Ponyville

     It began as any other day. The birds were chirping happily, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was just a perfect day.

      Fluttershy was walking through the streets of Ponyville, happily looking at some birds that were flying overhead. As she walked down the street she saw Spike, he was carrying something and almost running with it. It looked like scrolls. “Hi Spike,” she said as she waved a hoof at him. Spike didn’t look up at her and just kept running, but he did hear her.

     “Hi Fluttershy,” the little dragon replied sounding a bit out of breath. “Spike sure is in a hurry,” Fluttershy thought to herself. “I hope everything’s ok,”

     Spike flew through the door of the library and called out “Twilight, I’m back.” Twilight ran down the stairs with a look of fear and exhaustion on her face. She quickly ran up to Spike and took a few rolled up papers from him.

     “Let’s get these to the basement,” she said with great terror in her voice. Spike walked over to a door and opened it for them. When they entered the room Spike was shocked. Maps were plastered all over the room; each had a few red pushpins in them. “Twilight?” Spike said rather worriedly. As Twilight unrolled the papers, that Spike gave her, she explained. “Spike, it’s happening today. We’re out of time.” Spike’s face ran cold. “We have to warn the others!” he exclaimed. “Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow!” Twilight looked over at spike and replied “They’ll be fine.” “But it’s happening today! We have to get everyone out of here! Now!” Spike was in an all-out panic by now. “No, we don’t… I got it.” Twilight said in a slightly warm tone.

     Twilight then pointed to a crate on the other side of the room. They both began to slowly walk over to it. “Is- is that what I think it is?” Spike stuttered as he nervously twiddled his thumbs. “Yes, it is.” Twilight lifted the lid of the crate and they both peered into it. Spike covered his mouth and gasped. “I-I-I can’t believe you did it.” Twilight looked over at spike and replied “I hope the others did too.”

     Fluttershy was walking back to her cottage when she decided to pay Twilight a visit. She knocked on her door and waited for a minute or two. Just as she was starting to walk away an exhausted Twilight opened the door.  “Oh, hi Twilight.” She said softly. On second glance she realized just how bad Twilight looked.

“Wow you look awful Twi. Are you sick?”

“No no no,” Twilight replied. “I’m just doing a lot of studying. That’s all.” Twilight then looked over Fluttershy’s shoulder and asked “Hey, Fluttershy would you like to come in?”

“Oh, no. I don’t want to be a burden.”

“Please, come in. It’s no problem at all. I insist.”

     Fluttershy was a little surprised by Twilight’s persistence, but decided to come in anyways. “Well ok.” She replied softly. Once she had entered the house Twilight closed the door behind her somewhat quickly. They began to walk into the main room when Twilight’s clock began to chime. She froze as all color left her face. Each chime made her even more terrified than the last. Then the twelfth chime finally came. Fluttershy looked over to her and asked “Are you ok Twilight?”

     Rainbow Dash had just woken up from a little nap and was lying on a cloud just outside of Cloudsdale. She stretched her arms and yawned slightly. She then looked around to see where her cloud had taken her when she was sleeping, but right when she did this something happened. There was a small flash of light to the south. She couldn’t quite see what it was, it was just so bright. Then there was another flash, this one defiantly came from Canterlot. Then another from what looked like Manehatten.   Rainbow Dash looked back to where she saw the first flash and saw a large mushroom cloud beginning to form. Then another two flashes emanated from the south east. “Hoofington” Rainbow Dash thought to herself, but she couldn’t recall what the other one was. Then suddenly she had a horrifying thought. “Cloudsdale.”  Her eyes widened and she didn’t spend too much time thinking about it. Rainbow Dash instantly shot up into the sky as fast as she could, trying to get away from the nearby city. Rainbow Dash flew so fast she actually created a sonic rainboom, but she could care less at the moment. She was higher than she’d ever been in her life, and more horrified than she’d ever been as well.  Then once she was several thousand feet in the air she saw it. Across the mountains there were three more mushroom clouds forming with an orange sky to highlight them. Rainbow Dash covered her mouth and sobbed in terror and sadness as she looked around her. Equestria was under attack.

     Twilight was still standing in the middle of the room as Fluttershy stared out of the window in shock. They could only see two of the bombs, but Twilight knew there were more. Many more.

