A cream colored unicorn mare with purple and white hair strode in the darkness, looking or a place to rest. She had been running for what felt hours and needed somewhere to lie down. She was running out of fuel for her lamp and hadn’t eaten in almost two days. From the sign on the edge of the town she was in Ponyville. She had never been here before the darkness came. It had been a long trek from the west and had taken her almost a year and a half. Her goal was Canterlot, and based on the map that she had, she wasn’t too far off. She wasn’t going to make it too much further though if she didn’t get her pursuers off of her back.
She sprinted into the town square. There were only a couple buildings that weren’t boarded up and she made for the first one. As she slid into the building she quickly extinguished her lamp and slid down against the wall. The place had a sickly sweet smell to it and there were almost certainly some dead bodies inside the place. She kept deadly quiet as she heard the sounds of hooves outside running past.
“You see her around here anywhere?” A scratchy voice sounded outside the door.
Another voice spoke up “She must have come through here somewhere. Keep your lanterns dim though. We don’t know what else could be out here. We’re getting pretty close to the Everfree forest. If she goes anywhere near there then she’s dead anyways.”
There was some more shuffling going on. She heard the second voice speak up again.
“Forget about it.” He said. “She’s not worth the trouble. Let’s get back to the camp. We’ve still got a few days to go and I want to get as far away from here as possible.”
She heard them running away and finally let out a breath that she didn’t realize that she was holding. After waiting for about ten minutes she turned on her light. The place was empty but the smell remained. She walked to the kitchen and started searched through the drawers for any food. She found a couple of cans of preserved yams and took them into the living room. She popped one open with her magic while sitting on the musty old couch. As she started to eat she looked down at the coffee table. There was a small book with sticky note on the cover that said “Read Me!” on it.
She picked up the book in her magic. She had seen things like this all over the country and had stopped to read them every once in a while. Maybe, she thought, it was something calling her back to what was supposed to be her destiny. She was a journalist and always loved finding the scoop. There wasn’t time for any of that anymore.
Everyone’s “destiny” had taken a backseat to survival ever since the long night had started. Every now and then though, she couldn’t resist the call to find a good story. She figured that she wouldn’t be going anywhere for at least the rest of the day so she decided that it would be a good time to dig in.
When she opened the book there was a note scrawled in the front of it before the journal itself had started. Another sticky note adorned the front of it, reading simply “Start here” so that’s what she did. The writing in it was neat and clean across the page and evenly spaced, although it looked as though towards the end it was written a bit frantically.
If you’re reading this then you probably already know what happened to our world. On the off chance that this book isn’t discovered for decades, or even by some random chance, hundreds of years, I’ll sum it up for you.
The Equestria that I grew up in was a beautiful place, filled with harmony and love. That’s what we all thought, at least. Most of it was true, but some weren’t happy. Our country was ruled over by two princesses.
One of them, Celestia, was the princess of the sun. It was a magical orb in the sky that gave light to our world, it grew plants and it spread warmth throughout the land. She was a massive pony with both wings and a horn, who was easily twice the size of any pony. She was the picture of beauty and grace and loved by all. At least that’s how it seemed at the time.
The other princess was her sister, Princess Luna. She had issues with her sister and after a fight, was banished for 1,000 years. She came back a little over ten years ago. She was the mistress of the moon. It was another magical orb in the sky, it brought a light in the darkness when the sun was away. When it came out it signaled a time for rest and peace for some and a time to come alive for others. This dichotomy kept our world in harmony for as long as any one of us could remember.
One day though, some ponies got the idea in their heads that the princesses were somehow oppressive and that the system of government that was in place was broken. Those ponies decided to take up arms against Celestia and the nobles in a misguided attempt to “free” Equestria. What started as protets would lead to full on civil war within a year and our great nation would be torn apart.
I had worked in the government, before the war and had moved to this little town to start a new life with my beautiful wife Lyra and our newborn daughter Tootsie Flute. We figured the rebellion would be over before things got too crazy and our lives would return to normal. These things had happened in the past but it wasn’t too long before order was restored. We were wrong though.
After a full year of fighting the rebel forces had managed to storm our town and capture the mayor as hostage. They had said something about “Royal Sympathizers” living in Ponyville and demanded the location of Twilight Sparkle and her friends. The townsponies were strong in their resolve and didn’t give them a single thing at first. Then they made the display of killing the Mayor in public and issued a warning that if they weren’t delivered all six of them in the next 24 hours that they would kill everyone in the town. Needless to say, the townsponies resolve didn’t last much after that.
Later in the day they had us all rounded up to watch what was going to happen. They had our friends, the ones who had saved our town and Equestria multiple times, lined up in shackles near the fountain at town square. The leader of the rebels was a unicorn. He read off some edict that he had written. I don’t remember exactly what he said but the long and short of it was that they would be put to death with the exception of Twilight herself, who would be a P.O.W taken to Canterlot and put on trial with the rest of the princesses.
We watched in silent awe as they beheaded all of our friends and stuck them to pikes on the warpath to Canterlot. The ones who had stopped Nightmare Moon and Discord, the ones who showed us the magic of friendship, who showed us that with love and understanding and a little hard work, anything was possible were gone. Friendship died that day with them and never recovered.
