The Dark Echoes Series

A World Of Echoes.

By Sabrina Alexinia Berk.

Prologue.

Air rushes past. Time drifts slowly by. The world seems in a constant dance, never caring for the whims of those whom reside on it. Calmly and quietly Death reaches out; and we all fall into its embrace. Like slumbering fillies and colts next to their mother. The curtains draw to a close, and we all let out a sigh and relish our freedom from the cold uncaring world.

The buildings fall. Hoof prints in the dust of the once beautiful town. Nothing moves, nothing changes. The only thing showing evidence that this world is not a photograph are the flames, smoke, and the smell of rotting flesh.

Screaming children. Burning in their schools, churches and clubhouses. Broken bones. Blood. Gore. Mayhem had struck. And only one had survived. Only one.

Only Fluttershy.

Chapter 1. An Average day.

The day had started as normal as usual. Celestia brought the day and with it the hustle and bustle of any other average day in ponyville.

Fluttershy exited her cottage and began her walk towards Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie had invited her as well as everyone of her other friends to an all day party. They were supposed to party as long as the sun was up. This was made to be a challenge due to it being the one day a year that the sun didn't set until the end of 2 full rotations of the sky. This was of course compensation for Nightmare Night. The darkest night in all of Equestria.

But it wasn't an average day was it? No, something was off.

That is when she heard it. An explosion like she had never heard before. The wind rushed at her as she saw the brightest light she'd ever seen. The light was so bright that she looked away to keep it from blinding her. Suddenly the wind picked up slamming into her and knocking her off her feet, flinging her back hundreds of yards.

Branches, vines, small animals, all these things and more she saw just before slamming her head into a zap apple tree and knocking her out cold.

Chapter 2. A Sky Blue Horror.

She awoke to the sound of cracking branches; looking above her she saw what appeared to be the dead remains of a pegasus looming above her, its brilliant mane ablaze with fire as its skin rotted and fell off at an unnatural and alarming rate.

If Fluttershy had ever in her exsistence screamed a real scream without holding back, the scream she let out now was sure to have been much louder. She struggled to escape the vines that held her captive but the struggling just made the vines grow tighter and the body of the pegasus draw ever closer. It was then that she noticed the identity of the horror that dangled in front of her face.

"R-Rainbow?"

The vines snapped and slammed the cyan mare at Fluttershy's hooves.

"No...It...it cant be you...you could escape anything. IT CAN'T BE YOU!!!" She screamed in terror.

"Fl...Fluttershy..."

Rainbow's body began to stir and lift itself up.

"Fl...Fluttershy...listen-"

Fluttershy screamed in terror and kicked out as she now saw that the eyeless, hairless, rotting corpse that was Rainbow Dash...was still alive.

"Listen Fluttershy...It wa-wasnt Pinkie's fault...we all should have been more careful. We-"

She began coughing horribly and threw up blood, her stomach, bladder and intestines emptied releasing a massive ammount of blood, shit, vomit, and piss. She was dying. Yet she regained her composure even still.

"it doesnt matter now I guess...I may be the fastest flier in all of Equestria....but I just wasn't fast enough...I'm sorry Fluttershy...I love you-"

She fell to the ground a crumpled mess...her life gone..an empty vessel now.

Chapter 3. Mare About Town.

After escaping the Everfree Forrest and saying her final goodbyes to Her friend, Fluttershy headed off towards the scene of that massive flash. She had to know what it was...what had caused it.

As she walked she could feel the air getting hotter and hotter, but it did not stop her. She needed to find the others.

Along the way she saw more of the same grotesque sights she had seen with Dash. The fields were on fire, the sky was red and the air smelled of smoke and rot. Bodies lay all over, rotting flesh, fire, eyeless holes and the only real difference between these ponies and Dash was the mere fact that Dash was alive when Fluttershy had seen her. These ponies all laid lifeless.

Chapter 4. School Haze.

The dance of the macabre and the grotesque. The rain was acid. The hearts of the innocent wilting like flowers in the heat. But the air was alive! Electric, moving, breathing....and all together unnerving. The souls had been released to play among the stars. And play they did, and forever shall. Screams that seemed to come from nowhere jolted Fluttershy from her state of unwilling assumption making.

Did it matter how it happened? Not really. The world would have to continue weather or not it had been this action or another that had led to the destruction that had occurred.

She was almost to Sugarcube Corner when she heard it. Laughter. It echoed from everywhere at once, the complete silence. Fluttershy stopped and looked around her, her hooves had begun to ache from the heat so she had begun to fly.

The crumbling buildings and burning tree houses all held the same dark secret. Nothing moved. Nothing remained. No one had survived.

The schoolhouse was rubble and flames, twisted and disfigured bodies lie mixed in with the scorched earth as blood seeped into the cracks of the dry earth boiling on contact.

The heat was immeasurable now but Fluttershy continued onwards, not wanting to give up hope on her friends.

Chapter 5. Confetti Crater.

When she turned the corner her heart sank, the only thing left of Sugarcube Corner was a crater that stretched a mile wide and lots of confetti.

She flew as fast as she could towards the center. It was there she found them. Her friends bodies lie in a heap. AJ curled next to Big Mac. And spike being held by Rarity. Nearly everyone in town was here. No one moved. There they lay, lifeless. The world had been destroyed by who knows what. Who even cared at this point? Fluttershy certainly didnt anymore. Everyone she ever loved or cared for had been taken from her.

She lowered herself to the ground, her hooves hissing and groaning as she did. The pain was immense but that thought was far from her mind at this point. A building nearby collapsed letting out a loud crashing whoosh as it slammed into the earth. The sound reverberated through the quietness. The world had never seen such quietness. It had become a world of echoes. The world of echoes in fact.

Chapter 6. A Normal Day.

"Dance child dance!" Cries the world. And we do; lest we die. Yet it is only when we refuse to be a marionette for the malice filled puppet master that we are ever free. But freedom has a high price. The price for true freedom...is to die.

Fluttershy's hooves exploded and she buckled to the ground, her tears evaporating as she cried them, her skin melting and her fur catching fire. And just when she couldnt take any more pain, when she thought she too would die.......She woke up.

"Was it all a dream?" She wondered.

"Was any of it real?"

Eventually Fluttershy got out of bed and began getting ready for the day.

She left her cottage and began her journey to sugarcube corner.

It was an average day aside from the party Pinkie had invited her and everyone in town to. An all day party that lasted as long as the sun was up. A perfectly normal day Fluttershy thought to herself.

But it wasn't a normal day was it?