Little Inferno

by Aurora Steel

Rating: everyone
Tags: Tragedy, Dark, Alternate Universe, Sad
Length: 1034

The once peaceful land of Equestria was frozen and thousands of people died and now Ember Chrome is one of the last survivors

The once peaceful land of Equestria was frozen and thousands of people died and now Ember Chrome is one of the last survivors

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-10-30 15:13:24 UTC

Chapter 1

It's been months since the once warm and thriving Equestria started to freeze over. Ponies say that it was the pegasi that were causing this since they lived in the sky and controlled the weather but it was actually their race that was the first to fall. The pegasi were less muscular and skinnier and as a result it caused most of the race to die off in the first month or two.

Nowadays when I occasionally look out of the window I only see one or two pegasi walking around. Being a pegasus myself it was hard for me to see my race die off just like that from the cold. Pegasi were meant to be strong and durable against the weather but to be wiped out just like that was insane.

First the food and the candles ran out then businesses shut down since they weren’t getting any stock so that was a big problem. Ponies started growing their own food inside their warm homes to keep them living but very slowly that food was running out as well.

After the food situation next was the heating and toilet issues. Not enough toilet paper and the coal from the mines ran out. Things were becoming deplorable and fast.

Each day more and more ponies died from the cold and each day it was getting colder and colder but no one knew why. We thought we were gone for. Princess Luna and Cadence fell prey to the cold and unfortunately passed which added to everyone’s depression.

But that changed when Princess Celestia released a new product that anyone could use called ‘Little Inferno’. You burned whatever you wanted and how you wanted and it kept your house permanently warm. The princess also released a line of magazines that allowed you to order in different items for you to burn. Each month a new catalogue came out with more items to burn and each one burned brighter than the last.

We thought it was ingenious until they found a fatal flaw. If you burned a certain combo of four items it generated too much heat for the inferno to handle and the inferno’s exploded. So many ponies lost their lives at an instant, it was horrible.

Slowly ponies learned but some still stupidly ignored the warning and killed themselves with a big bang.

Every once in a while a loud boom could be heard from somewhere around the city of Canterlot and If you looked at the boom you could see a cloud of black smoke rise up into the gloomy and thick cloud layer.

Another perk of the magazines was that you could see on the back few pages the list of ponies remaining in Canterlot and you could even send them letters if you wanted.

And that was where I am now, sitting in front of my Little Inferno holding a slightly singed letter that was addressed to me. It was from my friend from upstairs that had been keeping me sane and not killing myself.

I tore it open and read out loud to myself, “Dear Ember, this is the last letter you’ll be getting from me since I see no point to live in this world anymore. Each day more and more people die due to the ever decreasing temperature outside. Our race is almost dead and so am I. My Little Inferno doesn’t give me enough heat to live… but everything will be alright since I just ordered the four items… It was fun in this world and everything about it. Keep warm, Ember.”

I put the letter down on the floor and chucked the envelope onto the fire. She was going. My one last friend was going to leave me again… I looked to my left and saw that three new packages had arrived.

I angrily ripped them open and chucked a snow globe, light bulb and a magazine into the Inferno before lighting it with a small lighter that I kept at my side.

Upstairs I heard the arrival of new packages then someone tearing them open. Next I heard objects being thrown into something and the clicking of a lighter. No… not now…

I closed my eyes shut and flopped my ears down ready for the inevitable outcome. In a matter of seconds she would blow herself sky high.

I heard a faint sniffle and a whimper before a giant explosion was heard  that came from upstairs and cogs started to fall onto my growing fire. Ash, debris and even small pieces of clothing fell down and burned into a crisp.

More and more cogs and pieces of brick fell down onto my fire and what looked like coal fell and burned brightly. I turned my head away from the fire and closed my eyes not wanting to look at the remains of her.

The heat generated from everything was so hot I had to shuffle back slightly into the coldness but I had to or I would’ve been burned. The blood red curtains that she had given me were burning along with everything else and they were meant to be fire proof.

I sighed and looked up to see a single blue clump of fur fall down onto the ground in front of me on fire slightly.

I slumped onto the red rug in front of me and let the tears roll down my face and evaporate from the heat. She was gone. She was actually gone. My one connection. My one link to sanity was gone and now there was nothing holding me back from doing the same thing she had done.

Celestia had said that the Little Inferno’s were completely safe and could not blow up. She lied. She lied to everyone. Now I was more than sure that this wasn’t for profit. This was for fun for her. She was immortal. Completely capable of surviving a nuclear winter to Equestria burning. This was her way of passing time without having her sister and niece around.

I would say that this place was worse than hell but I realized that there was no heaven or hell because we were in hell.