My Little Pony: Apocalypse

Pinkie Pie was throwing her best party ever. Balloons, streamers and confetti were strewn all over Sugarcube Corner. Mr. and Mrs. Cake had prepared the most delicious looking treats that anypony would just die for. Everyone was here having a great time. This was not something new as Pinkie Pie always knows how to throw the best parties. She’d throw parties for every possible occasion she could think of, even if it was for a random stranger who just arrived in Ponyville. Her optimistic, happy-go-lucky lifestyle is what her friends like most about her.

Twilight Sparkle was enjoying the party next to the refreshment table. She was levitating a cup of punch in a field of purple aura and casually took sips from it. She happily looked at her friends socializing with the other guests. Pinkie Pie was starting a conga line and inspiring all the other ponies to join in. Applejack and Rarity immediately joined. Rainbow Dash was reluctant at first, complaining it was not awesome enough for her. After a little encouragement, she too joined the conga line.

Twilight quickly finished drinking her punch intending to join the fun. She trotted over to them. “Umm… Twilight,” a small voice stopped her.

Twilight turned to see Fluttershy. The bashful yellow Pegasus looked troubled by something. She seemed to be trembling in fear. “What is it, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked her friend.

Fluttershy’s teal eyes darted around the building as if she was expecting something was watching her. “Can I show you something outside?” she asked nervously. “I mean… if it is no trouble,” she added timidly.

Twilight nodded, “Of course, Fluttershy. What’s troubling you?” The yellow Pegasus said nothing, just continued to look around fearful of the party. This disturbed Twilight. Fluttershy may be the most timid pony in all of Equestria, but even she never acted this way at one of Pinkie Pie’s parties. Fluttershy turned and slowly walked out the door to Ponyville, Twilight followed right behind.

Stepping outside, Twilight breathed in the fresh evening air. Ponyville was always peaceful at night, and this night was no exception. “Is everything alright, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked. She turned to look at the Pegasus, but she was gone. Twilight looked around and couldn’t see Fluttershy anywhere. “Fluttershy?” she called. She got no answer. She considered that Fluttershy may have gone back inside. She turned around to return to the party. However, something had happened to Sugarcube Corner. The entire building was in ruin. The roof had caved in, the windows were all shattered, and the door was torn from its hinges. “What happened?” she cried in alarm.

She dashed inside the crumbling building to find her friends. The interior looked almost as bad as the exterior. Everything was in shambles. But there was no indication that a party had taken place that evening. There were no balloons, no streamers. The counter in the back of the store was smashed to pieces. Splinters of wood covered the ground in its immediate vicinity. “Hello?” Twilight called. “Where is everyone?”

The lavender unicorn galloped to the stairs hoping to check the next floor. Debris was blocking the staircase. She drew on her magic and enveloped the blockage. As she focused on moving it, the building began to shake violently. She dropped the debris as sections of the roof began to collapse around her. Panicking, she sprinted back out onto the street.

Upon exiting, she watched Sugarcube Corner collapse to the ground creating an earth-shaking tremor. “What has happened?” she asked herself in complete shock. She had to tell the rest of town of this mystery. She barely spun around when she noticed the state of the rest of Ponyville: the entire town looked like it had been hit by an earthquake. Most of the buildings had collapsed and several were on fire.

Twilight fell to her haunches in disbelief. Her lavender eyes wide open and her mouth was practically hitting the dirt. “Ponyville…?” she hesitated. “It can’t be. It just can’t be!” She leapt to her hooves and galloped down the street to find someone, anyone, who could explain what happened to the town in a matter of seconds. She galloped for the Carousel Boutique and discovered that it, too, was virtually destroyed.

Twilight entered Rarity’s ruined shop regardless in hopes she could find her unicorn friend. She stepped inside and was greeted with a similar sight as Sugarcube Corner. Only this time, the scene was much, much worse. Twilight froze at what she found: it looked as if some painter pony had entered and threw buckets of red paint along the walls and floor, but Twilight tragically knew that wasn’t the case. She was looking at a slaughterhouse. She looked on in horror as she counted a dozen ponies lying lifeless on the floor of the store. Each pony was drenched in blood which pooled beneath them.

Tears began to pool in Twilight’s eyes. She slowly approached one of the ponies. Stepping around their body, she leaned in to get a better look at them. What she saw made her scream… it was Sweetie Belle. The unicorn filly had a vicious-looking steel spike jutting out from one of her eyes; a dried stream of blood filtered out of the socket. The other eye was permanently fixed in a look of terror. Her pretty pink and purple mane was coated in dark streaks of blood. Twilight backed up in fear and ended up tripping over another pony’s corpse.

