her up. The sky was covered in clouds, but some sun still managed to pierce the darkness.

The man smiled at her, "My name is Manna, what about you?" He said, sounding a little excited, the girl just looked at him, hesitant to answer. She looked to the distance, there was the old town of ponyville in front of her, the buildings now laid to rubble, and dust. She tried to go through the events that had occurred but she could remember nothing, not how it started, only how it ended, the world around her had been destroyed. Everyone she knew was gone, and this saddened her, Manna could see it on her face. "Hey, kid, cheer up," he smiled at her as he spoke, "find a positive in any negative, as I always say," She looked up at him, confused.

"How can I find any positive in this!?" She sounded angry, her voice slightly trembling, "everyone I knew, is dead! Everything around me has been destroyed!" She looked at Manna angrily, "there is no positive!" Manna stopped her, sighing.

"Think about it like this, it's a fresh start, a new world. Let's try and make it a good one eh?" Manna said, looking rather happy. The girl looked at him, not as pissed now, she had to admit there was a little positive. A new world, but where would they find it, she looked up at Manna, then back at the town. She started walking off towards the town, Manna being more than happy to follow her.

As she looked around at the buildings she could feel sadness welling up inside her, the buildings were half crumbled, and full of large holes, like something had busted through the walls. The body's were mangled, some torn apart, others hanging off the broken edges of their former homes. This was a rather scary sight for a child, but for some reason, the girl could stand it. She felt rather calm about the situation around her, the bodies not affecting her at all, besides making her unhappy.

She felt a tear come to her eye as she walked, feeling it slowly drip down her face, she wiped it away, reluctant to show any emotion. She had felt that emotion was bad since whatever happened, it showed weakness, and for some reason she felt weakness would not be a good thing to have right now. She looked around again, she could hear the wind softly blowing through the crumbling rubble of the once beautiful town.

As they reached the edge of town they could see a cottage, it was covered in grass, so much so that it looked like a hill. Maybe a defence that was created prior. Manna looked towards the cottage, "wonder if anyone is in there" he said, heading for it slowly. He peeked inside, the girl close behind him, she also looked inside. It was dark, but they could see a hint of pink in the corner of the large room. The girl hurried inside, looking towards the slight yellow. She could hear crying, it sounded like a woman. The girl slowly started to approach the woman, trying to see her in the darkness, as she did Manna lit the lantern that was hanging on the roof. The woman suddenly screamed, cowering in the corner, she has dull pink hair what appears to be aqua blue eyes, she shyly looked at the girl and Manna. Looking horrified as she sees them, she can't seem to bring herself to speak.

"Don't worry," the girl smiles reassuringly at the woman, "we aren't here to hurt you," but the woman still doesn't reply, hiding behind her hands, the girl diverts her eyes to her body, trying to see if she has any visible wounds, as she does she notices the woman seems to have large clawed hands. The girl jumps back in fright, horrified, "wh-what is that!?" She points to the woman's hands, looking towards Manna. The woman abruptly stood up.

"l-leave me alone!" *she yells at the top of her lungs, her form seems to twitch, like as though she were glitching. Her face suddenly disfigures, falling apart, leaving behind a mass of muscle and bone, the rest of her body soon follows, the clothes tearing. She ran for the girl, readying her clawed hands as she charged at her.

"M-Maanna!" The girl looked at Manna, he quickly jumped on the woman, trying to pin her down. The woman tried to claw at Manna, but he was holding her so she couldn't. "What do we do!?" Screamed the girl, she looked at the woman on the floor. Manna tried picking her up and throwing her through the window, but she charged back through, making a larger hole in the wall than was made when she was being trown through the wall. She charged at manna, her feet making slapping noises on the ground, the wind seemed to sing an eerie tune in the house. Manna had no choice, he picked up the nearest sharp object, which happened to be the pole of a lamp, and rammed it into the woman's chest, she gasped. Breathing heavily, her form slowly came back, a beutiful woman, no older than maybe twenty, tears streaming from her eyes. She looked at Manna, horrified, "I-I-I... I... I'm scared..." She grasped the pole that was stuck in her chest, "I... D-don't... want... to... di-" She couldn't finish her sentence before her breath stopped. She slowly fell to the floor, the pole sliding out of her, she landed on the floor with a loud thud. Blood slowly started to pool below her, the horrified look still on her face.

The girl looked at the body on the floor, tears appearing in her eyes, she fell to the floor, eyes wide open. She stopped breathing, everything around her started to spin, the room fading in and out, each time it faded out she could see a face, staring at her, its eyes were pure red, black sludge coming out of its mouth. She couldn't do anything, or say anything, as her mouth was filled with the same sludge, pouring out of it, soon her nose started to fill up, then her ears started to spew out the sludge as well, the face laughed. Then everything went black, as she came to she could see Manna shaking her. She sat up suddenly, coughing, "are you okay?" Manna looked worried as he spoke, "you suddenly collapsed and... and stopped breathing," she nodded to tell Manna she was okay. She could see a forest in the distance, deciding it might be safer she heads for it.

Manna doesn't stray too far from her, keeping to her side as they walk towards the dark forest. "so anyway, what IS your name?" He asks, looking towards her after they had been walking through the forest for about a minute.