Chapters A Beginning after the End
Luna prided herself with her building-sized telescopes. She had lately constructed a new one in which to see even further into space, which was as long as 2 yachts put end-to-end. This project was expensive, and it still required further effort from the princess to operate, but what would be seen would change astronomy forever, for it would peer into the void of space like never before. The telescope towered above the mountain above Canterlot.
Tonight would be the night of great importance, as it would soon see operation. She had invited her sister’s student Twilight Sparkle to participate in this great and important event. Luna had visited Twilight on Nightmare night, but had not seen her since. This would be a great opportunity to see what Twilight had learned in the time they had not seen each other.
The control room was filled with unicorn technicians and some ponies who were attending the open house for it. It was not a very big room, but Luna had been sure to make it royal. The room looks more like a royal hall, and at the end was the telescope itself, situated on the mechanisms that were designed to move it at minute levels to allow for maximum precision when studying the distant stars. Instead of a throne, there was a simple cushioned seat next to the eyepiece. There was a desk there, and it was filled with blank papers and books on astronomy. Luna sat in that seat, overseeing the entire area.
Soon enough, the sun went down to make way for the moon, and the visitors had left to their homes abroad. The only ones left were Luna and the Professors, Magicians and Technicians that are on-station to power the scope and enhance or repair it as needed. Luna quickly looks around for a certain student of Celestia, and spots her coming in through the door. She has obviously been traveling fast and it shows in her tired expression. She is also carrying a satchel on her back, obviously for study. She sees Luna and gallops to the end, offering quick apologies when nearly missing one of the unicorns there.
She makes it to the royal astronomy table. She makes a quick bow, than rises to greet Luna.
“Hello, Princess Luna. It’s so great to see you again.”
“Likewise, Twilight Sparkle. It is good to be here with you on this important night.”
Twilight giggles at the anticipation.
“Important it is.”
Her eyes dart over the books and papers across the table. She makes room for her own notes and books from her satchel on the table, and tops it off with a quill and inkwell of her own.
Everything was set.
Several hours later, some major discoveries had been found. Wonders of space and the stars were open to pony kind now. The scratching of pen on paper and book is often heard. It is mostly quiet except for this and the sound of working ponies on the telescope to make sure it’s running smoothly and at full capacity. Twilight is struck with an idea when it is her turn at the eyepiece. Instead of looking at the furthest star and formation in space, she should look at the nearest star and see what’s around it. Ignoring the star, she focuses on the space around it.
Seeing 2 glints of light near the star, she gasps in excitement and zooms closer. It was a planet like hers. She zooms closer, looking at all the continents and their outlines through the cloud layer, and which is completed by oceans of deep blue. Seeing this nearly has Twilight running around the room, telling everyone about her discovery. In her excitement, she pulls away and beams at the princess, who is looking back at her.
“Did you find something, Twilight Sparkle?”
“Look!”
Twilight steps aside for Luna, who has her turn at looking through the scope. See gasps as she sees what could be considered a mirror image of their own home planet. Notes are scribbled as they rotate their positions, either making notes or looking into the telescope. Soon enough, they see some strange atmospheric formations.
White lines etched themselves across the sky parallel to each other, racing towards another landmass. That other landmass also had these lines racing across the sky to the landmass that originally had these racing out of their territory. Soon, though, these lines met their destination. Several glints of light marked the end of that line’s journey. The sky now was crisscrossed with these lines, racing past each other to a certain location, where they ended with bright lights that burned spots in the ponies’ eyes. They didn’t know what was going on, but zoomed in on one of these spots where a bright light had ended.
They saw a strange round dark and yellow cloud formation rise out of the cloud layer, bursting through the white to continue its journey skyward. The ground below is greyed with the same hue as the ball of fire and smoke that rises from the ground. Luna darts the view of the telescope to another point where the fireball had dissipated and a sickly grey cloud was covering the land. When she could see through that layer, she saw ash falling from the clouds, peppering the blackened landscape. She saw what only could’ve been a civilization. Well, not anymore.