“Twilight!” Fluttershy called frantically. “What’s happening?!” she screamed. She’d never been this scarred in her life, neither had Twilight for that matter. As Fluttershy looked at the blasts she started to get light headed. Suddenly Fluttershy hit the floor. She had fainted. Twilight was too in shock to even notice.

     Spike walked out of the basement with some papers, but when he saw it he dropped them all. Canterlot and Manehatten were nothing more than clouds of dust rising off the ground. Twilight’s eyes were fixated on the site as well. The cloud seemed to rise forever. Then Spike finally broke the silence, “T-Twilight, how many do you think are left?” Twilight didn’t stop staring at the cloud, but replied “I don’t know,” in an emotionless tone. “Spike, go to the basement.” Spike didn’t protest one bit and slowly walked away unable to take his gaze off of the mushroom clouds.

     Twilight snapped out of it and saw Fluttershy lying on the ground. “Oh no!” she said as she ran over to her. Spike must have not seen her when he walked in earlier, and who could blame him, the site out of the window was almost hypnotizing. But Twilight wasted no time and threw Fluttershy onto her back and quickly descended into the basement. As she walked down the steps to the basement she saw Spike on a large radio. “Who’s left?” Twilight asked as she laid Fluttershy down on the other side of the room. Spike had a grim look on his when he answered her. “Us and Appeloosa.” He said with a slight quiver in is voice. “All the other targets have been hit,” he continued.

     Spike was in too much shock to cry or scream. Twilight did the only thing she knew to do, work. So she went over to a map and unrolled it. “Spike where are the push pins?” Twilight asked. Spike didn’t notice her question and just sat there. “Spike! Where are they?!” she snapped. Spike looked up rather suppressed and asked “Where are what?” “The pushpins!” she yelled angry. He pointed to a desk and calmly said “On top.” Twilight grasped a few and started placing them into the map. Spike was a little concerned with Twilight and asked “Twi, are you ok?” Twilight ignored his question and continued placing the pushpins. “Are- are you ok, Twi?” he asked again. Twilight placed the last pushpin into the map and stared at it. Spike arose from his sitting position and walked over to Twilight. He hugged her and said “It’s going to be ok, Twi.” Twilight looked down at him in surprise and started to cry on him. “We did our best!” she managed to say in between the sobbing. Spike began to cry as well. “It’s ok Twi. You still saved so many ponies.” Twilight managed to stop the uncontrollable sobbing, but still continued to cry. “Thank you, Spike” she said as she looked down at him.

     Twilight looked at Spike for a second and leaned forward a little to kiss him, but quickly backed away. She blushed slightly and walked away. “We need to find something for the radiation,” Twilight said trying to cover up what had happened. But her efforts were pointless Spike knew what she was about to do. “Over there,” he said pointing to a shelf with a bottle on it. Twilight levitated the bottle with her horn down to Spike. The label read “Potassium Iodine.” Spike wasted no time and quickly took two pills. He handed the bottle to Twilight and she did the same. Twilight was putting the pill bottle up when Spike said “Hey, Twilight.” She turned to look at him and was met with his lips against hers. The pill bottle hit the floor, and when it did it woke up Fluttershy. She looked around trying to see what had made the noise and saw Spike kissing Twilight. Spike then pulled back and said “Just encase I don’t get a second chance.” He then smiled at her while blushing slightly. Twilight was completely blown away.  She then turned away and looked over to see Fluttershy staring at them.

     “Fluttershy,” Twilight said still a little shocked in her voce. “We need you to get every pegasi to create a big wind storm for the next few weeks.”

“What? Why? And what was that? You two were just-“ Twilight cut her off.

“We have just a few hours before the radiation gets here! We don’t have time to talk.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “That wasn’t a dream?!” she said with utter terror in her voice.

“No, now hurry we don’t have time for this.”

“Oh my god they’re all dead!” Fluttershy said with tears beginning to run down her face.

“Fluttershy! Now!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Ok, ok. I’ll do it”

“And Fluttershy,” Twilight said as she threw her the pill bottle. “Take two. There’s more radiation up higher.”