Landing in a puddle of sticky red blood, she noticed the remains she tripped over: Applejack’s little sister, Apple Bloom. Twilight couldn’t have known from the amount of blood covering her; it was the pink bow that gave her away. Just like Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom’s eyes were of total fright; they were fixed on whatever had frightened her before her untimely death. To Twilight’s horror, she was only looking at Apple Bloom’s head! A gore covered portion of her vertebrae was all that was connected to her head. The rest of the filly’s body was missing!

Twilight screamed and spun around, only to come face to face with Scootaloo, or at least what was left of her. Her little torso had been splayed open spilling her entrails on the floor. Her wings were ripped from her back and the feathers stuffed in her torso like some kind of horrid taxidermy project. Twilight was shaking like she was caught in an earthquake. Suddenly, Scootaloo’s lavender eyes moved in her direction. Twilight jumped to her hooves in fright.

Scootaloo’s mouth moved. “Help… me… Twilight,” the orange Pegasus filly weakly pleaded. Scootaloo faintly raised her forehoof for Twilight’s help. The lavender unicorn hesitantly reached her hoof to her dying friend. Before she could reach Scootaloo, the Pegasus dropped her foreleg like a weight and ceased all remaining functions.

“What did this?” Twilight screamed. She looked at the rest of the bodies, all of which were the foals of Ponyville. They were all ripped to pieces in grotesque ways. Severed appendages and internal organs littered the room. Twilight spun around comprehending the horror before her. She stepped in something wet and squishy. Looking down she learned she had stepped on an intestine that spilled out of the filly Silver Spoon. Half her body had melted into a puddle of gore. The rest of her was covered in spikes identical to the one that killed Sweetie Belle. Twilight was only able to identify her from a visible portion of her cutie mark.

Silver Spoon’s best friend Diamond Tiara was right next to her. The pink filly’s tiara was lodged in her throat. It was so deep in her neck that she was nearly decapitated, unlike Apple Bloom. Twilight could see bone sticking out of Diamond Tiara’s wound. Strands of internal tissue dangled out of the abysmal injury.

Twilight couldn’t stand it. She didn’t want to be there anymore. She galloped as fast as she could to the door. She had to find help. She had to discover what was happening in Ponyville. Exiting Carousel Boutique, she discovered she was no longer in Ponyville. She had somehow ended up on Smokey Mountain. She looked out across the horizon and spotted Canterlot miles away. She looked at the landscape below and gasped. The ground was covered in dense fires and thick black smoke rose towards the sky.

“Oh my goodness!” she exclaimed. “What is happening to Equestria?” She looked back to the sky and noticed Cloudsdale was, likewise, in complete chaos. She couldn’t tell from her distance, but it looked like the Pegasi city had been leveled by an unknown force. Then, she spotted something fly through the sky. It was moving fast. “What was that? A Pegasus?” Twilight walked up to the edge of the mountain for a better look. The object was flying her direction. As it got closer she could tell it was not a Pegasus or any flying creature she knows. As it got closer it made some kind of wailing sound like a spirit would make. The object approached Smokey Mountain before turning and flying away. More of the objects appeared and started to fly around the mountain making the same bizarre noise.

At once, more strangely shaped flying objects emerged in the dark sky. Many were shaped like the former ones but the new objects somewhat resembled giant purple flying sea shells. Those objects, too, were making a loud characteristic humming sound. The new objects descended upon the valley below. The smaller objects closely following them. Twilight peeked over the edge but could not see the flying objects easily. The smaller ones were briefly lighting up in a hue of green and blue, seconds before explosions engulfed the ground they were flying towards.

The last object to appear was much bigger than the rest. Descending from the sky, it resembled a slender, silver insect. The “insect” came to a stop over Canterlot, its underside directly over the royal palace. From this distance it looked about the size of a parasprite; it had to be gigantic up close. Something red began to pulse underneath the massive object. In an instant, a bright light lit up the night sky. Twilight briefly shielded her eyes from the intense illumination. When the light dimmed she could see a pulsating red beam emanating from the “insect”. The beam was striking the royal palace. Fires rose from the palace and rapidly engulfed the entire city. In a matter of seconds, all of Canterlot had become an inferno.

“This can’t be happening. This can’t be real,” Twilight cried. She back away from the cliff.