The ground is peppered with debris and death. There is no movement, save for the ash falling. She finally sees someone moving. It moves on its hind legs, blindly going nowhere with its arms at its sides. It looks somewhat like a pony, but it wasn’t.
…
Most of his senses are useless now. The only reason he knows he’s walking now is because he can sense that he’s vertical, and his muscles and bones jostle painfully with each step. He’s not sure what he’s stepping in, but he can tell by the vibrations of his feet that it crunches.
Not that he’d want to see the world around him anymore. The sky was greyed with few patches few and far between them. The ground was equally grey. Cement and Glass buildings now lay on the ground in millions of pieces. The only sound that was left in the corpse of a city was the soft wind carrying the ash and gravel around, as well as the shallow breathing of the lone man left.
The last thing he ever saw before going blind and deaf was a great ball of light several miles away. It seemed to blot out the very sun in with its own substitute light. He had been fortunate enough to fall down several stairs into his several-storied basement. At the bottom, he had nearly gone insane. He could not see, nor could he hear, so even he could not hear his
despair-filled screams. He had clawed his way out of what was left of his house and family and future. He was walking alone now, his arms and hands swaying by his sides, his skin now pale and sick with impending death. He almost didn’t notice when he ran into a light pole that somehow stood up to the shockwave.
The only reason he knew he had been stopped was because he felt only more pain. He turned around slowly, and leaned against the pole, trying to stare at the sky with his blackened vision. He slid down into a sitting position. His legs were two testaments of pure pain, lying limply from his waist. His arms, which hung from his shoulders, were shriveled and torn. The t-shirt and jeans he was wearing were torn from escaping the house. His breathing became even shallower. He tried to thank whoever was in charge of reality for his incoming death, but the glassy ash he had been breathing had already done the damage to his voice box, and the radiation doesn’t help, either. He prayed for death, but it didn’t come. Even when he despaired with his tears running down his cold, wrinkled face, the world seemed not to oblige him.
…
Luna and Twilight Sparkle are glad that they found something alive, but it looks it wouldn’t be for long. Luna sees the thing rest against a pole that was somehow still intact. She quickly forms an idea in her head for it. Using her vast cosmic magical influence, she could perhaps bring it here. She brings her eyes back to the telescope, and she sees the thing stirring.
…
He allowed himself a ragged sigh of relief. His hand withdrew from his pocket, revealing a useful Swiss army knife that he had used in utility fashion before this. He would have but one more use for it, and he would end his pain. He thought something about going down streams, not just across them.
…
Luna sees the thing jab itself in the arms. She could not lose any more time. She steps away, but Twilight did not go to the eyepiece for her turn. She was looking at Luna, who had started a spell of massive proportions. She floated to the center of the hallway, with everypony looking at her. Her eyes were glowing, and it is obvious that she is in deep concentration. Twilight remembers something about the princesses and powerful magic. She looks to the moon. It is no longer moving across the sky in the fashion that typified the night. Far away, another princess notices this. She heads to the observatory where she knew Luna would be.
Luna uses her powerful magic to reach through the very void of space between her and her goal. Unwittingly, she also goes through time, as the medium she used was the telescope, and the light hitting them marked events millions of years ago. She reached into that event, and carefully plucked the unconscious creature out of its world, and with a flash of light, it was in hers. She stood above it, panting.
The thing was as big as she was when she stood. It had a chalk-white skin and it was obviously dying. The physical and mental requirement for the spell had done some magical wears and tears on Luna. She was bleeding from her nose, and she fell over sideways, also unconscious. It was then that Celestia entered the hallway. Wasting no time, she beckoned for medical teams.
…
Luna awoke hours later. She jerks her head up and looks around the white hospital room. Her personal assistants, as well as Celestia and her student were in the room. She opens her mouth to say,
“What happened?”
Celestia answers.
“My dear sister, you saved a life.”
Luna’s memories flooded back in, and a question burns in her mind.
“Is it alright?”
