Amongst the Ashes and Ruins.
By
KHORNE FLAKES
Chapter One.
“Where do we begin?”
Today was a good day for the Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle. The lavender mare sat on a plush, royal purple cushion in her castle’s library with one of her infamous checklists suspended by her telekinetic magic. In front of her sat the mirror that would lead any brave soul to another world; one still not understood by its alicorn caretaker, but filled with enough wonder to make her brain itch something fierce.
Twilight smiled to herself and checked off the final box with a purple quill, her first preened primary feather to be exact. "I still can't believe I've got built-in quills," she thought to herself, letting out a small giggle at the silly thought.
Standing up, Twilight peered around for the magical journal that was linked to Sunset Shimmer’s own copy, before spotting it on the floor, covered in a light powdering of snow and debris. Twilight’s gaze lingered on the book for a few seconds as her brain had temporarily shut down.
Twilight's mind--after starting back up again--did a real nice job in figuring out that something wasn't right.
Shaking her head to clear the haze of confusion, Twilight’s mind snapped back into action and her eyes she began to take in her surroundings. She was in a large dingy room of some sort, mostly bare and damp from the light snow making its way through a hole in the ceiling. The walls behind her were covered in black mold that seemingly ate away the wallpaper that once gave the room life and color. It took Twilight a fraction of a second to come to the conclusion that she wasn't in her castle library.
Immediately realising that panicking wouldn't get her anywhere, and would likely make her situation worse, Twilight began to exercise her magic. First, a low energy spell designed to test the integrity of a unicorn’s horn. The damp and neglected room was bathed in a soft, violet light as her spell did its job. Satisfied and relieved to find her horn to be intact, Twilight Looked back over to where the magical book sat and moved it to a nearby table with her telekinesis.
After taking a few seconds to shake herself clean of anything that might be clinging to her coat, she began to work on a triangulating spell, seeing as she had no other tasks to focus on. Utilizing the world’s arcane ley lines to give her a rough location, Twilight poured a steady stream of energy into it, hoping to find a familiar line of energy. She might have found something but the sounds of coughing and a groan from above startled her, causing the spell’s intricate matrices to collapse in on themselves in a harmless poof of energy.
“Uh, is somepony out there?” Twilight asked the gloomy room and beyond.
“Huhhnng, ugh Twilight,” came a dazed and familiar voice. “Is that you?”
Twilight’s eyes widened. Was that..? No, it couldn't be… could it?
“Sunset Shimmer!?” Twilight cried out,
With a powerful flap of her wings, Twilight ascended up and out of the hole in the ceiling and up to the newly discovered second story of the building. Landing with a soft thump on the ruined carpet, the lavender alicorn's gaze swept across the room in a frantic attempt to spot the amber unicorn. Two doorways, one leading to a completely demolished bathroom in front of her and another leading to a darkened room with a wooden door, rotted and hanging from its remaining bottom hinge to her right.
Hearing a grunt coming from the room, Twilight quickly trotted through the door, half consciously casting an illumination spell as she entered the room. Sunset Shimmer was half buried by a small section of the ceiling that had come down sometime after the two had been dumped here.
“Sunset! Are you alright?” Twilight called out as her magic shifted from illumination to telekinesis. Purple swirls of magic enveloped the decently hefty material, carefully lifting and tossing it to a corner of the room.
“Nggh… ugh, I'm sore,” replied the now unburied Sunset Shimmer, who was just now beginning to take in her surroundings. “Where are we and what happened?”
Twilight brushed some remaining bits of ceiling guts off of her friend as she stood up. “Thank Celestia you're not seriously hurt, and I don't know! I remember sitting in front of the mirror, checking off everything for your trip through the mirror and next thing I know everything just fades to.. to this!”
Sunset shook her head to dislodge anything that might be still be stuck. “Yeah, I'm just sore. A cut or two I'm certain of,” she smiled and waved her hoof at Twilight’s worried expression. “But I think you took the brunt of whatever happened. I remember saying my goodbyes to everybody before you placed your book on the mirror.”
Twilight smiled and pulled her friend into a quick hug which was reciprocated. “I'm just glad you're not seriously hurt. I don't know what I would do if you were.”
Smiling as she was released from the hug, Sunset replied, “I’m sure you’d think of something, Twilight. I mean, you are a walking vault of knowledge disguised as a princess after all.”
Twilight rolled her eyes at the praise, earning a chuckle from Sunset which was joined by her own mirthful laughter. The warmth of laughter died too quickly to ease the uncertainty of the situation. With a sigh she sat down and began to think of the situation. She already came to the conclusion that she and now Sunset were somewhere else , but seeing as how she was occupied with sitting in a dirty shell of a building with little frozen flakes of dihydrogen monoxide falling down on and around her, she could only speculate as to where. The sound of Sunset clearing her throat got Twilight’s attention.
“As much as I would like to stay in one place but-” Sunset began, looked around room with a grimace on her face. “-I think it'll be better for us to get out of here.”
Twilight nodded her head and turned to leave the room, Sunset Shimmer trailing behind. The two mares made it down to the first floor, Twilight using her wings to slow her fall through the hole while Sunset made do with a short teleport. After Twilight’s brief pause to collect the magical journal from its resting spot and nestling it under her left wing, the two made their way to the nearest exit, a doorless frame.
Stepping out into the slightly whitened outside, the two out of place ponies took in the sights of an abandoned city. All around them were several vehicles in various states of ruin, including a large, dark green one that looked like it would have had eight wheels, if they were still attached to it that is. The buildings were in similar states, most with shallow holes marring the surfaces.
Twilight looked over to Sunset who had her gaze set on the relatively empty road. She took a glance in the other direction before trotting to her side. “Something wrong, Sunset?” she asked as her eyes desperately tried to follow Sunset’s gaze.
Sunset shook her head and lifted her left foreleg and pointed out to a spot down and across the street. “No, but if I'm not mistaken, there looks to be some faded footprints in the snow.”
“I think I see what you're seeing, but the only way to be sure is if we take a closer look,” Twilight replied as the two took their first steps on a bloody journey that would would be burned in their minds for the rest of their lives.
