The Day the Sky Disappeared
From the journal of Jet Stream.
June 5, year 1001
1:39 PM
I was at the malt shop when the sky disappeared.
The day started out normal enough. I went to Soft Serve’s Malt Shop around noon, same as always, and ordered the usual: a chocolate shake with whipped cream and a cherry on top. Not the healthiest of meals, but whatever.
Since the weather was nice, I decided to enjoy my shake outside on a nearby picnic table.The next hour or so was split between slurping my shake and writing in this journal (gotta hone my skills somehow). Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of anything to write...so, in the end I ended up rating the flanks of every mare that passed by.
Most of the posteriors I saw averaged an eight or a seven, with a few nines sprinkled here and there. They ranged from plump and squishy to lean and bony, though most fell somewhere in-between.
I am such a pervert.
Anyway, I was chasing down the last bit of chocolatey bliss with my straw when I heard somepony ask if they could sit next to me. I looked up and nearly dropped my shake.There, standing only a few hooves away from me, was Princess Twilight Sparkle.
I swallowed my fear and said yes. She smiled, thanked me, and plopped her plump, luscious flank-- a perfect 10 on my scale--on the bench. In true Twilight fashion, she dug a book out of her saddlebag and buried her muzzle in it. It took everything I had to keep my wings from springing out.
I realized that this was a golden opportunity on a silver platter. The mare I’d had a crush on for almost a year was sitting right next to me. This was my chance to finally make my move. I smoothed out my mane, popped a breath mint into my mouth and sloooowly scooted over to her.
I was just about to open my mouth and say “Hi” when somepony yelled, “Look at the sky!”
Me and about a couple hundred other ponies turned their heads skyward. Our jaws must have dropped at exactly the same time. When I’d arrived at the malt shop, the sky had been a beautiful robin’s egg blue. Now it’s completely black!
Hang on, Something’s going on...
2:00 pm
There’s a lot more going on than just the sky changing color.
Just a few minutes ago, Applejack galloped into town as if she was being chased by a pack of Timberwolves. I already felt uneasy; Applejack was the kind of pony who could stare down a raging Ursa Major without flinching. If something had her this spooked, we were in trouble.
Applejack ran to the center of town and collapsed, gulping air as if it were going out of style.
Feeling particularly brave, I trotted up to AJ and asked her what was going on, only to have her grab me by the neck with a sweat-soaked hoof and shake me like a foal’s rattle while screaming, “Everything’s gone, everything’s gone!” as if somepony was forcing her to do it at swordpoint.
Thankfully, Twilight managed to calm her friend down--she’s good at that. When we pressed the earth pony for details, she claimed that she’d been working in the southern orchard when everything east of the farmhouse disappeared. When Twilight asked what she’d meant by “disappeared,” AJ had just repeated, “One minute it was there. The next, it wasn’t!”
Of course, everypony and their mother is stampeding over to Sweet Apple Acres. And, of course, I’m going to fly over and join them. I need to see this for myself.
More later.
3:00 pm
It’s true. By Celestia, Luna, and the Queen, it’s all true.
I’m writing this from Sweet Apple Acres. Or rather, what’s left of it.
It’s just as Applejack said. Everything east of the farmhouse-- the orchards, the Everfree Forest, et cetera-- is gone. There’s no crater, no rubble... just gone. The Apple family home is now precariously perched on the edge of an impossible cliff.
When I mean “impossible,” I mean that there’s no way this thing is natural. When I flew out over the edge to get a better look, I noticed that it’s face doesn’t have the craggy, weathered look of a normal cliff; instead, it’s as smooth as polished rock. And as if that wasn’t strange enough, everything near the cliff’s edge looks like its’ been sliced in half. I can see a half a bucket teetering above the cliff face, as if it’s trying to decide whether or not it should jump. Half an apple tree stands by the edge, like a cross-section in a botany textbook.
As far as we can tell, beyond the cliff there’s nothing. Just a stomach-churning drop and an endless inky void.
As we gaped at the place where Equestria used to be, one of the local hotheads-- a pegasus named Wildcat-- decided to get a better look and took off into the blackness. Twilight tried to stop him with a telekinesis spell, but the purplish bolt vanished before it could reach him.
Wildcat flew out over the endless bottomless pit. Without reference points, it looked as though he was slowly shrinking on a piece of black velvet. A minute later, he staggered his way back and plowed into the dirt, shivering uncontrollably and gasping like a fish.
“It’s cold. Real cold.” He shivered. It must have been cold-- Wildcat’s red coat and wings were coated with ice crystals . “Air’s thin too,” he added. “Hard to breathe. Almost passed out.”