“Yes, yes he is. We’ve never seen anything like him before. His medical conditions were also unlike anything we’ve
seen before, but the nurses assure me that he’ll be fine. They’ve taped up the arms and they’ve also done some magical
scans on him, just to be sure. He’s sick with something we’ve never seen before.”
Luna rises and nearly gallops out the door of the hospital room. Everypony follows. She runs the hallway to the emergency wing, where she knew she’d find him. Sure enough, the ER had the thing in custody, performing many healing spells on him in an attempt to revive him. Chatter could be heard through the window, and Luna stares at the way that the ponies didn’t seem to care about the fact that this isn’t something they’ve seen before.
So there is that selflessness that overrides the fear of the unknown. That’s a good start. Luna waits outside the window of the ER, watching the pony doctors, nurses and even veterinarians work with the dying thing. She almost didn’t notice Celestia and Twilight come in behind her to join in watching the procedure.
The doctors frantically try to restore the irradiated cells with their spells, and the efforts make slow progress. Assumptions were made, and several mistakes were made. These were corrected, and the assumptions were replaced with a sense of caution. The tense feeling of urgency was still in the air, and it was felt by all the ponies in the vicinity.
Due to the nature of the injuries and the medical conditions of the unknown creature, there was talk in the room that carried over into the hallway that the creature might not make it.
…
Several hours later, the lead pony in charge stepped out the double doors to see the regal sisters and the star student camped out on the chairs for visitors, obviously fighting sleep. When she walked out, the ponies had snapped to attention in such a manner that would make a drill instructor proud. She trots up to them. Princess Celestia addresses her.
“Is he going to be okay, Doctor Serenity?”
Serenity hangs her head low and replies, “We’ve done all we could.”
Twilight Sparkle blurts out,
“Is he okay?”
Serenity is a bit surprised at the outburst, but calmly says,
“Judging by what we do know about mammals like him, we can guess that he’ll make a slow recovery.”
A Beginning after the End
I wandered in the death-filled environment of what used to be a metropolis in which I lived. My eyesight... gone. My hearing... gone. The only indication that I still walked around was my inner ear telling me I was upright, and my feet were shuffling and stepping on a crunchy surfaces. I didn’t know what I was stepping on, be it the ruin of concrete, steel, and glass structures, or the remains of those who had died in the blast.
Lucky saps.
Pain filled every fiber of my being, be it physical, mental, or emotional. I knew that I was about to die, as my family did in front of me. I was just walking for however long before I would too crumple down and join the dead.
Dull marks in my destroyed hearing indicated my footsteps, and I felt myself breathing the irradiated air. My eyes were entirely blackened when I saw the blast. For some reason, my sense of smell remained, but I was not entirely grateful for the smell of a dead city.
I walked into a something solid, perhaps a wall that stood up to the cataclysm. I decided then that there I would rest.
As I slid down into a sitting posture against the solid remains of a structure, my hands rested on my legs. I noticed that I still had something in my pockets. I reached in and pulled out a most peculiar object.
It was a pocketknife. I had it in my pocket when I was unboxing a gift for my son to wrap for a friend’s birthday party. I felt tears running down my burnt face, providing some alleviation from the pain, even if only a sliver of relief.
I pondered on how long I would survive here. I came to the conclusion that even if I had food, water, and shelter, and medical help, I was doomed when my body was irreversibly irradiated.
My mind became unusually calm at my next decision. Yes, I would die by my own actions, and not those of the unseen enemy which had done this to my life.
I passed out as I rubbed what I presumed to be the sharp edge of the knife against my forearms.
I did not expect to wake up in the manner which I did. In fact, I was surprised to wake up at all. Through my remaining senses of touch and smell, I deduced that I was in a hospital. The sanitized air smells of chemicals used in such institutions, and I felt the wrapping of bandages against my skin, providing medicine which eased the aching burns. Another cloth, cold and damp, rested againt my forehead. tight bandaging dressed my forearms, causing me to embarrisingly think of the effort my rescuers to save me from the combined actions of myself and the destructive force which destroyed my house and home, family and freinds, sense of safety and society. I assumed that paramedics flew in from another city and saved my life, even if was just barely. I thanked my lucky stars I was alive, and my hopes soared for the safety of my family. If I could be saved, could my wife and children be saved also?