Things went quiet for a while after that. The rebels pushed for Canterlot mountain and I tried my best to raise my daughter with my darling wife. Lyra and Tootsie Flute were my entire world. Anything could happen to Equestria as far as I was concerned as long as they would be safe and by my side. We started rationing the things that I was baking for sale and canning as many things as we could just in case we would need to leave in a hurry if for some reasons the rebels managed to win. Our little girl would be safe no matter the cost and our family would survive the war.
Then one day, almost three months after they swept through Ponyville we heard an announcement come through on the local radio. They said that the rebels had managed to take the castle and neutralize both of the princesses. They went live to the scene. They were standing on the steps of the palace and were surrounded by thousands of rebel soldiers. The announcer of the radio was across the street on the rooftop of a building and looking down at what was happening. The announcer said that they were setting up a podium with microphones. After a few minutes a stallion who was dressed in black and wrapped in the flag that the rebels had fashioned for themselves stepped out to speak. I’ll never forget the words that stallion said at the castle for as long as I’ll live.
“Friends.” He started. His voice was deep and raspy.
“Today is the day we overcome tyranny! The nobles have fallen and the princesses now bend to our will. No longer will the oppressive hold of the oligarchy keep us down! We will make our own futures, free from the binds that have been place upon us in days past. We will have our own democracy and freedom will ring across this great land.”
The announcer said that they were bringing the princesses out. They were in chains and had both their horns removed and their wings broken. The stallion asked them if they had any final messages to the public before they were “brought to justice”.
I heard Princess Celestia speak for the last time. The same princess who took me off of the streets and brought me into the fold, fighting monsters all of those years ago when I still went by the name Sweetie Drops. Her voice was broken and defeated, barely coming out at more than a whisper.
“Please, you must stop.” She rasped out. “You don’t know the consequences of what you are about to do. Lock us away forever if you must, but don’t do this.”
The stallion actually laughed at her. I wish I was there when I heard that. I would have made it my personal mission to end his life on the spot. Then he spoke into the microphone again.
“No amount of groveling or pleading will spare your miserable lives. Remember, you brought this on yourselves when you denied elections and gave the royals never-ending powers. Now it’s time to face your punishments.” At the end of his speech the crowd roared so loudly that it almost blew out the speaker on our radio.
The announcer then mentioned, with horror that two ponies stepped up behind the princesses holding long swords and with a quick slice, cut both of their throats. Lyra and I were stunned and I felt tears coming from my eyes as we heard the crowd erupt again. We then realized that Tootsie was in the room when she began crying as well. That was nothing that a five-year old should have been hearing. Lyra and I both wrapped her into a tight embrace. I was scared for the future and distraught at what happened, but what happened next changed everything.
Without warning the sun, which was almost at its peak in the sky, completely went out. It was a dead ball floating in the sky. Darkness spread immediately and we could hear screams throughout the town. Lyra and I immediately locked our doors and wrapped ourselves around our daughter, afraid at the possibilities of what was to come.
That was around five years ago. Looking back now we were right to be scared. We would have no idea the horrible things that would follow. About a year after that I started the journal that is following this letter. I wanted to preserve it in case anyone ever came upon this house and wanted to know the past. Maybe, I thought then, it could help us someday figure out how to make a better future and not repeat the mistakes that we had made before. Now though, I think I just did it to keep myself sane in the madness that was happening all around us.
If you decide to read this then I only have one request. Don’t judge me for the things that I have done. I tried all my life to be a force for good, even when things looked the worst. Unfortunately, though, when the darkness took over I had to do whatever I could to survive. I’m not trying to justify my actions, I’m sure whoever may be reading this has probably done just as bad as I did if not worse, but for all I know you were born into this world. I was not, but I succumbed to it in the end anyways. Once you finish this, please take it with you and spread the story of how what should have been never was and how maybe, just maybe we can start over again.
Either way, just try and do better than I did. If these writings can help you do that, then maybe they weren’t for nothing in the end and I can rest happily. Good luck in whatever lies ahead. If it is anything like the world I’ve spent the last five years in, then you are going to need it.
At the bottom of the page was a signature with a hoof print in what looked to be red ink.
“Bon Bon”
The mare’s curiosity had definitely gotten the best of her. She remembered the radio broadcast and the end of the day herself like it was just yesterday. She had wanted to see just how far this little family had made it and if they were still out there somewhere. She looked to her cutie mark, a pen and pad in the middle of a purple circle. Sometimes surviving would have to take a backseat to destiny after all, she though as she opened the book to its first page.
Author's Note
A new story based on something that I wrote for a writing prompt on my tumble a couple of years ago. Basically I was asked to write an apocalyptic scenario without zombies or nukes. I wrote a little story (maybe 2,000 words) out of a diary kept by Bon Bon. I completely forgot about it until recently and decided to make an entire story out of it. I hope everyone enjoys it.
Any comments, criticism or anything at all is greatly accepted and appreciated and thank you all for taking the time to read my stories. See ya soon with the first full chapter.