When we asked Wildcat what he’d seen, he’d blurted out that there was nothing out there. All he could see was a glowing ball that might have been the sun, and a massive island of rock and dirt.
Ponyville.
5:00 pm
When we arrived back at the town, we harassed Twilight for answers. She was one of the most educated mares in Equestria; she had to know what was going on!
Now that I think about it, that’s probably the main reason I’m smitten with her. It’s not just her ample flank or her beautiful eyes, though those certainly don’t hurt. No, the sexiest part of her is her brain.
Twilight did her best to quench our thirst for answers. She locked herself up in the Library and started ransacking the place. We could hear her yank books off of shelves and flip through them. We could hear frantic scribbling on parchment, then a whoosh of enchanted flame--letters being sent to Canterlot.
Eventually, Twilight plodded out of the library, her head bowed and her ears flat. She said, in a soft, almost inaudible voice, that she couldn’t find anything about this phenomenon in her books, and there’d been no responses from Canterlot. It was gone with the rest of Equestria.
I think that, up to this point, we’d all believed that this whole mess was some kind of collective nightmare. All we had to do was pinch ourselves and we’d wake up in our beds, basting in nervous sweat. It wasn’t until Twilight confessed her ignorance that it became horrifyingly real.
Twilight’s confession was the straw the broke the horse’s back. Ponyville simply broke down. Most ponies, myself included, just ran around in circles, screaming their heads off as if that would bring Equestria back. Some local fanatics started yelling that this was punishment for our “sins against the Queen,” and that the only way to bring Equestria back was through repentance and fasting.Other ponies hid in barrels and garbage cans, as if they could hide from the emptiness.
Mayor Mare did her best to calm everypony down. “Everypony p-p-please remain calm!” she’d yelled, barely containing her fear. Looking back, it was both sad and kinda funny, like a firepony trying to put put out a forest fire with a teacup.
As the panic escalated, ponies started taking their fear out on the town, smashing stands and breaking into stores. I saw an earth pony mare break into a jewelry store and come out bedecked with more necklaces and earrings than a Canterlot noble. Hilariously, I saw a unicorn stallion break into a general store and come out loaded with rolls of toilet paper, as if an ample supply of bathroom tissue would save him from this disaster.
Then there was a bright flash of lavender light. Everypony in town froze in place, enveloped by an aura of red-purple light, as if the entire town had been flooded with raspberry jam. It didn’t take a Starswirl to figure out who was responsible.
“Everypony calm down!”
The aura disappeared. We turned to see the Princess standing there, her horn glowing as if it had a star balanced on its tip.
The Princess then released the spell and began giving the entire town the scolding of our lives. She said that as horrible as this disaster was, it was no excuse for us act like savages. “Equestria may be gone,” she shouted, “but her laws are not!”
Once we were properly chastised, Twilight’s voice softened. She reminded us that Ponyville has gone through many a disaster in the past- the parasprites, Nightmare Moon, Discord, etc.-- but it had always come through in the end. “I know that we’ll get through this!” she’ shouted. “We always do!”
To cap off her speech, Twilight vowed by the Princesses and the Queen that she would find a way to restore Equestria. She would study every book, try every spell, and run every test she knew to find a way out of this. If it came down to it, she would drain every last ounce of magic from her body in order to bring the world back to normal.
I was in awe. Right then and there, Twilight wasn’t the adorkable bookworm I loved. She was an angel of light,sent by the Queen herself to aid us in this time of need. On her face was a look of unshakeable confidence, as if the entire world disappearing was just another one of her mentor’s tests.
I’m not ashamed to say it gave me the most awkward wingboner of my life.
For now, Twilight’s ordered us to return to our homes and stay there ‘til morning. She says that she’ll have new instructions for us by then.
More later.
'
11:00 pm
Well, right now, I’m laying in bed, waiting for morning.
It’s pitch black outside. Whatever that glowing sphere is, it seems to have moved to the bottom of our little floating island, so we still have night. I guess that’s some comfort.
I can’t sleep. By Tartarus, I don’t think any of us are going to get much sleep tonight. Whenever I close my eyes, I swear I can feel that void out there, staring at us. It’s like there’s some Everfree monster lurking just outside my bedroom door.
Still, I don’t feel completely hopeless. From my window, I can see the lights on at Golden Oaks Library. I can see the silhouette of Twilight running around the library, pulling out books and scribbling on scrolls. I’m impressed; she’s been at it for hours without a single break.
I think we’re in very good hooves.
