Rubble

    In September, 2086, the world ended. Like the war before the end, millions died. No pony knows exactly where the creatures that killed everything came from, but than again, we died too fast to even ask that question. Through it all, I stood and continue standing. I saw the war reach it's high point and saw civilization fall to the ground. Not many survived, what I I call, The Down Fall, but those who did saw it as their mission to bring back what once was. But those few either died or were never heard from again. As for me, I stood, watching fools die and disappear. This video log may never be seen, but if it is somehow found in the rubble of this damned city, I ask that you bring it to one of the coordinates on the map in the same backpack you found this camera in. Remember us. I can hear them coming.

    I woke up, gasping for air as if I were suffocating. “Holy fuck! That dream was scary as hell!” I said to my doll. After the end of the world, I found a small Luna doll on the sidewalk. I kept it for the sake of having a friend and named it “Moon.” I named her this because I thought it’d be disrespectful to name her Luna.

    “Moon! You’ll never believe what my dream was about!” I said excitedly. “Okay, I was in ShugerCube Coner when-” My sentence was cut short be a rustling sound in the hallway. I had been staying in an abandon house in PonyVille. It was in pretty good condition when I moved in, a few corpses but other than that, nothing was wrong with it. “Stay back, Moon. This could be another monster.” I whispered as I grabbed my Metal Bat and hid behind the door frame. I looked down the hallway only to be quickly attacked by the demonic creatures that are left from the civilized world. The most common of them had six legs, rotting skin, no mane or tail, all black eyes, and jagged teeth. There are multiple types of these creatures. But these ones, the Drones as I like to call them, are the most common, and are the weakest. Still stunned, I start to smack the Drone with my wings. Eventually, this makes it more pissed off and it uses one of its extra limbs to impale my right wing. “You Bitch! I’ll Kill You!” I raved at the Drone as I rammed my head into his. This hit knocked it off of me, giving me time to grab my Bat and charge at it. By the time it was ready to fight again, I was swinging the Bat toward its head, the impact killing the Drone. To be safe, I hit the Drone three more times with my Bat wing.

  “Fucking bitch. *sigh* you okay, Moon?” I said as I went to pick her up. “Sorry about my language. It hurt me so I got really mad.” I took a short look at my wing, than looked back at Moon. “I guess it’s time we left this house anyway. Don’t you?” I acted as if she would respond. Not too long later, I made my way to the front door. “Just like old times, going out on adventures. But first, I need to find some bandages for my wing. Then we can adventure.” I said as I opened the door. I walked out into the street and looked at the ruins of the once great Canterlot. It truly is a sight, seeing a great and powerful city burned to mere rubble. I made my way to an old hospital that I passed by on what seemed to be a daily basis. The creatures left it alone so it was pretty safe there. I searched through the dorm rooms in hopes of finding enough bandages necessary for covering the wound the Drone had given me. Though I already had some, I would need a replacement for later on. Eventually, my search led me to the storage aria which was just a big metal shack filled with boxes. Thinking I was safe, I placed Moon on the ground next to me so I could search through the boxes. “Yes! I found them Moon. Now we can start our adventure.” I announced as I pulled to rolls of gaws from the box. After I had made my announcement, a rustling sound started coming from an odd pile of boxes at least 365 centimeters behind me. I don’t know why I didn’t see it before, but either way, it’s too late now. I grabbed the lid of the box I had searched through and used it to hide behind, not a moment later; a large creature had burst through the hut of boxes, destroying them. I call these ones Brutes due to their extreme strength and size. Despite their size and strength, Brutes were fairly easy to kill as long as you can get close to them without getting hit. The Brutes skin looked decayed but there were points on it that were basically big green zits, along with this, the left arm was noticeably larger than the other. I and Moon hid behind the lid hoping the Brute wouldn’t notice us. After about five minutes, it began walking away. I took this chance to make a break for the door; however, as I was setting the lid down, I had dropped it getting the attention of the Brute. I did not stay in the same place for long. Not even a second after this had happened, I began running for the exit. But compared to the Brute, my run was nothing but a mere fast walk. Knowing this, when I heard the Brute start to run up on me, I stopped in my tracks causing him to bolt in front of me. In doing this, I confused him. I took this opportunity to charge him and hopefully kill him. When I was close enough, I made a jump for it arm, upon the success of my daring jump, the Brute slammed the arm I was on; on the ground. This not only got me off of his arm, but crushed my same wing that had been stabbed earlier this morning. As I lay stunned on the ground, the Brute pikes me up and examines me. I look at Moon who had fallen from my grasp when I was smashed against the ground. Doing this somehow gives me drive to bit the eye of the Brute. It gets mad and tries to throw me away, but in doing this, I took a large chunk out of his eye. The Brute decides to retreat because of the pain. I, however, was now a bit more stunned than I was before. The collision of my back to the wall had made my vision blurry along with a constant ringing sound. I got up and tried to get to Moon while attempting to ignore the pain. I was able to get to Moon before I collapsed under my own weight and passed out. I woke up several hours later, surrounded by Scavengers. Scavengers were harmless creatures with four extra limbs and golden eyes. They really just venture around looking for whatever they think might be useful or edible. I gave my surroundings a quick look around before I stood up. The Scavengers disbursed when they saw me stand. Not long after I remembered what had happened, I noticed that Moon was nowhere in sight. Enraged, I began searching for the Scavengers thinking that Moon might be with them. Eventually, I came across a small group of the Scavengers; one of them –thankfully-- had Moon in its hand. However, at the sight of this, my vision turned red and I began to mall the Scavenger to death. By the time I realized what I was doing; it was too late. Though they are merely animals, Scavengers were quite reasonable and often gave you wanted them to give to you. Sometimes at a the price of other items and sometimes for the fact of knowing that they had something that didn’t belong to them. Because of this, I felt remorse for what I had done.