I attempted to communicate, the sensation of my shallow breathing replaced by the sensation of my raspy voice.
“H-hello?”
I was shocked. I could hear myself speak. I had previously not thought I could, but now I am fully aware of being able to hear the world. I opened my eyes, hoping to see a ceiling, but the same blackness filled my vision before pain forced me to snap my eyes shut. I was disappointed by my lack of sight, but I thanked every single deity I could think of for my hearing.
I heard the commotion of doctors outside my door. They were not entering, yet they were not idle outside my room. I thought back to the irradiation my body must’ve suffered and I feared for my life. Soon, I heard someone enter, the squeak of the door and the thudding of someone walking to my bedside. I heard a female voice, presumably one of a nurse.
“How are you feeling?”
With my exhausted voice I replied,
“W-where’s m-my family?”
I could almost feel the nurse recoil from the statement. Several horrifying therioes came to my mind at once. One theory was that my family simply died and I was the sole survivor. Another sad theory was that they did receive my family, but they had died in their care. Either way, the reaction of the nurse confirmed that my family is gone. I pleaded with the nurse,
“C-can you tell m-m-me where my wife and k-kids are?”
My voice was turning to sobs. They couldn’t be gone. I-I....
The nurse somberly replied,
“I’m sorry.”
I wept bitterly. I wept for my wife, lovely and kind. I wept each of my children, so full of hope and promise. I wept for my friends, all competitive and full of childish spirit.
I was not immediately aware of being held, but as I wept, I realized that arms had picked me up and I was being held in a motherly manner. I wrapped my arms around the nurse, wondering for a moment why the uniform of a nurse would be so soft when the nurse calmed me with soft words, stating,
“Shh, shh. It’s alright. You’re in our care. You’ll be alright. Can you tell me your name?”
Obediently, I said back,
“M-my name’s J-Johnson. Johnson Kings.”
The nurse nodded and replied, ‘
“Okay, Johnson. I’ll be back, and I’ll bring some friends. Is that okay?”
I nodded, and the arms placed me gently back down on the hospital bed. The nurse left, and silence filled the room for a duration. There was talking going on outside my hospital room, and I made out this,
“...everyone...different from him...no need for...panic...”
I tried to deduce what they meant when the door opened again, admitting several guests to my hospital room. They all traveled to my bedside, their odd footfalls distracting me from thinking about the conversation to come until I was addressed by the nurse.
“Johnson-- may I call you John?”
I smiled and said as sweetly I can for someone with a raspy voice,
“Everyone does.”
That seemed to satisfy the nurse. I heard chairs being pulled up to the bedside. I count three chairs, so three guests, if one isn’t dedicated to standing. The one who I still think is the nurse calmly asked,
“Can you tell us about what happened to you?”
I thought for a bit and said,
“I think my city got hit by a nuke.”
I noticed that my voice didn’t sound as broken than before. The sounds of furious scribbling hit my ears. So the two other guests were scribes, I presumed. I continued,
“I was helping my son wrap a present for his friend when the nuke hit us. I’m not sure why the alarms didn’t go off.”
I heard the scribes writing down what I had said, but then they stopped to listen to whatever else I had to say. The nurse said,
“Can you tell us what a ‘nuke’ is?”
“Excuse me?”
That seemed to also surprise my interviewer. She said back to me,
“A nuke. You mentioned a ‘nuke’ ‘hitting’ your town. Is this the bright lights we observed from afar?”
So these people were amish, then. No matter, I am well versed in all kinds of sciences, given my time in universities.
“Well, a ‘nuke’ is shorthand for ‘Nuclear device’. Another name for this is ‘Atom bomb’.”
When I had mentioned the word ‘bomb’, everyone in the room except me gasped in surprise. Even the notetakers had stopped briefly. I took note of this. The nurse said slowly,
“So this is a weapon?”
