Author's Note
Well I copied this from MS word and it broke my formatting so I'll fix it someday when I'm not being a fat lazy american
It's all on this page m8
“Come ooooon guys, we’re finally going out!” an excited, young stallion said, grinning widely as he pranced in place, watching the heavy bunker door in front of him.
“Oh please, calm down tick…” another stallion said, looking just like his brother, if a little bit bulkier.
“I don’t wanna, hehe, we’re gonna see the world!” he said with a huge grin.
“Now now, don’t hurt yourself..” a blue stallion, broken was his name, said from behind them, smiling down at them.
“Come oooon, when are we going!?” Tick asked, making him chuckle softy. The elderly stallion watched them with a small smile, looking over as two more ponies walked over. The first was an equally-old stallion named Radio static, who was bobbing his head gently to whatever was playing over his Walkman. The other was a tired-looking mare named glowing, who nuzzled radio a little bit with a sigh, having taken a liking to him as if he were his grandfather.
Behind them trotted out a young mare, an inky. Her name was rose, and she walked forwards while gently sucking on one of her hooves, thankful for the small ward that made her ink taste like candy.
Polaris let out a sigh as he looked up and down the long bunker hallway. The structure had been built during the 1950-1970 era, and he was proud of it. Now, In the year 2855, the place had become a ramshackle mess, and he winced slightly as he heard the distant crackle of electricity and screeching machinery as one of the old generators the bunker ran off of shuddered and ground itself to a shaking halt, smoke streaming from its battered husk.
Tick looked down with a worried gasp, but Polaris laughed harshly and said, “We are Not coming back here, ever”
“Amazing… where are we going?’ Glowing asked softly.
“You’ll see.. it’s a nice place” Polaris said, charging up his magic. He gripped the faraway blast door levers and flicked all three, watching as the heavy iron doors in front of the five of them began shuddering open.
The first door managed to open itself, but the second and third doors both shuddered to a halt as they became halfway open. Polaris sighed and teleported the six of them to the other side, moaning weakly as the magic drained from him. He sighed and started to climb the steps, feeling his body age slightly further as he walked.
The troop of ponies all walked upstairs, and they picked their way through the ruined remains of the PolariSoft building before making it out to the runway. On the runway proudly sat a large, fifteen passenger van, staring out at the windswept wastelands like a large, dormant creature.
Polaris sighed quietly as he walked over to the van, heaving its driver door open with a small smile. The others quickly piled up into it, the clock brothers gently helping radio into the back of the van. Glowing got in next to him and gently snuggled up to his side, while broken and rose climbed into the middle seat. Tick and tock excitedly climbed into the front passenger seat of the van, both of them excitedly bouncing as Polaris chuckled softly and turned the key, listening to the old car shudder and begin to start up.
“Ready to go…” Polaris said, putting it into gear and slowly pulling forwards, the old van easily bumping up over the cracks in the runway and getting to the end, slowly rolling down onto a large ramp made by decades of dust bring blown up against the outer wall, which had at one time been stories above the ground.
“Heh, wanna visit Manehattan?” Polaris asked, turning the van onto the cracked and barren remains of an old road as he began to head for it. “Yeah!” tock yelled, followed by a “Sure!” from tick as the ponies in the back quietly watched everything outside.
“So you haven’t told them about the gases…” said a quiet voice, heard to Polaris alone.
“No… I… I have a single day left, and I refuse to let them die in what’s left of the bunker” Said Polaris softly, his face deepening in sadness a little bit.
The elderly blue Unicorn stared out at the landscape out in front of him, which he had first seen in the year 1856 when he entered the world. Cursed to endure 1000 years of torment from his own magic, he had witnessed the world achieve great things, then destroy itself and wither away into nothing during the second half of his life, much of which had been spent underground before the ponies of the underworld eventually fell prey to the chemicals that had ended all life on the surface.
“I am both happy and sad… I shall get to feel you, embrace you again, but…” Polaris said quietly.
