A Journey Across

Book 2 - Revenge of the Doctor

Chapter 7 - Ashes to Ashes

3 days since Canterlot's fall

The search parties stumbled across the ruins. Their job was to search for survivors and identify the bodies. Even after three days the only thing they dug out were lifeless remains of ponies. Twilight participated in the search. Spike had to be back for a long time now and she worried what had happened. She couldn't accept that he may had been inside canterlot.

Twilight breathed heavily under her mask, the air was still toxic and the ash that whirled through the air isn't good for ponies either. She moved the burnt wall of a former house with her magic. Under it laid the remains of a family. A father, a mother and two childs, still clinching to their parents when the wall crushed them.

Suddenly the alicorn princess broke down. Laying on the ground, tears began to drop as she began crying silently. No survivors in the last days. Only ruins and ashes. She still remembered the fire. The whole city stood in flames, burning for over a day. The smoke even reached ponyville, leaving a stench of burnt flesh and blood that noone would forget.

A voice screamed over the silence that laid over the area like a blanket, "TWILIGHT! I FOUND HIM!"

Twilight jumped up. She ran, almost flying, to the pony who had found him. When she saw his body it was worse than she had ever imagined.

Spike's face and upper body were mostly intact. It was definitely him. A big metal truss had impaled him in his belly. Judging by his pose he still tried to pull it out after it struck him. A big pool of burnt blood surrounded him, covering his arms and feet. The truss had doomed him to watch as the fire crept closer until it reached his exposed and unprotected flesh and burned him alive.

Twilight turned around, no longer able to see Spike this way, and ran. Her feet did it on their own. She ran all the way to Ponyville, not stopping on one point. At the doorstep of her castle Twilight broke down, floods of tears gathering in a pond around her. She sobbed for hours.

The sun and moon stood still on either side of the horizon. Since the bombing neither of the Celestial Sisters tried to do their duty. Their pain was still to intense and fresh.

Twilight pulled her mask off, breathing the fresh, unfiltered air. "Why does this happen to us?" she asked. Noone answered.

4 days since Canterlot's fall

The funeral was a farce. Noone could bury all of the victims properly. They were thrown into quickly filling mass graves when their were identified. The others went to Manehattan, were they were preserved until the resources for further investigation were available.

Pinkie played a trompet. Not a smile from her in the last 4 days. Her deflated mane indicated that she had lost all happiness.

She was the only one to play any instrument and the eerie sound of a single trompet, slightly echoing in the cemetery, made them uneasy. The sound was fitting, sad and alone. Every time she played from the beginning to the end of the funeral, only lowering the volume or pausing when someone made his goodbyes or held a short speech.

The Celestial Sisters stood in front of the grave of honour. Both looking down and tears dropping to the ground. The big boulder on the other side of the grave listed 120 names. Like all the others.

The gathering around the grave was small. It became smaller with each funeral. Only the survivors of the attack came to every single funeral. They honoured those who were lost.

Tomorrow would be Spike's funeral. Twilight didn't look forward to it. She still couldn't believe he was dead. He was always there for her, always doing his duty. The castle felt empty without him.

The young alicorn princess blamed herself for Spikes death. She shouldn't have allowed him this trip. He wanted to visit the crystal empire, meet some old friends and participating as ambassador from the diarchy to the peace treaty with the griffon kingdom.

The others stood beside Twilight, not noticing her grief as they were busy with their own. The doctor, Jeb, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy saluted at the end of each funeral.

They all knew it would take them weeks to fulfill this duty and years to forget what happened.