I replied in the affirmative. The scribes whispered to each other, meaning I only caught the words,
“Terrible... why would... like this?”
“We saw bright lights across the horizon. Seemingly everywhere was affected by these terrible weapons.”
I hadn’t thought of more cities being hit by nukes. After all, I would not be distracted by the elephants in the distance as I was staring at the elephant right before me, but I digress. I said,
“How many people have you rescued thus far?”
A pause from the nurse, then she said,
“Not many, I’m afraid. In fact, you’re the first and only patient we’ve gotten out alive. We’re still trying our hardest to find more, though.”
I immediately thought of the dangers of irradiation. I realized that these people might not know the dangers of irradiation. I quickly said,
“You have to be careful, please. The radiation released from those weapons are an invisible threat to life.”
The nurse seemed shocked. That reaction in turn, shocked me. I realized I was still very much in danger. I said, trying to keep down my panic,
“Did you clean me of any radiation? Do you even know what that is ?”
The nurse quickly retaliated, saying,
“No, no, we know. You’re safe. We just didn’t know that these weapons were able to do that. We thought that there had been a magical attack, not a bombing.”
...Magic? I spoke to confirm what I had heard.
“I don’t believe I heard you right, but did you say magic ?”
There might have been something in my tone of voice, because the room suddenly fell silent. I thought for a moment that something had happened, but the nurse (whom I’m beginning to think isn’t a nurse) said,
The implications of her statement are as diverse as they were astonishing. Before I could board that particular train of thought, The nurse said with a hint of surprise in her voice,
“I should share my name. My name is Luna. The names of those scribing our conversation over there is Twilight Sparkle and Gold Scroll.”
My immediate thought of what incredibly silly names that people could come up for their children, and my second thought was focused on the familiarity of two of those names. Where have I heard them before?
Before I could answer my own questions, my guests excused themselves from my room, and I was left thinking to myself about what I had gathered about my environment. Before sleep took me, I thought of something my college-bound brother liked to say.
Twilight Sparkle is Best Pony.
A Beginning after the End
Twilight Sparkle is best pony.
...
No. That’s impossible.
...
HELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
“What’s happening?!”
“Princess, the patient is panicking!”
“Sedate him! Just be gentle!”
After the last of the drama for the day was resolved, Princess Luna and Twilight Sparkle walked back in silence. Twilight spoke first.
“How can such hatred exist?”
Luna was silent for a duration, then said,
“Because it can, Twilight. There is always evil, and if it is left unchecked, or if it influences the right ponies at the right time, the result is a nightmare.”
Luna drooped her head for a moment in remembrance. Noticing this, Twilight said, “Princess, that time is over. Let’s focus on how we can help these poor creatures. Let’s see about recovering more survivors. I’m sure there are more.”
Just at that moment, the doors of the observatory bursted open and Royal Guards rushed out, stretchers of injured human men, women, and children stretched between them. It was obvious they were also making a beeline for the Canterlot Hospital. After a stunned moment quietly observing the Royal Guard’s rush, Twilight and Luna rushed inside the observatory to see Princess Celestia and a group of unicorns on the telescope, a flash of light marking the entrance of another human. Luna walked up to where Celestia was casting yet another spell and asked, “Sister?”
Celestia stopped casting and stepped aside, allowing more of her Guard to take over the spellcasting. She rubbed some tiredness from her eyes and asked, “Yes?”
Luna looked over to where more humans was appearing and asked, “How long have you been at this?”
Celestia smiled sweetly and answered by saying, “Not long enough. I need to save them , Luna.”
Luna smiled and said, “We all need to save them, dear sister. However, you still have a nation to run, and a sun to set.”
Celestia snickered and replied, “Oh,but Lunaaa
Luna playfully punched her sister and showed her out. She then looked at the passing litters. “It’s going to be a long night.”
