“Girls?”
A feminine voice bounces around the crystal walls of a large, crystal-like room. A circular table sits on the middle, with six large seats and one little seat around it.
A purple alicorn sits on one of them, her head turning left and right, her wandering and confused eyes scanning her surroundings.
“Spike? Shining?”
She calls out, her ears twitching to the echoes of her voice.
She blinks.
“...Where did everypony go?”
She asks herself.
She furrows her brows.
“This isn't funny. Come out already!”
She looks around again, expecting anybody to come out of hiding and preparing herself to hear that it was one of her friends' ideas of a prank.
Nobody shows up.
The alicorn's ears droop.
“...Girls?”
Her quiet voice bounces on the quiet walls through the quiet hallways of the quiet castle.
“S-Spike...?”
No response.
“...BBBF...F...?”
Sounds of hoofsteps echo around the crystal walls of the long hallway. A purple alicorn trots at a slow yet steady pace. Her head turns left and right, looking at the closed doors she passes by and the waking world through the large windows.
“Starlight?” the alicorn calls out as she approaches a door. “Are you in there?” she asks, her ears waiting for a response.
But there is none.
She frowns a confused frown.
She lifts a hoof up and knocks on the door.
“Starlight?”
No answer.
She takes a slow breath, and slowly releases it.
She knocks on the door once again.
But still no response.
“Well, I'm coming in,” she announces as she eyes the door's knob and lights up her horn.
No light surrounds the doorknob.
“Huh?”
Her pupils look up, staring at her horn on her head.
She tries again.
There is no light coming out of her horn.
She taps her horn with a hoof before she tries again.
Still nothing.
Her ears droop, and so is her gaze.
Shaking her head, she lifts a hoof up, knocks on the door once more, and waits for a response.
Seconds fly by.
The seconds turn into a minute.
Sighing an impatient sigh, she grabs the doorknob to open the door.
But she can't open it. She can't even move the doorknob.
“What the...?”
She tries again, but the door won't open.
She exerts more force, but she achieves no difference.
She takes a step back.
“...S-Starlight...?” she quietly calls out. “Are you in there...?”
She hears nothing but silence.
Suddenly, everything looks a little brighter. Turning, she sees the large castle doors are now wide open, the crystal-like floor reflecting the sleepy sun's rays, illuminating the castle more.
She blinks and looks around, spotting no one in sight. Her ears twitch, hearing no sound.
Brows furrowing, she slowly marches toward the open doors.
The rays of the waking sun shines on the quiet town of Ponyville, the golden bands of light touching one side of houses, and creating hazy shadows on the other. Windows are closed, and so are the doors. Grass stalks stand still, as well as the leaves on trees.
“Hello?”
A voice pierces through the silence. Hoofsteps soon follow.
A purple alicorn trots through the earthen street of town, her wary eyes looking left and right, searching, her shadow her only companion.
“Anypony?” she calls out in the still air. “...This is getting weird...”
She stops in front of a quiet house. Approaching the door, she lightly knocks and waits, her ears ready to pick up any sound from within.
But she hears nothing.
“Um... Hello?” she calls out before knocking again. “Anypony home?”
Still nothing.
Blinking back her worries, she trots to the window and takes a look inside.
A couch. A table. A small bookshelf. A staircase leading to the second floor. Picture frames hanging on the walls.
But no one is inside.
She trots back and looks around.
“...Where is everypony?” she asks herself.
She taps her chin with a hoof, thinking.
“Hm... Maybe there's something going on at Sweet Apple Acres...”
She blinks.
“A celebration, or some sort of event maybe?”
She nods. And nods.
“Yes. Yes, that's got to be it...”
She turns to the direction of the farm.
She spreads her wings, flaps them, jumps, and awkwardly lands back down on the ground.
She blinks.
“...Huh?”
She looks at one of her wings. She slowly flaps them. She arches an eyebrow.
She looks up at the sky, crouches down, flaps her wings and jumps.
She lands back down on her hooves.
“...What?”
She looks at one of her wings again. Folding them to her sides, she closes her eyes and shakes her head.
“I don't know what's going on, but...”
She reopens her eyes.
“...if I can't fly to Sweet Apple Acres, then I'm just going to have to trot there.”
Exhaling, she trots on the path towards the farm, all the while looking for any signs of life.
Seconds turn to minutes...
...but she's yet to see anyone.
She passes by a familiar gingerbread-like bakery.
She notes the lack of delicious smells and cheery sounds.
Her trot turns into a canter.
Rolling hills full of rows and rows of apple trees stand beyond a fence that borders the road from the farmland. A purple alicorn is leaning on the fence, her eyes and ears scanning the farm for any signs of life.
