The End is Never-ending

The train rode on to Canterlot. There were many ponies crying in loved ones hooves, just like I was with my mother. Covered in the blood of fallen friends and family.

Occasionally some ponies would come from the front of the train and spread out food to everypony. Some refused to eat at all, others only ate a little bit. Sadly, there was no way to clean the blood off everypony rapidly. They gave out wipes that smelled like lemons.

My mother wiped all the blood off of my hooves and body first. She was so strong. She held back tears and kept me close to reassure me that everything would be okay. Deep down though, she knew that nothing would ever be the same.

The train lasted about a day. All that time was spent with either crying to my mother or sleeping due to exhaustion. Of course, sleeping after an event like that only enables nightmares.

I was awoken by my mother when we got to Canterlot. Everypony was ordered to leave the train in an orderly fashion and to follow instructions of the royal guard. We had been told that Canterlot had been able to set up somewhere for everybody to stay for a short while.

We followed conduct and went with the group. I stayed glued to my mother the whole time. After what seemed like forever of walking through the streets, we made it to the designated area.

It looked like somepony trying to go camping in the middle of a city plot of land. It was definitely thrown together quickly and all they had completely set up were places to sleep. We were informed that more help was on it’s way, meaning doctors who volunteered to help and food donors.

The sleeping spaces were separated as units. Some had only one sleeping space, others had two or three. The families were ensured the bigger spaces. Everypony was taken to have a unit assigned to them.

My mother refused to have a big unit. I was small enough to fit right beside her into a single unit she argued. To avoid conflict, the guards just allowed her to have her way. We were assigned into unit #39.

Even though it was the middle of the day, most ponies just went to their units after being assigned. Some left the area because they had relatives or friends in Canterlot that they could stay with and get help instead. My mother and I weren’t that fortunate.

My mother laid down right next to me in our unit. “It’ll be okay sweetie. I know this is a big change, but we can get through it together.” She told me as I tried to get as close to her as possible.

I hadn’t spoken since my father’s sacrifice. I just didn’t feel the want or need to. I stayed silent, even to my mother. I stopped crying a while ago, I just would lay there and stare out at everypony.

My mother would say something from time to time, trying to distract me from how much was wrong. Eventually somepony came by bringing us food. At first I was reluctant to eat it. My mother wasn’t okay with that though, and fed it to me like I was a newborn.

She knew something was wrong with me, but there was nothing she could say or do to fix it. We stayed in our unit almost the whole day.

Later that night, my mother curled around me. I snuggled into her, just wanting protection from the outside world. I still hadn’t spoken a word, but I started to cry quietly again. Repeating the same process on the train, I cried until I fell asleep.

The nightmares haunted me. In my dreams, I was surrounded in the fog alone. Hearing all the screams I heard before when the attack had happened. I watched as I could make out figures tearing ponies apart. Everypony around me was dying.

I started running away, but tripped over a corpse. It felt so real, because when I hit the ground it hurt. I landed in blood and wet dirt. When I began to rise, I looked over my shoulder to see what I tripped on.

I saw my father torn to pieces, bleeding horrendously. His armour was broken and his sword shattered on the ground next to him. I was breathless and couldn’t believe it. I wanted to scream but seemingly couldn’t.

After an eternity of staring at my father’s dead body, I crawled over to him and shook him a little. “Dad… Dad, get up…” I pleaded. There was no response. I examined over him once more until I ended my gaze towards the remains of his sword.

I looked at them for a brief second before slowly reaching for the hilt of the blade. Holding it in my hooves, I heard my father’s voice faintly. “Be good for your mother. I love you son.” Those words rung in my mind. I clenched the sword as hard as I could, trying to resist crying some more.

All at once, the screams stopped and I couldn’t hear my father’s voice anymore. I looked up through my watery eyes. I was still surrounded by fog and my father’s body still lay there lifeless. It was dead silent, seemingly now like I ended up in a void of darkness.

Looking down at the sword hilt one last time, I positioned the jagged blade towards my neck. Tears were running, but my cries were silent now. I moved the blade closer, to the point where I could feel it against my neck.

Suddenly, a loud growl was produced by something behind me in the fog. I stopped all movement, I didn’t breathe, paralyzed in fear. As it got louder, I began to feel the ground move with each step the creature made towards me.

I turned slowly to look at it. All I could see was a giant figure in the fog. The same size as the figure that had killed my father. It stopped moving when I stared at it. It was a contest of who could hold still longer. I was the prey, watching my predator get closer with no escape. The creature was waiting for the opportune time to strike.

All of a sudden, I swung the remainder of the sword to face the monster instead. Directly out towards it. With that the creature roared and launched towards me incredibly fast. Within a second, I felt it’s mass hit me.

Right at that moment, I shot up from my sleep and screamed. My mother instantly awoke and saw me. She hugged herself around me as I stopped the scream. I cried in her hooves. Instead of her comforting soothing voice, I felt her tears hit my body as well. We sat there together and cried for hours.

The next day, doctors had arrived on the units. They went by each unit, following a group of ponies that served breakfast to anypony who had still yet to move. My mother and I were in our unit when we were pointed out. A couple doctors and ponies passing out food came over.

I was given a few different choices out of our share of food. Each unit had a basket of food to ration it off so nopony would legitimately starve. Out of everything, I took a single apple that had the Sweet Apple Acres logo on it. Apparently, Sweet Apple Acres had donated thousands of apples when they heard. Their apples were the best.

As I ate the apple I had taken, my mother was asked a lot of different questions. I was in my own world until I heard my mother say my name. “Is that alright, Spark?”

I stared at them, I had no idea what they meant. I simply nodded, agreeing with whatever they had said. “Alright.” One of the doctors took my hoof. “Follow me please.” I was reluctant at first, wanting to stay as close to my mother as possible, but got up.

I followed behind the doctor that eventually lead me into some medical tent. He sat me down across from him. There was silence between him and I. I looked down at the ground the whole time, avoiding any eye contact.

Suddenly there was another apple in front of me. “So you like Sweet Apple Acres apples, huh?” The doctor held out a second apple that he had gotten from his own ration. I just nodded slightly. “Take it then, you can have it.”

I slowly removed the apple from his hooves and took a bite. “Your mother is worried about you Spark. She said you weren’t eating.” I took another bite, only listening to him speak. I didn’t question why he knew my name, my mother had said it in front of him.

“Spark, wanna tell me what happened out there?” He asked, getting straight to the point. I glanced at him. Something about him made me want to speak to him. I remained silent.

“You used to be so lively…” He said, looking off in the distance. This is what got my attention. I looked at him directly. “Do you remember me, Spark?” Something bothered me. I knew him. I had to, but I couldn’t remember from where. After a moment, he gave me the biggest hint ever. “When you were sick with the pony pox.”

“Why what, Spark?”

“Why did my Dad have to die?”