Fluttershy did as she was asked and took the pills. “Now hurry!” Twilight said frantically. “We can’t have any wind blowing into Ponyville.” Twilight was rather good at hiding the shock in her voice as she talked to Fluttershy despite all the thoughts racing in her head at that moment.

     When Fluttershy left, with tears pouring down her face, Spike walked over to Twilight and held her hoof. “Are you ok?” he asked.

Twilight looked over to Spike and replied “Wh- Why?”

Spike chuckled a little and replied “It’s the apocalypse. I think it’s about time I let you know.”

Twilight was still a bit shocked and said the opposite of what she wanted to say. “B- but I don’t….”

Spike’s eyes widened at her words. “Oh god I’m so sorry I just thought that-“

“No, it’s ok I’d have done the same thing if I were you,” she cut in.

     Spike looked rather disappointed after Twilight spoke. “Hey, it’s going to be ok. But we really don’t have time for this. Now come on we have to see what’s left up there.” Spike nodded and started up the stairs. “Hey, we’ll talk about this later ok.” Twilight said warmly as she walked up the steps beside Spike. He just nodded again and opened the metal door.

     Instantly they could hear the screaming ponies running around. As they looked out the window they could see the fear on their faces, some were carrying things, things she knew weren’t theirs. The mushroom clouds that engulfed the horizon had dissipated by now. Twilight placed her hoof into Spike’s hand to somewhat hold his hand. “Ok, let’s go get a better look.” She said as she jerked her head in order to motion to the balcony.

     Twilight stepped out of the library with the little dragon by her side and saw the chaos unfolding before her eyes. Discord couldn’t hold a candle to this. This was true and utter disorder.

     Twilight felt the wind blowing around her and looked up to see all of Cloudsdale flying around Ponyville. “Thank you Fluttershy,” she said to herself. She then stepped to the front of her balcony with Spike and knew something had to be done to stop this chaos. “Hey!” she yelled, but it was to no avail. “Hey!” she yelled even louder. Everyone looked up at her and she continued. “Now listen everypony. We have to stop this. Stealing from your neighbors? What’s wrong with you? This isn’t the Ponyville I know and love. David, yeah I’m talking to you. Stop that now. Now, everypony I know something happened in Canterlot and Manehatten, but nothing happened here. So are we going to fall apart and die together or work together to rebuild our lives? We need to stop this now! Just stop and take a look at yourself and everypony around you…” Everypony did so.  “Now everypony don’t you dare do this again.” She continued. As soon as she finished speaking the yelling and screaming ceased. Twilight felt a minor sense of accomplishment, in that moment.

     Twilight stepped back inside of her house with spike and walked over to the bookshelf.

“What are you doing Twi?” Spike asked.

“I’m looking for a book on radiation or nuclear weapons,” she replied.

“Do you need any help?”

“No, it’s ok Spike.”

Twilight pulled out five books and set them down on a table, but when she did so the tower of books fell over revealing a book with the title “Dating Advice.” Spike looked up at her with a confused expression and picked up the book. Twilight’s face was now burning red.

“What’s this?” he asked.

“I uh uh I- I uh uhh… um….”

She then leaned in and kissed Spike quickly. He was shocked to say the least.

“Twi, I thought you didn’t-“

Twilight then cut in “No, I’m sorry I lied to you. I just didn’t know what to say. There was so much happening then, but now that I have a minute… and you caught me I thought I’d tell you the truth. I do like you too, but we just got attacked Spike. Did you really expect me to be all there when you told me?”

“I uh. Uhh.”

“What is it?” Twilight asked curiously.

“Nothing, never mind. It’s nothing.”

“Hey, wait a second. I’m a little confused. What happened to Rarity? I thought you liked her.”

“LikED,” Spike said putting emphasis on the ed. “Well uh, It’s pretty obvious she doesn’t like me, so I gave up on her, besides I kind of started to see that I uh… Only seemed to like her for looks,” Spike said rather embarrassed. “… And that’s when I realized… I liked you for your heart… And looks” Spike then smiled and began to blush. Twilight blushed as well and tried to hide a smile from Spike, but failed at doing so.

