Rise of the Dark Age

They're coming.

They're coming.

They're coming.

WAKE UP.

I awoke to the warmth of Gemstone's body snuggled against mine. She was still fast asleep. The events that had just transpired... I wasn't sure if I should have enjoyed them, or hated them. I wasn't really sure what I liked at all anymore, for that matter.

Today, I was going to get some answers. Just what happened to the world? Who is this "Celestia" pony? Why do I keep hearing things like "They're coming"? And what are those creatures? More importantly, what exactly is the Barracks for?

However, those questions could easily wait for a bit. I was happy, and likely had never been happier. I had practically just met Gemstone and she already liked me back. Hell, we had SLEPT together the previous night. Not in that way.

I looked at her peaceful face as she lay there. That peaceful, beautiful face. She was the very definition of what everypony would want in a girl. She was perfect. I gave her a peck on the cheek. She shifted a bit, but I was able to keep her asleep.

Or not. Her eyes slowly opened. "Hey," she said, "how are you?"

"Well," I said, "I lost my memory, nearly was killed, and slept on the ground in a piece of cloth."

I saw Gemstone's eyes fill with sadness. "Oh," she said, "so... Not so good, then..."

"Are you kidding? Over all of that, I met you. That's what's really important."

Gemstone blushed and smiled. "Do you really mean that?"

"I was drooling after you! You seriously need to ask that?"

"Ew. I didn't need to remember that."

"Ugh..."

"We'd better get up. We don't want to miss breakfast."

"Sorry, miss?"

"The mess hall only serves for forty minutes. If you don't make it, you get to starve."

"Jeez. Alright then, let's get going."

Gemstone and I made out way out of the sleeping roll and stood up. I stretched my legs while Gemstone picked up the torch, which was still burning, off the ground. She pointed the dimming light at the clock. "Oh no," she said worriedly, "come on, we only have ten minutes left!"

"Shit!"

Gemstone raced up the cellar's ladder, and I followed behind. It was finally light out, and I could see everything. Her house appeared to be on the inside of a pre-existing building. From what still remained of it, the place almost looked like a life-sized gingerbread house.

The true look of the Barracks was shocking. As I stepped outside, still hurrying, I did try to take some of it in as I went. The ceiling was gone. I didn't know if a spell did it, but it was gone. I didn't think that unicorns could even get that strong, to be able to move such an object, but it was. The sun shone on the brown, dying grass. Dirt paths covered the earth and pointed every which way. The most important thing that I realized was that every direction I looked, there appeared to be a large stone wall. The Barracks must have been built to protect the ponies inside its walls.

I made my way into what Gemstone had called the mess hall. A large sign above the building read, "Barracks Café", and the structure was oddly shaped like a schoolhouse.

The interior of the building proved it was in fact a schoolhouse. Many broken and burned school desks lay about the place. The walls still had small paintings and drawing made by children hung on them. I guess they were too lazy to take them down, or wanted to remember that we weren't here first.

"Where do we go?" I asked.

"Follow me," she said, "we can go sit by Star Gazer."

I followed Gemstone up to a round table. There were two ponies there. One was a purple unicorn with a purple-violet mane. She was talking to the other pony at her table, who was a cyan pegasus with all rainbow colors in her mane.

Gemstone sat at the table. As she did so, I noticed for the first time what her cutie mark was: three blue gems. Interesting. Curiously, I looked at my own. It was a white wing with two arrows placed in an "x" across it. Interesting. I wondered how I got it.

I sat at the table with her. Unicorns were walking about the room levitating sheets of metal with plates covered in food items on them. One approached our table and placed it between my seat and Gemstone's. "Just take it, Flarewing."

I grabbed a plate. It had things like waffles, eggs, and toast on it. I ate a bite. Not bad. A lot of ponies were leaving, and the building emptied quite a bit. The rainbow pegasus said her goodbyes to the unicorn and took her leave.

The unicorn looked right at me. "Gemstone," she said, "who's the newcomer?"

"That's Flarewing," she said, "he's really nice."

"Flarewing? How'd you get that name?"

"Well," I said, "I was flying. Away from those... Creatures. And I flew so fast that, well, my wings burst into flames."

"Woah, I haven't ever heard of that speed before. You must have been going incredibly fast!"

