The Dead City

Part 12: EMBARK

Twilight and I look over the ruins of the Manehattan Bridge into the swirling black waters of the Frost River at least one hundred feet below. The river seems to be boiling. Both of us know by now that the bubbles aren’t caused by heat, but rather by a bloodthirsty monster.

I look over to her and see, as I do every day, the exhaustion on her face. I doubt that I look much better. It has been three months since I shaved last, and every morning my stubble grew and grew. I wear now only a dirty shirt to combat the cold that has befallen the land. Our group has shrunk by three since Twilight killed the Changeling imposter three months ago. Two struck out by themselves, and one died of the trots. Now we merely have Rainbow Dash, Twilight, me, Big Macintosh, Noteworthy, and a pony named Sundance in our group. I’ve learned a lot about these ponies since we first met under rather hostile circumstances.

Three long, hungry months passed. We only got as far as Coltville, just a few hundred miles outside the city. It’d been abandoned and looted. Only bonewalkers populated the small town.

We had no choice. We had to turn back. And so here we are.

“See anything?” I say to my sister as we observe the destroyed bridge. Twilight stares hard at the empty space where concrete should have lain. The bridge’s supports and wires are still intact, so when I first saw it I knew there had to be some crossable remnant of the bridge left. It seems, however, that no such remnant exists.

“Wait, Shining! I see something! Look!”

She points to the left side of the bridge, and immediately I see it; a two-meter-wide stretch of stone that jutted out into open air. I trace it with my eyes back to the foggy city. The bridge is only partially collapsed, and the far end remains intact. Twilight smiles at me, and I return her grin.

We have found a way.

“Everypony!” I call out. “There’s a way across! C’mon!”

The group joins us, and we prepare to cross. However my mind is completely rejecting the notion that I go anywhere near Manehattan after what happened four months previously. But our options are thin; starve or go into the city.

We start across the bridge.

The girders creak and the waves rumble beneath our hooves as we inch along the thin concrete chunk that keeps us from plunging to a watery grave. The high winds threaten to knock us off, but Twilight uses her magic to give us more balance.

But when we are merely fifty feet away from the other side, Sundance jumps.

“NO!” I yell, but it is too late. I watch his yellowish body grow smaller and smaller until it is eaten up by the waves. My heart grows sick, and I know that Sundance will be eaten by far more than water.

“What the buck?!” Noteworthy screams over the high wind. “Did he jump?!”

“Oh my gosh,” Twilight stammers. I have no words. I’d known Sundance for less than a month. Actually that is incorrect. I hardly knew him at all.

But I know that he jumped on purpose.

“BUCKING DAMN IT!” I scream, wobbling.

“No, SHINING!” Twilight magicks me so that I regain my balance, and we all shimmy toward the end of the concrete slab.

“Why’d he jump?” Noteworthy yells. “What the buck just happened?”

“Shut up!” I scream. “No talking until we’re across!”

The sun barely shines through the thick clouds. It must be around noon. The last girder we must cross is wet with rainwater and spray, but thankfully we all manage to get across.

We are on solid ground, and I collapse. Tears fall from my eyes as grief seizes my body.

“Shining Armor, what happened?” Rainbow Dash says, floating down. She’d flown across to scout. “Where’s Sundance?”

“He jumped off.”

She gasped. “What?! No, no he must have—”

“He bucking JUMPED OFF!” I scream.

“But why?”

“Why wouldn’ he?” Big Macintosh answers. “Whole world’s gone t’hell. His family’s probably dead or worse. Anypony he knew, dead. I’m surprised he didn’ jump sooner.”

“Holy buck,” Noteworthy says, collapsing to his knees. I wipe away my tears.

“Forget Sundance. We have to carry on. Now’s not the time for grief. Rainbow Dash, what did you see?”

The pegasus gulps and wipes her brow. “Uhm…uh…well, there’s like some sorta camp just a ways down the bridge. Looks abandoned, but the fire’s still going. Tents and everything.”

“Then that’s where we’re going. C’mon.”

I can think of little else other than Sundance and why the buck he jumped, but my thoughts are interrupted by an arrow to the knee.

“GAAAH!”

“AMBUSH!”

Suddenly we are set upon by dozens of hooded ponies with knives, swords, spears, and bows. I collapse to the ground as my leg turns red with blood, and all around me my friends are fighting.

Bandits. They cried out like hyenas, swiping and stabbing. I saw Rainbow Dash smash into one and Big Macintosh kick another off the bridge. The bandit screamed as it plunged.

“Gah! Somepony get me a weapon!” I cry. I have the most military experience of the group, but when I look I see that my friends are faring well against the bandits. Twilight has in her mouth a nasty-looking blade that, when catching wind of my call, she tosses to me and then proceeds to pick up a spear, goring the bandit pony through the chest. I grasp the sword’s handle and enter the fray.

But my knee hinders me, leaves me open to attack. The bandits waste no time in making me into mincemeat.

I fall back and collapse onto my back, weak from blood loss. I must have been cut a dozen times by a dozen different weapons. But the bandits keep coming. How many are there? We cannot fight them all. I am fading…Big Macintosh is on the ground, unmoving…Twilight is overwhelmed…

Suddenly a roar. No. A cry? Yes, a cry. A cry rings out and I see shadowy shapes go flying by, before realizing that the shapes are the bandits being thrown off the bridge. I want so desperately to look to see who our savior is, but I cannot lift my head. My blood has turned my skin red. I see out of the corner of my eye that a bandit holds Twilight by the neck, his blade resting against her jugular vein. I can see the bandit’s grim little eyes, bloodshot and desperate for food. They are like us, but with weapons.

He screams once as a shadow overtakes him, then vanishes from sight. I fall back. Twilight is safe.

Voices, deep and distant. One sounds familiar. I try to look up, but suddenly a shadow consumes me.

It is a being, a very familiar being…

Oh my god.

“No…” I utter, blood forming at the corners of my lips. “No…”

It can’t be.

It can’t…be…

“We…we…”

No. Impossible.

Not possible.

“We…killed…you…”

The Variable has come.

Indeed.

How very interesting…