     Suddenly the lights went out in the library. “Great.” Twilight said sarcastically. She quickly walked over to a shelf and lit a few candles, and then repeated the proses in the kitchen. Even though she could still see perfectly fine, she didn’t want to be thumbing around in the dark later, with only her horn to light the way. Just after she finished lighting the last candle she looked over to see Spike standing behind her, just staring at the ground by her feet and nervously popping his fingers.

“What is it, Spike?” she asked.

“Uh… Um… Twilight… Uh… I love you,” he said very quickly.

     Twilight was shocked, but very happy to hear those words. She then walked over to Spike and hugged him. “I love you too,” she replied. As they hugged she noticed how quiet it was. “I guess my speech worked,” she thought to herself, but that wasn’t the only thing she noticed. After a few seconds of hugging Spike she could feel a warmth in her hart for him. After a moment or two they reluctantly broke their embrace and looked into each other’s eyes. Spike leaned forward slightly at the same time Twilight did. Their lips were only inches away from each other’s, and just before they kissed something startled them.

     There was a loud knock at the door causing the new couple to back away from each other. They both looked at the door, and were both a little startled, as they made their way to it. As they approached the door, completely oblivious to the other, Twilight and Spike both had the same thought. “Wow that was a moment killer.” Once they reached the door Twilight reached a hoof out and opened the door to see a trembling Rainbow Dash. The moment she opened the door Rainbow Dash hugged her.

“There were so many,” she said while crying on Twilight.

“Come in,” Twilight offered as she moved out of her way. Rainbow Dash did so and sat down in the main room, and then she continued what she was saying, while still crying a little.

“I was sleeping near Cloudsdale when it happened. I think I saw five of them. Then I got scared and flew up higher encase Cloudsdale or Ponyville got… I actually flew so fast that I accidentally made a sonic rainboom, but the explosions… And screams hid the noise it made. That’s when I saw the other three clouds over the mountains. The first city was Fillydelphaia, then Canterlot or Manehatten. I can’t remember exactly. I was just so scared.” Rainbow then continued sobbing once more.

“Hey Rainbow, I’m so sorry you had to see that. But it’s going to be ok.” Twilight said as she placed a hoof on her back. Then she just had a weird feeling come over her, about Rainbow Dash. “She said she was near Cloudsdale, which isn’t too far from Canterlot,” Twilight thought to herself. “Hey Rainbow, where were you after the blasts?”

“I-I flew towards Canterlot to get a better look, you know, to see what was left”

Twilight’s eyes widened as her suspicion was confirmed. “How close were you?”

“About twenty miles away, Why?”

“Spike get me a bottle of potassium iodine now!” Spike was frightened because of Twilight’s tone, but quickly complied with her demands. “Rainbow, how long were you there?!”

“About five minutes.” Rainbow Dash replied.

“Rainbow!” Twilight exclaimed. “Don’t touch anything. You may have been exposed to the fallout!”

“What’s that?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Radiation. It’s radioactive dust particles.”

“Yeah so what?”

“It will kill you in large enough doses!”

      Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened after Twilight spoke.

“Spike!” Twilight called. “Where’s the potassium iodine?!” “Here!” Spike said as he ran out of the basement, while waving a brown bottle. He then tossed the bottle to Twilight. She caught it with her magic and immediately unscrewed the top, then three pills floated out of the bottle, which was encompassed with a purple hue. “Here, take these!” she said frantically as she levitated the pills over to her. Rainbow wasted no time and quickly swallowed the pills in front of her. Twilight then began to speak again, “Rainbow, I need you to go take a shower now. You may still have some in your fur.” Rainbow Dash understood and walked to the bathroom. Then Twilight had a thought. She hugged her when she entered. “Oh god!” Twilight exclaimed as she leaped up. She then quickly ran into the other bathroom.

      Spike was a little confused by what had just happened and just stood there. Then he had an idea. Neither Twilight nor spike knew if the princess was still alive or not, so he thought of a way to find out. He was also a little surprised that neither of them had thought of this until now. He quickly pulled a sheet of paper off of Twilight’s desk and began writing rather frantically. He was hoping by some miracle the princess could reply to a letter, letting them know she was ok. Spike had just finished writing when Twilight stepped out of the bathroom, still with a towel around her flank. “Hey Spike, what are you doing?” she asked. Spike held up the rolled up paper and incinerated it with a green flame. He then looked over to Twilight and replied “Hoping for a miracle.”

