Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria...
10,000 Years later...
Wind.
It has been windy across the wasteland, and most of the world, for a long time. One day, the wind picked up, and has never dropped below a stiff breeze since. Sometimes the wind is very strong, sometimes for days at a time. Most of the time, it lazily rolls over the sandy hills like the waves on a beach.
A great majority of the wasteland is desert now. It had been bad before, but constant winds and a lot of time had eroded mountains into nothing but sand, which covered the landscape, mixing in with the scorched soil. Small hills were all that remained of once great mountains that, Over time, had succumb to erosion, the wind carrying their dust and sand far away.
The sky is dark. It isn't night time, it's much darker at night. There is no cloud cover, there are rarely any clouds in the sky. The sky is just black, the only light coming from a now white sun, giving the land an eerie look. The moon was lost, obliterated by the Darkness long ago. It did not light the night sky, there were no stars at night, just all-encompassing Darkness It seemed to be sapping the sun's strength, feeding off of it's light. Soon, it too would go out. The world would follow suit.
Life is scarce. Nothing moves in the wasteland. Not anymore. If Pony Kind was still alive, they probably took refuge underground centuries ago. In all likelihood, Ponies had died off a long time ago, along with Griffons, Zebras, and everything else. The closest things to "Alive" in the wasteland are very rare, still functioning but badly degraded robots. A surprising amount of terminals remain active however. Nowhere near as many as before, but a surprising amount none the less. When Stable-Tec built something, they built it to last.
There is a barn. Well, you probably couldn't tell by looking at it. It had collapsed in on itself and largely been covered with sand, but some parts of it remained visible, and the rest wasn't buried deep. Jutting out next to what, once, was one of the barn's walls, are the doors to a humble apple cellar. One of the doors had fallen into the cellar, but the other, surprisingly, was still mounted on the door frame, though it's hinge had rusted too badly for it to open or close. Inside, a thin layer of sand had built up across the floor, getting progressively thicker towards the cellar door. Deeper inside, down a corridor, the door to a Stable lie open. The door itself, although terribly worn and slightly deformed, sits where it should in it's open state. However the entire bolting mechanism had crashed to the floor at some point, obstructing the way inside. The Stable is empty
There is a junction. A derailed train and several cars had been used to build makeshift shacks. The front half of the train had been reduced to rust, but the back remained intact. Inside, there was a room that had been sealed off and used as a kind of office. Most of the rest of the cars had been used as living spaces for whoever had once lived there, save for a few used for storage. The remains of a sentry turret system dotted the perimeter. They had all succumb to the effects of time and degradation, save for one, the biggest one. (go figure) It was a tri-barreled magical energy canon. It slowly looked from left to right atop it's perch on the train. It's movement was not smooth, and it made odd grinding sounds as it continuously scanned for threats, dutifully protecting that which it was made to protect. Impossibly, it still had ammo. One shot. The junction is empty.
There is a city. More accurately, the twisted, ruined corpse of one, and a big one at that. It had collapsed and fallen down the mountain on which it had been built. Said mountain was about half as tall as it once was, but it's still the tallest thing in the wasteland. Buried under mountains of rubble, there lies the iconic gear-shaped door of a Stable. The rubble had done a fine job of preserving whatever was under it, so the "1" engraved on the Stable door was only slightly faded. The rubble had also preserved bones, lots of them. Most had been cracked or were crushed by pieces of debris. Near one such piece of debris, a wheelchair sat, rusty and very badly crumpled, but it held it's shape. The back rest and arm rests were strangely warped and misshapen, as if it was melted and fused to something else. The wheelchair, like the city, is empty.