All of a sudden, she felt something very large and furry land on her shoulder. Looking over her shoulder she stared at an enormous paw. Raising her head she gazed into the eyes of a huge bipedal beast. From the looks of it, it was covered in thick fur and vaguely resembled an ape. It was covered in some kind of gold or bronze attire. Atop its head was a V-shaped headpiece. The creature appeared to smile at her showing razor sharp teeth. Its smile was full of hatred and not joy. “Behold,” the beast growled in a perfect Equestrian dialect. “This is the way your world ends!”

The creature shoved Twilight to the ground with its paw. The beast howled in laughter. Twilight looked around and saw more of the bipedal creatures had gathered around the bronze-coated one. The others were wearing different styles and colors of attire as opposed to the first one. The bronze-colored beast looked down at Twilight. “Brace yourself, pony. Your species is doomed to extinction!”

Twilight fearfully looked at the closest creature and then the next. “What do you mean?” she whimpered. “What are you doing?”

The creature reached behind it and picked up a large object ambiguously resembling a hammer, if a hammer was twenty times larger and emitted some type of magical field around the “head”. It raised the hammer-like object into the air. The wind began to howl and thunder boomed across the sky. Eerie green storm clouds materialized over the group of beasts. Lightning shot out of the bizarre storm clouds in every direction. The creature snorted in satisfaction at the weather. It lowered its cold gaze to the shivering unicorn. “This is how it begins,” the beast sneered. It lowered the hammer-like object over Twilight’s head. She watched in absolute fear, unable to move. The beast rose up and brought the hammer down upon her.

Golden Oak Library, Ponyville
02:45 hours

Twilight quickly sat up in a state of panic. Panting, she looked around and realized she was in her room and everything was exactly as she had left it. Spike was curled up in his bed sound asleep. Twilight quietly rose from bed and walked out to her balcony. Emerging on the balcony she looked into the night sky, there were no flying objects anywhere in sight. She breathed a sigh of relief and gently inhaled the midnight air. She leaned on the balcony’s rail and examined the town around her. Every building in sight was intact; there were neither fires nor any signs of chaos. She held her head with her forehooves. “What a terrible dream,” she whispered to herself. “I’ve never had a nightmare like that before. It was so horrible.”

“Having trouble sleeping, fair Twilight Sparkle?” a soothing voice spoke behind her.

The sudden voice startled her and she quickly spun around to see Princess Luna standing behind her. “Princess Luna!” she almost shouted in surprise. She held her hoof over her mouth when she noticed her mistake; she didn’t want to wake Spike. She bowed before the Princess of the Night. “What are you doing here?”

“T’is my duty to Equestria and my subjects to oversee all that transpires during the night,” the midnight blue alicorn explained. “Even those that transpire in your dreams. I felt your fears in your sleep.”

Twilight rose to her hooves and sheepishly looked away from the princess. “It was just a bad dream, your Highness.”

Princess Luna looked at her in disbelief. “I would not have appeared here tonight if it were merely a bad dream, Twilight. Everypony has bad dreams from time to time. I feel that this one in particular has troubled you quite so.”

Twilight looked back at the princess. She thought about the nightmare and pondered if it was necessary to speak about. It did trouble her. Never has she had a more vivid nightmare. She couldn’t help but feel it was more than just a dream. ‘It was just a dream. Wasn’t it?’ she thought.

“Would you like to tell me about it?” Princess Luna asked.

“Where do I begin?” Twilight asked aloud. Taking a deep breath she told the princess about what she saw. As she went into detail about the horrors of her nightmare, Princess Luna began to look disturbed as well. Twilight had difficulty elucidating what she saw in Carousel Boutique which was, by far, the most disturbing part of the nightmare. She finished by expressing what she saw at Smokey Mountain: the monstrous beasts and the flying objects destroying the land. She neglected to speak of the strange storm clouds thinking they were insignificant. “One of the creatures said, ‘This is how our world ends,’ and, ‘our species is doomed to extinction’,” she concluded.

“Oh my!” Princess Luna gasped, holding a hoof to her muzzle.

“What does it mean, your Majesty?” Twilight begged. “It must mean something, right?”

Luna looked away in thought. Twilight hoped she could tell her that it was only a dream, terrible as it was. ‘It just has to be a dream. Nothing like that can happen in Equestria,’ she calmly reminded herself.

Luna looked back at the distressed unicorn. “Fair Twilight, t’was only a dream and nothing more,” she reasoned.

“But how could I possibly have a dream like that? If you only saw what I saw…” Twilight whined.

“Everypony has bad dreams from time to time,” the alicorn clarified. “I myself have had atrocious dreams. They do not necessarily mean anything.”

“What did you dream about?” Twilight asked. Luna sadly gazed at the ground remembering her dreadful past. “Luna, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…” Twilight started to apologize.