    I exited the hospital without looking back, thinking that if I did, I’d be looking into the eyes of the innocent Scavenger I had killed. I look at Moon and ask “Are you okay? Did I or they harm you in any way?” I patently waited for an answer I knew I would not receive.

    After a minute or so, I looked back in front of me, meeting face to face with what seemed to be a giant grey ash cloud. Ash clouds were common in cities and were potentially deadly. They can form at any time and are so thick; it’s like trying to see through a pile of mud.

    I rapped some of the bandages around my face to help protect my eyes and mouth from the dust. Knowing that there were very little safe places in this aria, and that the ash cloud formed on the quickest path to the castle, I began walking through the cloud, hopping that it wouldn’t last too long. Blinded, I kept tripping on rubble which normally would be fairly okay but for some reason, the Drones like to come out in the ash.

    After a few minutes, the cloud began to settle and fade. This both pleased me and scared me. I was pleased to know that I would soon be able to see my surroundings but scared of what might be surrounding me. I began to speed up as the cloud got thinner, eventually; the cloud vanished, leaving just as quickly and mysteriously as it had come. I looked around to see if there were any Drones nearby. Luckily, the aria was clear. The last time I had walked through an ash cloud, there were about four Drones surrounding me and I had barely escaped with my life.

    Relieved, I sat on a pile of sand bags and examined Moon. “Oh, Moon, there’s blood in your main. Hmm, we should probably find some water so we can give you a bath.” I said as I finished dusting her off. As I began to stand back up, I noticed something odd about the ground; there was fresh blood smeared on the ground. This makes me wonder considering that the bloods color is red, the blood color of any pony that is no longer living is violate. I begin to follow the blood into a house that seems vaguely familiar. As I got deeper into the building, I remembered that this was the old Donut café that was about five kilometers away from the castle. The trail eventually led me to a room filled with empty boxes. In the far corner of the room, I could hear radio broadcasting. I tightened my grip on Moon as I approached the sound. When I reach the peak of the sound, I find the dead body of what seems to be a military Field Martial. The body was missing its head but the uniform was well recognizable. Field Martial’s were normally equipped with their own personal radio system in case of emergency, the personal radio often kept Field Martial’s alive when they were separated from their team.

    I examine the body, looking for the radio, finding only a dismembered part of where the left arm used to be, the radios where almost always on the left arm. “Maybe it was an echo from further in the building. We should leave.” I said as I began to head back to the outside, I was stopped by tripping on the radio that had led me down to this location in the first place. The force of my hoof hitting the radio caused it to activate once more. The radio began to broad cast a military S.O.S. beacon, saying; “If anypony can hear me, please, we need help, we were sent out of the camp to search for supplies, follow this beacon to our location, and hurry we are being overrun!”

    I looked at the Field Martial’s corpse one last time before attaching the radio to my arm and setting off to try and help the survivors. Though the odds of them living long enough for me to get to them, I could always use the supplies.

    After a mere three minutes of fettling with the radio, I finally figured out how to operate the navigations system. However, I now need to run toward their position, though three minutes was not very long, the lost time would most certainly play a big part in their odds of surviving, especially in the middle of the day. For reasons I can’t even understand, the creatures like being outside most in the afternoon.

    As I got closer to their position, I could hear the sound of gun fire which for some odd reason comforted me. I paused for a few seconds in wonder of what this may have meant. After about a minute, I relinquish the thought and continue my sprint forward. Eventually, I could see piles of crates stacked specifically for defense. Behind the crates there were around five ponies fending themselves from what seemed to be a never ending horde of Drones. Knowing that I was not equipped for such high level combat, I look through the rubble for a potentially lethal weapon. The screams of fear and rage pressure me as I searched. Eventually, I found an old hunting shot gun, it was rusted badly but still useable. I checked the gun for ammo to find four shots in it, at this point; four shots may be enough to get me into their safety perimeter.