There is a tower. It, like most of the buildings surrounding it, had collapsed. But not completely. When it fell, it hadn't fallen over like a domino, it had fallen straight down. That could possible explain why, against all odds, the very top floors had survived the fall. Inside, there is a lobby with a statue fountain of an alicorn adorning the middle. The water talisman had stopped working at some point, leaving the fountain dry. Nearby was a set of two double doors, on top a sign proclaimed, "Ministry of Arcane Science Emergency Broadcasting Station. Authorized Ponies Only" Though it was badly faded. Inside, a large setup of multiple mainframes and several computer screens lay almost perfectly preserved. Impossibly, this room was still receiving power, the computer screens, many cracked or distorted, still showed feed from all across the wasteland, coming from the many tall, white towers that still stood. When Stable-Tec built something, they built it to last. The intact radio tower on top was still broadcasting a signal. Even after ten thousand years, the MAS-EBS was still broadcasting truth all across the land. The tower is empty.
There is a field. The remains of a small shack lay nearby. There are several tombstones here. Most have faded badly, making any writing on them no longer legible. Some had even crumbled. But a few of them, tough badly faded, were still intact enough to make out several letters. One read "Stee Ho ves App esn ck" and the other read "Str wbe y L mon de". There was more, but it had become unreadable. At the base of the first grave marker, a small statuette of an orange earth pony mare sat, her hind hooves up in mid-buck, a three-apple insignia on her flank, and a brown cowpony hat atop her head. At the base, there was an inscription. "Be Strong." Unlike the tombstones, the words had not faded over time. Aside from being a little sandy, the statuette had suffered almost no damage from being left out in the open all this time. There were two more tombstones, in slightly better condition than the first two. These ones were newer. As such, the writing was slightly less faded, but not by much. The grave markers of "Cal mity" and "Velve Rem dy" sat next to each other, a worn and tattered desperado had shifting in the breeze below the first one. How, after all these years, the hat hadn't been blown away by the wind, nobody may ever know. The field is not empty.
"I told you you wouldn't want to see it," The voice came from a figure, who stood on two legs rather than four. By his looks, he was in his prime. His voice was slightly gravely, almost... synthetic... but clear. Near him stood a small-framed Grey unicorn mare with a brown mane and tail.
"I know," she said, "I just... needed to see it, to be here. To pay my respects I guess." On her face was an expression of grim resolve.
Nearby, a rust-colored Pegasus stood near two gravestones. He looked from one, then to the other, then back again. Eventually, he spoke. "Ahm not sure how to feel about this..." His face was a flurry of emotions. Fear, sadness, regret, but eventually they were all replaced with determination.
"It doesn't matter. If we succeed, none of this will have happened. Technically, it still hasn't." Replied the two-legged figure.
The Pegasus buck looked from the desperado hat laying next to one of the tombstones, then took off the one he was wearing, which was identical save for being much less worn. "Ah sure hope so." He said, putting his hat back on.
Close to them sat another unicorn mare, this one a charcoal black with white mane and tail with a streak of color running through them. She took in the battered and rotting landscape. A single tear fell from her eye, and was quickly absorbed by the parched ground. "How could it have come to this?" She said, almost sobbing.
The bipedal figure walked over to her and, putting a... hand? on her shoulder, said, "It's not your fault, Velvet. If this is anybody's fault, it's mine"
"It does not matter who's fault this is, all that matters is weather or not we fix it. We should go." A gravely and masculine voice proclaimed. The voice belonged to an earth pony, completely encased in magically powered armor. A three-apple insignia adorned his flank, where his cutie mark would be if he was not wearing armor. He pointedly did not look at the graves.
A zebra mare, many scars adorning her body, trotted up out of a shadow. "The armored one is correct. the sooner we leave, the greater the chance we succeed, no?" Her voice carried a thick zebra accent.
"Alright," replied the Grey unicorn, "Everyone, let's go." And with that, everyone gathered close together, the bipedal form in the center of them. All except for one. "Velvet, are you coming?" Called out the Grey mare.
Velvet took one last glance out at the wasteland, then began to trot to the group. "I'm ready," she said as she arrived at the group.
Then, with a bright flash and a soft "pop" they were gone.