"He was," said Gemstone, "he was all the way back in front of your house when I found him."

"And he flew to your house from there?"

"Pretty much."

"Incredible." There was a pause of silence before she continued. "He's kind of cute. Not so often we get guys around here."

"Thanks," I said, "but I'm taken."

"Oh? Already? Who?"

I turned to Gemstone and kissed her. Giggling, she said, "Me, of course!"

"Oh, I see."

She almost looked... Jealous? I wasn't sure why. I wasn't THAT great. I mean sure I can fly and catch on fire and stuff, but come on. Okay, that did sound kinda cool. But she didn't compare to Gemstone, so it truly didn't matter.

"So," I said, "what's up with the big ceiling above us at night?"

"Well good question," Star Gazer began, "you see, its still above us now. Its just staying transparent under our magic."

"Why have it?"

"A lot of ponies try to see what's outside. We tell them its not safe, but they don't listen. They try to climb out. That ceiling is keeping them from killing themselves."

"That's... Disturbing..."

A loud bell chimed. Ponies swarmed out of the building. "What's going on?" I yelled, "Should we leave? Is something wrong?"

"No," shouted Gemstone, "no, that's the end bell! It let's ponies know when they can't get food!"

"Do we have to leave though?"

"We can stay all day as long as we don't eat until next meal!"

The bell stopped, thankfully. My eardrums just about popped like a balloon. Star Gazer expected it, and had her hooves covering her ears the entire time. She was a smart girl, I'd at least give her that much.

"Well," said Gemstone, "I've got to get to the clinic."

"Why?"

"She's the nurse," Star Gazer said, "although there aren't many supplies for her to work with..."

"I'll see you later, Flarewing!" Gemstone gave me a kiss and left the mess hall. Star Gazer looked at me.

"We're alone," she said, "so now is your chance."

"Sorry?"

"You know."

"Star Gazer,", I said, rubbing my hoof across my face, " you're pretty and all, but no. I'm sorry, but Gemstone is just the one for me."

"I understand. Sorry I... Tried that."

"Its okay. We can still be friends, though."

"Friends. Yeah, sure." Star Gazer blushed. I wasn't going to be mad. I would've tried that with Gemstone if she were already dating somepony. Probably...

"Hey," she said, smiling, "why don't I show you around?"

"Yeah, sure. I'm not so certain I understand this place."

"Follow me."

I followed Star Gazer out of the mess hall. For the first time I had been outside, I could see other ponies about. Most of them were just chatting as they walked, some were in a rush. A few select ponies were limping about. The clinic must be busy here.

Star Gazer showed me all around the Barracks. We first stopped at a large, crystallized tree. "Wow," I simply stated as I stared, "how is this still up?"

"No idea," she said, "but it seems to be a library of sorts."

"Weird." And it was weird. It was the only perfectly intact building in the entire Barracks.

We continued along the path, passing by several houses, until we stopped alongside a large area of burned down crops. A wrecked barn, covered in moss, lay at the end. "What happened here?"

"This is what folks around here call 'Sad Apple Acres'. It was Sweet Apple Acres, but as you can see, that name isn't so fitting. No one dares enter it. Rumors say that the creatures came from there."

"Weird," I said again, "this place is so... disastrous..."

"You sure this is weird? Come with me."

I followed Star Gazer along the dirt paths. Eventually, we approached what appeared to be a metal cottage. It was surrounded by a hellish landscape. Dead plants, skeletons everywhere, and a pool of green, glowing liquid outside the door. "Weird..."

"This is where the mess hall coordinator, Bravestem, lives. She and I... Aren't so good of friends."

"Really? Why?"

"I'd rather not say."

"Your call."

"Let's go to the outskirts."

I followed Star Gazer through a burned down forest. Bloody corpses were scattered across the ground. A few had been burned down to flesh and bones. I gagged.

"I always hate walking through here," said Star Gazer, "but it leads to one of our more important places."

Finally, we made it through the forest. A large,  crudely built structure of wood planks lay in front of me. It was a very poor watchtower, stationed right next to a wall. I hadn't realized how tall the walls were until I got up close. They were at least fifty times taller than me, and they were built of pure granite.