     Twilight looked to the place where Rainbow Dash sat and then looked over to Spike. “Hey, go get a brush and a bucket of soapy water. I don’t want to chance getting any radiation particles on us. Especially you Spike, dragons don’t have fur so you’d get radiation poisoning easiest.” Spike understood and walked into the kitchen. Twilight then heard a loud ruckus in that room. “Are you ok?” she asked in a slightly worried tone. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he replied. “I just knocked over the broom… Among other things.” Twilight was a little annoyed, but really didn’t care, fore that wasn’t the focus of her attention at all.

     Spike walked back into the main room, carrying the items Twilight requested. He walked over to her and set them down at her feet. “Thank you Spike,” Twilight said kindly. She reached a hoof into the bucket and pulled out a cleaning brush. Twilight then dipped it into the soap and water mixture and began to scrub the chair. She was scrubbing in a downward direction in order to get off as much of the possible radiation as she could. She repeated this prosed at least six more times. She then reached around her waist and pulled her towel off so she could wipe the chair one last time. By the time Twilight had finished it looked like a brand new chair.

     “There we go,” she said happily as she looked at her work. Twilight walked over to the sink and scrubbed her hoofs persistently after washing the chair. She didn’t want to chance any exposer, no matter how unlikely it was. “Hey Spike can you put this up please?” Twilight said as she smiled lovingly at him. Spike felt his heart grow warmer when she saw her sweet smile. “Of-of course,” he answered while trying not to studded, but he couldn’t help it, he was falling head over heels for her. Twilight levitated the bucket and towel over to him and said “Thank you Spike.” As Spike began to walk off Twilight stopped him by saying “Oh and Spike, this is going to sound weird but burn the towel and leave the bucket outside. I just don’t want to take even the smallest chance.” She then walked over to him and stroked the back of his head with her hoof. “Especially now that I have you,” she said smiling as she looked into his eyes. Twilight then leaned over and kissed Spike on his forehead. As she backed away Spike was in some kind of love hypnosis, almost drooling. “And Spike wash up very well when you’re done.” Twilight’s words caused him to snap out of his haze and get back to work. “I don’t want any of that stuff getting on you.”

     After Spike incinerated the towel he placed the bucket by the back door of the library and thought to himself “I wish Rainbow didn’t stop by. When Twilight started lighting candles I thought for sure we were going to have a candlelight dinner after what I told her, but no. Of course she had to stop by… Wait. What’s wrong with you Spike? If she didn’t stop by there’s a good chance she’d get sick because of the radiation, if not die.” Spike felt his stomach get a little sick because of his selfish thoughts. Then he realized something. “Rainbow sure has been in the shower for a while, a long while,” he said aloud.

     Spike then walked back inside and washed his claws as he was instructed, but he called for Twilight while he was doing so. “Hey Twilight, can you go check on Rainbow? She’s been in the shower for a long time.” Twilight stood up off the ground and replied “Sure Spike, but I think she’s just being thru.”

     Twilight knocked on the bathroom door three times. “Hey Rainbow Dash, are you ok in there?” The only reply was the running shower water. “Ok, I’m coming in,” she said as she covered her eyes. “Rainbow, are you…” “Oh my god! Spike!” she screamed. “Get in here now!” Rainbow Dash was lying on the floor, half way out of the shower, with a towel barely covering her flank, and soaking wet. It looked like she was getting out of the shower and about to dry off when something happened.

     Spike had just walked into the bathroom to see Twilight by Rainbow Dash’s side. “Spike, get the towel and help me carry her to the library room!” Spike picked up the towel with his tale and got under one of Rainbow Dash’s arms and so did Twilight. “One, two three,” said Twilight as they lifted her off the floor. They carried her down the halls until they reached the library. “Lay her down here,” ordered Twilight. As they laid her down Spike handed Twilight the towel. “Here,” he said. Twilight looked up and replied “Thank you,” as she took the towel. She then began to dry Rainbow Dash the same way she did the chair so that she wouldn’t just rub in any radioactive dust, but it looked as though she had already washed it all off. Despite that Twilight was taking no chances.