“I know, my love…” Came the response, before Polaris felt a jab to his flank. “Hey, is that it!?” asked tick, pointing out at a few towers jutting up into the air in the far distance.
“Mmhmm, that was Manehattan” Polaris said with a weak smile.
Hours later, Polaris slowly brought the van to a stop. “Here we are, the center of the city” he said, shutting off the van. All of the ponies inside eventually made it out, standing in the empty street and looking around at the collapsed buildings everywhere around them, though most of their attention was focused on the few buildings that were still standing.
“I wanna go in this!” Tock said, staring up at the tower in front of him. Polaris slowly nodded, saying, “Likely the strongest one here” with a small smile. Both of the colts ran over to the door, giggling, as broken and rose walked to it, and shoved each of them open for them. Glowing and radio slowly made their way inside as the clock brothers started to run up the stairs.
“Let’s… have a nap here” Broken said softly with a smile, nuzzling glowing as she smiled and nuzzled him back, saying, “Sure…” as she led him towards a nearby couch.
Polaris chuckled softly and said, “have a nice nap…” as he walked to the stairs, starting to haul himself up them after broken, rose, and the two colts.
“Oohf, thanks glowing…” said the elderly stallion, as he slowly laid down on one of the old couches, which sank down to fit his form. Glowing slowly crawled up onto the couch, gently hugging him close to her. “I know you think it’s silly that I call you dad, but… have a nice nap, dad” she said softly, giving his neck a gentle nuzzle as she held him close and closed her eyes.
Radio smiled softly and said, “you too…” in a quiet voice, clicking off his Walkman as he held her close. Both ponies fell asleep, snoring quietly. Radio was first. Having finally become too much, Radio suddenly exhaled a breath, and then went still against glowing. The deadly chemicals in the air had reached their breaking point, killing him almost instantly and painlessly. His body slowly turned extremely rigid, frozen in his embrace with glowing.
Glowing came next, letting out the same shuddering breath as him as she also passed slowly into the void. Briefly, above both ponies, shimmered two forms, ghostly white and barely visible. One of them stood tall, and held open its arms as the other dived into them, getting a tight hug in return. A second later, both forms dissolved into dust, blown away into nothing by a nonexistent air current.
“Ooohh, you can see so much up here!” said broken, as rose gently nuzzled him a little with a quiet “Yeah…”
Polaris weakly chuckled as he stepped onto the roof, saying, “Wow… sooo many stairs…”
“You’re just oooold!” tick said with a giggle, before squealing as tock tackled him to the dusty roof and held him down with a “Ya, got you!”
“Now now, don’t be so rough…” rose said, worriedly looking back at them. Broken smiled softly and said, “come here, let’s cuddle a little…” as he laid gently on the edge of the roof, gently hugging rose to his side. Even in the face of such danger, Rose snuggled into him with as content smile, feeling content no matter where they were, as long as she was at his side.
A rare case, Rose and Broken both shuddered slightly and froze in place at the same time, their happy gazes turning into a casual, lifeless stare into the dead lands of Equestria. When Polaris noticed, he forced a grin and said, “Go on guys, heh, why not try snooping around inside?” as the two colts grinned and raced into the open roof exit.
Polaris caught a brief glimpse of a white shape diving into the tight embrace of another, their forms dissolving as they met in a deep kiss and then blew away with the wind.
“I don’t know if anything I see, even you, is real or not… even now, I feel my magic draining to keep the gas from killing me, so I don’t have long left…” Polaris said, looking down.
“Of course I’m real, you silly stallion…” Said the mare, shimmering into view in front of him for a moment before she faded away, giving the elderly stallion a glance into the eyes he hadn’t seen in centuries.
Polaris turned with a worried look as he heard tock say, “t..tick? why’d you go to sleep? Tiiiiick, wake up, I know you’re just pushing back!”