“That is quite alright, Twilight.” Luna looked back at Twilight. “I always had terrible dreams when I was banished to the moon,” she lamented. “My dreams were fed only by hatred and desires for vengeance. I fantasized about conquering Equestria and covering all the land in eternal darkness. I dreamt of destroying all who stood in my way. I hated every moment of it.”

“That wasn’t you, Luna. That was Nightmare Moon.”

“Perhaps,” she said quietly. “Perhaps.” The Princess of the Night fell silent.

Twilight decided to change the subject back to her own dream. “Could my dream have been a warning? Like a warning of a coming great evil?”

Luna reached out a comforting hoof. “You must not dwell on such concerns, dear Twilight. You don’t want to get yourself worked up for naught, like you’ve done before,” she said. Twilight knew what she meant. She was once visited by herself from the future. She believed that something terrible was to befall Equestria and for an entire week she stressed out preparing for the “inevitable”. But, as it turned out, there was no impending disaster. And so she had been worrying for nothing.

‘Maybe Princess Luna is right,’ Twilight thought. ‘I shouldn’t get worked up over a bad dream.’ The lavender unicorn looked into the alicorn’s eyes. “I guess you’re right, Luna.”

“Perhaps you should get some rest. Think nothing of what you have seen,” Luna suggested.

“Okay. Thank you, Luna,” Twilight thanked.

“Farewell, Twilight Sparkle. Sleep well.” Luna spread her wings and soared into the air. Twilight watched as she vanished into the night sky. She looked out over Ponyville once more before returning to her room. Before settling back in her bed she checked on Spike. The baby dragon hadn’t awoken. Sometimes he seemed like he could sleep through anything.

“I sure hope you’re having a pleasant dream, Spike,” Twilight whispered. The unicorn lied back in bed and threw the covers over her. She stared at the ceiling in deep thought. ‘What could have made me dream of something so horrible? I’ve never seen creatures like those ape-like things before. The only beast that even comes close is a Minotaur, and those things were definitely not Minotaurs.' She rolled onto her side and closed her eyes. 'What were those flying things? They were attacking Equestria with what? Some type of magic? And that giant flying object, it cast a beam of fire all over Canterlot! I’d never want to see something so awful again. At least it was just a dream.’

Twilight heard Spike start to snore. She rolled over in an attempt to block the noise of Spike’s snoring. ‘What if Luna’s wrong? What if my dream was a message of an impending disaster? I know I’ve been through this once before and there was no disaster to fear… But I can’t shake the feeling that this time is different.’ The snoring grew louder, deeper. ‘If something is coming, I know my friends and I will stop it. Together we are unbeatable through the magic of friendship. We’ve defeated Nightmare Moon, returned Discord to stone, and vanquished King Sombra.'

The snoring became much deeper and almost sounded like heavy breathing. ‘But are we even capable of handling a force nopony has ever encountered? Whatever those things were, they looked powerful. Maybe not as powerful as somepony like Princess Celestia, but I could tell they were powerful nonetheless.’ Twilight felt a breeze blow against her. Unlike the wind, however, it was very short and came back in rapid intervals. A foul stench was carried by the “breeze”. It was like something was breathing on her.

Something grabbed Twilight’s muzzle. She opened her eyes and looked into the dark eyes of the bronze-covered beast. It held her down with one of its large paws. Twilight squirmed as its head lowered to within inches of her face. It sneered revealing its sharp teeth. “You cannot stop us,” it threatened. Twilight tried to scream but the beast’s grasp prevented her from making any sound.

“It has begun,” the monster growled. Lightning struck, thunder boomed. Twilight looked towards the doorway leading to the balcony. The flying objects dashed past giving off their characteristic wails. She looked back at the menacing beast. The monster gave a toothy grin before snarling, “A bloody fate awaits you and the rest of your incompetent race.” It raised its opposite paw brandishing a hideous item. It had a pair of blades protruding outward from underneath it. The monster held the bladed item right in front of Twilight’s eye. She let out a terrified, muffled scream. The beast laughed for a few seconds before a searing hot metal spike ejected from the object and penetrated Twilight’s right eye.

Twilight screamed as she sat up in bed. ‘It was another nightmare!’ she told herself. She held herself and rocked back and forth in her bed. No amount of reassurance from Princess Luna was going to help her get to sleep now. She leaned over her bed and found Spike was still asleep. Once again she hadn’t managed to wake up the dragon. She turned her attention out the window and gazed at the night sky. It was just as beautiful a night as ever. “Something horrible is coming,” she fretfully whispered. She knew it was coming, whatever it was. “And I don’t think we can stop it.”