Upon a Pale Mare

Only a hooffull of buildings remained standing. The rest were little more than heaps of stone and blackened wood. What were long ago trees reached up at the sky with gnarled claws. As if to add to the already grim mood, a gust of wind blew through the ghost town, causing the buildings to croak ominously, as if they would fall over at any instant.

The three of us crossed the river.

I flew over and waited on the opposite bank, while my companions crept across the bridge. At one point they are forced to inch along a narrow edge, where most of the bridge had crumbled away.

I walked ahead of my companions, my ears on alert for suspicious sights, or sounds.

Across the river and on the rolling hills beyond, the grass grew tall and untamed, but within the abandoned town was told a different story. According to all we have heard, Ponyville had been abandoned for many moons. Vegetation should have claimed the ruins long ago.

But the dirt here was arid and bare,

almost as if somepony went and salted the earth...

It was an eerie place. I could almost hear the voices of those who lived here many years ago, their whispers, their cries, their screams.

They were scared...before the end.

The truth...of whatever came to pass here...

They knew.

We passed the first structure which I could still refer to as a building, when she gasped, and stopped abruptly. The baby dragon and I turned to see what shocked her.

A sign that read 'Sugar Cube Corner' whined as it swung in the wind. Half of the roof was missing, the windows were all gone, and the paint had been peeled and blacked by fire. One wall wore a large hole with rough chewed edges, no doubt leading to a nest long since abandoned. For whatever reason, despite it's decay and the town's frightening atmosphere, in my mind I could imagine the building as being painted with bright happy colors, filled with happy ponies. Smiling...and laughing. And imagining that, while seeing it in its current state, made the whole place feel that much more lonely,

That much more dead.

The door hung at an angle, only the bottom hinge remained intact. Nailed to it was a board bearing faded letters,
it read:

Are you burdened with severe tax? Do you feel you can't relax?
Here you only need to say, oh woe is me! I cannot pay!
If the tears fall from your eye, We will smile! and wipe them dry!
If you're very hungry, here you won't be grumpy!
If you're eager for a snack, we'll stick a cupcake in your sack!
The Pie family is here to say, we would love for you to come and stay!

Yeah I know it doesn't totally rhyme, sue me.

The corners of the letters were severely pointed, and the writing was hard, like who ever wrote it was holding the quill down with force, as if angry, or scared. Despite the shadow of death and decay, I felt warm fuzzy feelings for the 'Pie Family', whoever they were.

This isn't what scared her.

What scared her, and the rest of us, were the other inscriptions. Hastily scribbled words, bearing messages of horror and loss. They were faded, but less than the sign left by the Pie Family. They cover Sugar Cube Corner, and we now notice, every other structure still standing.

Four passed today

CELESTIA HAVE MERCY ON OUR SOULS

THE END IS NOW

These are the tamest of what was written. I felt my stomach drop. 'THE END IS NOW' was painted with something thicker than paint, when I felt it with my hoof, I could feel the letters raised above the wood.

Her shoulders were shaking as she sat back on her haunches, with her head in her hooves. He tenderly placed his claw on her shoulder. He seemed just as rattled as her and I. He looked at the ground before I asked,

"What really happened here?"

"I t-t-thought I knew," he replied, his voice wavering in pitch from word to word, "If you w-were to ask most ponies and, before t-today, me; T-t-they'd t-tell you t-that t-this place burned to t-the ground a couple years ago in a freak accident. T-they t-told everypony t-to stay away, cuz somepony might get hurt by falling rubble. I guess t-thats why...why no pony ever mentioned anything like...t-this..."

He looked down at his feet.

I did not think to ask, who he ment by ‘they’.

I saw that the sun is inching closer to the edge of the earth.

The fading light reflects off something in the distance. We all must be going blind, for no pony to notice something like that. The ominous messages momentarily slip from my mind.

Lets sleep in with class, and style...

He and I clawed and kicked, respectively, at the abnormal spiked vines that had somehow, despite the barren soil, grown large enough to tangle themselves about the golden door. We heaved, strained, and managed to work the door open. It screeched angrily, like an old cat rudely awoken from a peaceful sleep. It carved a deep groove into the stone below.

The three of us slipped through the narrow opening.

It was completely black. The castle had not been touched by whatever had desecrated the entire town, but had been overtaken by aggressive black vines, which had grown across the windows, thus keeping out the light.

"Hold on just a second,"

There is a click, and he breathed a flame into his palm. It waved merrily, his claws cast long shadows up the walls.

We quickly surveyed the kitchen,

We found a barrel of water and quenched our thirst.

We did not notice that the barrel was covered in considerably less dust than the rest of the space.

Now with one thing in mind, we tore into the bedroom.

He and I charged forward, jaws flapping about, emitting random grunts of joy. We lept atop the bed like crazed beasts, and leap around, cackling like mad-ponies.

She did not join us, but instead sat down in a small round bed, on the floor not far from the one we overtook. She wiggled her tush further into the cushion, closed her eyes, and smiled. She sat as serenely as a wise old monk, so rooted into tranquility that the world could grow old and die in the blink of an eye, and she would never take notice.

Every collision into the mattress, from either him or I, sent a big cloud of dust into our faces. Every jump caused the bedspread to grow slightly more purple, and nearly sent us into wheezing fits.

"You were so wrong!" I exclaimed with glee,

I glanced at the white mare, sitting there with that serene smile of hers, at the baby dragon frollicking with me like we were two schoolfillies in a meadow, at the flame dancing gleefully on the crystal vanity.

Look how it all turned out, sitting in that cell not a full day ago, we never thought it would end up like this. We didn't think anything would ever be alright again...

But look at us now! We are happy! Everything's fine! Everything's gonna be ok!

"I am so glad you both were wrong!" I exclaimed with glee,

"You were so wrong! Every things gonna be-"WHO DA FUCK AR YOU?"

She yelped.

The strange new voice sliced through our joy like a hot blade.

With the distraction, we leapt into eachother. We crash into the cold floor.