She sees and hears no one around.
A lump forms in her throat. Her ears slowly droop as she takes a few steps back. Turning, her gaze falls on a red barn. Its windows are open, but its door is not.
She's moving towards the structure before she even realizes it. Upon reaching the porch, she quickly approaches the door, but stops. Shaking her head, she then moves to the closest open window and takes a look inside.
Nothing out of the ordinary, she mentally notes.
Except there is no one inside. No sound of any activity.
No sound of life.
“Applejack?” she calls out, her voice a little higher than normal. “Granny Smith? Big Macintosh?”
Her ears twitch to the sound of her echoing voice.
She holds back a whimper.
She takes a number of deep breaths, before slowly and carefully lets herself in through the window.
Standing on the sofa, she moves to the wooden floor and walks toward the kitchen.
She stops on her tracks upon her entry.
A plate with a few slices of leftover pie is on a wooden table.
A small stack of dirty dishes are on the sink.
Someone's here.
“Applejack?”
Or someone was here?
She isn't sure.
“Apple Bloom?”
Her echoing voice sounds almost as loud as her own.
But there's no response.
She turns around, runs back to the previous room and immediately turns to the stairway.
“Big Mac? Granny Smith?”
She gallops up the stairs and sees four closed doors in the hallway. She quickly approaches the nearest door and tries, but fails, to open it.
“Please open the door! I know somepony's in here!” she wails. “Applejack?!”
She knocks on the door.
“Big Mac?!”
She pounds her hooves on the door.
“Granny Smith?!”
She takes a few steps back and tackles the door.
But the wooden door didn't even shake.
She tackles it again.
She stomps back.
And tackles the door again.
She walks back.
She makes a sluggish start.
She bumps the door.
She slides down to the wooden floor.
“...W-why won't you open the door?”
She holds back a sob.
They must be outside.
They must be somewhere in the orchard.
They must be bucking apple trees somewhere in the orchard.
A purple alicorn slowly pulls herself up and slowly drags herself down the stairs.
A purple alicorn hears a sound. Her ears weakly twitches to it.
She stops her slow trot, slowly lifts her head and looks back.
The sound is long gone.
She looks down.
Her hooves are on the grass.
Her hooves are making crunching sounds every slow step she takes.
She slowly returns her gaze ahead and walks on.
The shadows have changed, a purple alicorn notes.
She looks up at the sky and squints her eyes.
The sun is almost at its peak. It must be close to noon.
She didn't have breakfast yet.
But she's not hungry.
She realizes something...
She looks ahead and blinks.
The sun is still moving.
Her ears twitch.
A small smile cracks on her muzzle.
“Princess Celestia!”
She shouts, life and energy suddenly returning to her.
She quickly turns around and gallops back to town.
Apple trees blurring by.
She passes by a wooden wagon that was not there before, with a few barrels already filled with apples.
She didn't notice.
The quiet town is still quiet and empty.
A purple alicorn gallops on the earthen path, noticing and ignoring the opened windows of the homes she passes by.
No one's around, she tells herself.
She gallops by the familiar gingerbread-like building, its swinging doors wide open.
She continues her run.
She passes by the house she checked earlier, its windows now open.
She ignores it.
She passes by the path towards the tall, crystal castle.
She ignores it as well.
Until something catches her eye.
She skids to a halt, the skid marks she left behind slowly vanishing.
She didn't notice.
She gazes on the castle's open doors.
She gazes on something in front of the castle's open doors.
“Princess Celestia?” a purple alicorn whispers to herself.
She stands in front of a majestic carriage of white, gold and purple, parked in front of the crystal castle's large and wide open double doors.
“She's here...” she breathes out.
A smile blesses her muzzle as she gallops inside the castle.
“Princess Celestia?!” she shouts as she gallops by an open door she was trying to open before she left the castle. “I-I'm so glad that you're here!”
She enters the room where a large, circular table sits in the very middle, with six large seats and a smaller one around it.
“Princess?”
Her voice echoes in the empty room.
The echoes soon die down.
And silence greets her.
Silver light paints the dark landscape, highlighting the blades of the grass and leaves and the metal frames of the train's tracks.
A purple alicorn quietly shuffles through the night, listening to the chorus of cricket's chirping that aren't even there, as she follows the tracks in a safe distance, just in case the train passes by.
Just in case.
She slowly lifts her head up, her tired gaze landing on the mountain capital a distance away.
She lowers her head down.
She still has a long way to go.
She didn't mind. She didn't care.
After all...
She'll get there, in time.
