Altair quietly sighed as he and Discord walked along the road, passing by destroyed cars and charred skeletons while the ruins of Canterlot loomed in the distance. Trees that were once covered in snow were now charred beyond any hope of survival, shadows of those that had been vaporized dotted the numerous walls that the pair passed by. The city was deathly quiet, not a single sound to be heard save for the creaking of burned out highrises and the groan of other dilapidated structures. Smoke drifted up through the air from still smoldering trucks and other wreckage, occasionally Altair saw a skeleton or two…

The world was as he felt… Dead inside, wanting to cry out, wanting to scream to the heavens ‘Why me?’... All his life he had wanted the world to understand, and now… Now they knew, everyone knew… Even those that had died knew. Discord and Altair silently wandered through the city, towards the west, where the sun was starting to set. In the end, Cassidy and his parents had lost him to his own mind. There was no tomorrow, there would never be another sunset… Through the ruined streets of Canterlot a single gunshot echoed… Twenty years of suffering finally came to an end...

Author's Note

I know, this ended a lot differently than I had planned at first... here's the thing though... I started writing to cope with Persistent Depressive Disorder, and... Unfortunately I just can't do this series anymore without dragging myself further down. So I'm ending it here and now with this short chapter because... I just can't bring myself to try and write a happy ending anymore... I'm sorry... I really am. After this I'm going to take a bit of a hiatus, just to get my head back in order, if it ever was in the first place... Thank you all who stuck with me since the first book, and the new readers who are here too... I hated having to end this, but... It was just... Time. I had built something nice and then wanted to destroy it... I realize now that doing so was a mistake, but I stand by my decision anyway...

Leave your angry rantings in the comments below if you want... And sorry, but I just can't find a song of the day...

Goodbye... Hopefully only for a little while...