    Before I can begin my run-and-gun toward them, a Drone grabs my left shoulder; I quickly turn and bash the face of the Drone with the butt of the shot gun, knocking it to the ground. For safety, I shoot the head of the Drone, killing it. Realizing that time is not on my side, I begin to charge for the perimeter, in doing so; I was engaged by several Drones and due to limitations in ammo, I was only able to kill three. When I leaped over a stack of crates, the remaining Drones were killed by what seemed to be the leader of the group. She was a fairly tall, light blue unicorn pony with thick red hair. “Who the hell are you?” She asked, her voice was smooth and calming. “I’m Skywing, I heard your radio broadcast and thought I might be able to help. Who are you?”

“I am Raven, the leader of this scavenging group, now grab a rifle and make yourself useful!” She ordered. I quickly pulled myself up and did as she asked. I grabbed the closest weapon to me; a standard issue assault rifle, and began to unload upon the Drones that were charging us. Though, the recoil of a fully automatic rifle felt weird, I quickly adjusted. After a mere two hours of fighting, we were able to fend off the Drones with only three casualties. “Alright everypony, start loading this stuff onto the Prowler, I don’t want to be around here for the second wave.” Raven ordered, “Hey stranger!” she called out, I looked toward her out of curiosity. “Me?” I asked,

“Yes, um, Skywing, you really saved us back there. Would you be willing to escort us to the castle? We’ll need somepony that knows how to kill those things in case the Prowler runs out of fuel or we’re engaged while we’re in the castle.” She relied, seeing as how I had thought that I was the only survivor and that these ponies aren’t too familiar with the city and all of its hostilities, I agreed.

    Everypony got in the prowler, which looked like an armored Hummer with tank trends and two forty caliber machine guns, each gun had its own station at the top of the Prowler. Raven told me that the Prowlers were built for transportation of supplies throughout the wastelands. I began to wonder; could this mean that all this time I had been alone, there were civilized colonies? I relinquish the thought as the Prowler slows to a stop. I look out of the driver window and see a pile of rubble covering the road. Behind me, I hear the uneasy groans or the soldiers. “Skywing,” Raven called out, “This is where we need your knowledge of the city. We’re not in good enough shape to handle another attack; can you find us another route to the castle?” She asked, I thought for a moment before remembering a highway about 3200 meters away from where we are now. No problem,” I say upon remembering the new route.

I guide the Prowler through a series of alley ways and buildings that had large holes blasted through them during the fight for survival. The Prowler moved very slowly to help reduce sound from the trends, but it seemed that even moving slowly still created a lot of noise, enough to draw the attention of –what I call- Scouts. Scouts were very tall and slender creatures with eight tentacles coming out of their neck. They aren’t very strong but what they lack in strength they make up for in speed. “Stop,” Raven orders “Did you hear that?” in unison, everypony raised their guns, readying for battle. The sides of the Prowler had little ‘combat holes’. They were there in case the gunners got killed while the Prowler was still moving; they could still fight. Suddenly, a tentacle shoots through one of the combat holes, stabbing the pony guarding it in the eye. He starts screaming in pain; Raven quickly cuts the tentacle with her combat knife and gives the drivers orders to go. The poor pony still screaming, Raven shoved a peace f cloth in his mouth to shut him up. “God, where’s the medic?” Raven asked concerned, “He’s dead, got ripped to shreds when we were ambushed.” Raven thought for a second before realizing that she either does what she can or he’ll die. “Hand me the first aid kit,” she ordered. Everypony began to look at each other, confused. “Now!” she barked after a few seconds. I shuffled for the aid pack until somepony announced “Here!”

  I watched as Raven ripped the remains of the tentacle out of the eye socket and disinfect the injury. Her hooves shook as the blood poured from the eye and the pony slammed on the floor to release some of the pain. “Hold his head,” she ordered while she pulled the gaws from the pack and began to wrap them around his head. When Raven was done, she pulled the cloth from the pony’s mouth and said “You’re lucky I was a drop-out medic.”

  The closer we got to the castle, the more the fear of the creatures attacking us began to fade from the hearts of the other ponies. Knowing this, I let my guard down along with the others and tried to get comfortable with being around ponies again. Eventually, we reached a check point that was one of few openings in a rubble wall that made a perimeter around the castle. The check point was heavily guarded along with the wall itself, and each check point, I was told, has a field medic on site to scan everyponies eyes to make sure their vitals weren’t “turning” as they said. It took a mere ten minutes for him to scan everypony, the only ones that nearly failed were me and the poor stallion that got stabbed in the eye.