Twilight Sparkle, having done all that she could, walked back to the Canterlot train station to catch the last train of the day. Images of burning cities remained fresh in her mind, as did the the image of weapons that caused such a wide area to glow brighter than the sun. Celestia’s sun. What kind of arcane power could enable such a feat? There were none that Twilight could think of. Even her limited knowledge of the dark arts said that such a feat was impossible, seeing as the creation of even a small sun was beyond even Celestia’s capabilities, seeing as the energy required to do so would have to draw from enough of her life force to kill her . She cleared her mind of such possibilities and boarded the train.
As the train moved along its tracks, Twilight took a moment to consider the ramifications of such a power from beings who didn’t use magic.
If their capabilities can outmatch us without the use of magic, how high could they go with magic?
Twilight involuntarily shivered. Hatred had directed mankind to obliterate itself with weapons that seemingly created suns . If those same weapons were supercharged with magic, would anyone survive an impact?
And as Twilight went down her train of thought as the train went on its way, her fear of man deepened.
2 months later...
It’s been 2 months since the apocalypse that claimed Johnson’s world, and it still seemed incredible that he and hundreds of thousands of others had been ferried here by... magic.
Magic.
The one thing that all geeks and nerds wouldfinally get theirlittle soft hands on. Taking a draft from his water canteen, Johnson adjusted himself and plucked another apple off the apple tree that he was precariously hanging off of. Still, Johnson could hardly complain. He had work and a safe(?) place to stay.
He just couldn’t stop the faces from appearing in his dreams. The faces of his wife, children, and friends all grinned at him before abruptly being swallowed by fire, their shrieks forcing him to consciousness. Johnson rarely had a good night’s sleep anymore.
Johnson was so deep in thought that he missed Applejack calling out to him. He did, however, notice when Applejack called to him a second time.
“Johnson?”
“Erm... yeah?”
“You feeling okay up there?”
“U-Uh, oh, of course!”
Johnson then fitfully grabbed another apple and stuffed it into the basket perched between several branches. Applejack raised an eyebrow, but said nothing and walked away. After seeing her out of earshot, Johnson sighed, then collapsed into the branches. His heavy eyelids betrayed him, and soon Johnson was snoozing away.
“Hi, Daddy!”
N-No. NO! PLEASE!
“Oh, hi, sweetheart! What’cha got there?”
Please...
“I got a drawing of you for you, Daddy!”
I can’t take it anymore! Just make it stop!
“That looks wonderful, sweetie! Did you do that at school today?”
NONONONONONONONO
“Nope! I did it just now!”
SOMEONE! ANYBODY!
“That’s pretty good! Let’s get something to eat, okay?”
....
“Okay! Just let me get my cup!”
....
“DADDY, I CAN’T SEE!
*FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH*
“Johnson! ”
“AAAAH!”
Johnson tumbled out of the tree, and he landed painfully on his back.
“Ooh...”
“I-I’m so sorry! Are you hurt?”
“Mhmmmm...”
“...It’s the nightmares again, isn’t it?”
Johnson sat himself against the apple tree he was picking fruit out of.
“Yeah...”
“I just don’t understand why Princess Luna can’t just visit yer dreams, just like us ponies!”
“Well, I could try and explain, but I got a degree in science and engineering, not magical theory.”
Applejack huffed and sat beside Johnson.
“It’s just terrible, that is. You losing a whole world, and to what... the nooks?”
“*Chuckle* Yeah, it is. We weren’t even at war with anybody. The most likely thing to have happened was a fluke. A freak accident that nearly cost us everything .”
“What kinda fluke could that have possibly been?”
“Well, I did remember some talk about some newly installed systems for the silos. Apparently.. there was a bug. It cost us dearly.”
“Did you just say that a m alfunction nearly cost you your entire species?”
“...Yeah, that sucked. I’m still here, aren’t I?”
With that, Johnson wrapped an arm around Applejack. She shrunk under his grasp.
“How could ya’ll be so.. nonchalant about it?”
“Not a dang thing I can do about now, is there?”
Applejack sighed.
“I suppose not, sugarcube.”
“Better make the most of it, huh?”
“...R-Right.”
They watched the passing clouds for a while, each stewing in their thoughts.