"These are our main defenses," said Star Gazer. "If we see threats, unicorns in those watchtowers shoot spells at them. We also have the ESP drop bombs."

"ESP?"

"The Elite Squadron of Pegasai. Unicorns condense magic into a small container. A member of the ESP takes it and flies over to the threat. Then, all they have to do is drop the container. Boom."

"Who thought of that idea?"

"Our defensive advisor, Exosphere."

"His name is Exosphere?"

"Her. And yes. She flies up higher than anypony I know."

"Sounds like a tough pony."

"Oh yeah. Fit for the job."

Star Gazer, whom I had noticed is extremely friendly, took me to the clinic next. "This is the hospitality bay, or the clinic, whatever you want to call it. Its where Gemstone works."

"Can we go in?"

"It'd be best if we didn't."

"Why?"

"It's a very disturbing place to go."

"I see. This whole town seems so... Destroyed. What happened to everything? Why can't we remember?"

"I think we should just make the best of it. This is what we have now, and this is what we need to cherish. If we don't cherish this, we have nothing."

"I suppose that's true. But how come we can't leave?"

"It's dangerous outside those walls. Monsters everywhere. Its a death trap."

"Monsters? Like the ones I saw last night?"

Star Gazer grabbed me. "Saw? You saw it???"

"Well, only a glimpse of green mist coming out of it. Why, does that mean anything?"

"Of course it does!" Star Gazer started jumping up and down, extremely excitedly. "That's incredible! Green mist! Come on, we have something to figure out!"

Star Gazer began running off. "Wait," I called, "where are we going?"

"To my house, come on!"

I galloped after her. She wasn't as fast as Gemstone was the previous night. I had no trouble catching up. We arrived at a large mansion. It was definitely not intact. Windows were shattered, the door was a sheet of metal, and several bits of the walls were missing and patched with wood chips. Still, it was quite admirable.

"You live here?" I asked in disbelief. It was amazing.

"Yeah," she said, "now come on!"

Star Gazer lit her horn and the metal sheet moved off to the side. The interior was a disaster. Papers everywhere, broken furniture all over the place, and a dried blood trail ran from the door to the kitchen window. The staircase was missing five consecutive steps.

"Sorry about the mess," she said as she put the metal sheet back, "I haven't cleaned up in a while."

As she looked frantically through books muttering scientific words I has never come across, I decided to give myself a history lesson. I wandered around the room and took a look at the pictures. One in particular inspired me: a purple filly with a beautiful white smile. She was wearing the cutest metal crown I had ever seen.

"This is sweet," I said, "who is it?"

"We never knew her name," Star Gazer said, glancing up at it. "Yup, she died first night. Burned alive in the forest by a pony who thought she was a monster. It was dark, I don't blame them. Of course law around here is an eye for an eye, so we burned him alive too."

"Please," I said, "spare me the details."

"Sure."

"How much longer?"

"Done!"

"Great timing..."

Star Gazer glared at me before returning to her papers. "Alright Flarewing," she smiled, "I have uncovered that this creature must be... Something!"

"Seriously?"

"But now that you're here... Let me show you my bedroom. I have a surprise."

"No! I have had it with you! You've been flirting with me all day, haven't you? This was a way to get me to screw you!"

"No, Flarewing, I meant th-"

"I'm done with you! Burn in Tartarus, I'm going back to Gemstone!"

"FLAREWING!"

She got my attention. "Listen," she said, "I didn't mean it like that. I mean I have an actual surprise for you. Its in my bedroom. Sorry you took it that way."

"Oh, um..." I blushed from embarrassment. "Sorry Star Gazer..."

She rolled her eyes. "Come on."

I trotted into the room left of me. Her bed was a pile of hay covered in a thick layer of cotton. It looked fairly comfortable. Star Gazer picked up a slip of paper off of her nightstand and gave it to me.

"Its an admission slip," she said. "From what I've heard, you catch on fire when you fly, right?"

"Yeah?" I was still trying to figure out what the small blue text on the thing said.

"Great, welcome to the ESP recruit program."

"Cool!" I paused and gave myself a minute to process what she said. "Wait, WHAT?"

I looked at the paper again. I could read the words this time. They were all big and black and easy to see.

You must survive.

You must survive.

You must survive.