“o-oh, tock, come here!” Polaris said, cringing slightly at how his voice sounded as he walked into the hallway, and led the small colt to the other side of the roof. “Huff, I’ll make him wake up like I did this morning when I go back, he shouldn’t have stayed up all night playing with my computer” he huffed.
“Heh, it’s okay tock, look down at that…” Polaris said, pointing at the sun in the distance, as it slowly began to sink down over the horizon.
“Woah…” Tock said, sitting on the edge of the ceiling and staring out at it. “So, that thing is the sun?” he asked.
“Mmhmm… this is the only time you can look at it without hurting your eyes much” Polaris said with a smile.
“Amazing… heh, I’m gonna go get tick so he cahhk….” He said, freezing in the middle of starting to get up. Polaris looked down to see a ghostly tick run onto the roof, and playfully tackle tock to the ground before they, as the others, faded into nothing.
“I can barely see them… the spell is getting hazy” Polaris said quietly.
“I will see you soon, my love….” Came her voice, before the spell died a short minute later, Polaris’ weakening magic putting all of its small reserves into keeping him alive, as was its curse.
Polaris stared down at tick’s body for a long time, and he didn’t look up until the sun was well below the horizon. The blue unicorn looked to be close to a century old physically, his limbs gently shaking under him.
He walked to the end of the roof, and forced himself to stand tall as he stared out into the nighttime cityscape, a pathetic remnant of the bustling city center he had known centuries before. As he thought of Radio and Glowing, frozen in a tight hug downstairs, tears began to well up in his eyes.
He thought of Broken and Rose, and their relationship cut short, their bodies trapped on the edge of the roof forever. The tears began to run down his cheeks, dripping onto the edge of the roof and stories to the ground when they fell early, before they could make it to his once-chiseled jawline.
Last, he thought of Tick and Tock, the children of a batpony who had passed away a year before. He let out a short sob as he thought of how short, and how pathetic, their lives had been before they were ripped away by what had killed everything on the planet.
“I’m so sorry… t-there’s nothing I could do, the g-generators were going, S-Saphira died, the rubber seals were almost gone… I-I wanted you all to see the world, I.. I’m so sorryyy….” Polaris whined, slowly sinking to the edge of the roof in tears.
Polaris, being completely and utterly alone, let himself dissolve into a sobbing mess as he curled up a little, his crying only broken up by weak moans and whined apologies to nearly every pony he could think of.
Polaris didn’t realize everything had gone dark until he tried to open his eyes and couldn’t see anything.
The world was blackness.
Polaris tried to move, but he couldn’t feel himself.
He felt a deep spike of despair inside of himself, before the blackness rushed away with a loud whoosh and deposited him onto a soft bed, in a room suspiciously similar to one he hadn’t seen since the 1940s.
His heart caught in his throat as the door burst open, a small filly leaped into the air and jumped onto the bed, latching onto his leg and squealing “Daddy!”
Polaris stared down at her and then looked up, at the bedroom door again.
Standing in the doorway was a Turquoise mare, her silver mane cleanly brushed, golden eyes welling up with tears.
Polaris quickly teared up as she kicked the door shut, and leaped up onto him with a strangled cry of joy. Both ponies tightly wrapped their arms around each other, pressing their snouts together as they both tried to somehow hug the other pony tighter than they already were, as if they could be taken away again at any moment.
After both ponies spent a few minutes crying onto each other, Polaris let out a shaky sigh and said, “I-I love you so much Lunie, i-it’s all finally over…”
She smiled and nuzzled his snout, saying, “Yes, yes it is, and I finally have you again” as she took his hooves in her own, and held him tight as she pressed her lips against his, pulling him into a kiss.
Starfield giggled and said, “Ewwww!” as she jumped off of the bed and ran out into the house, then ran off outside and onto the massive cloud city to find the group of other kids that she had made her friends.
Hundreds of years after Manehattan’s last standing tower had collapsed, a dragon slowly walked up to the eroded remains of what was once a large white van, frowning down at it. “This one is mostly intact…” he said into a small radio, looking back at the caravan coming down the street behind him.
