Do you know what’s it like to plunge from the sky into an inky abyss? The cold pressing fear in the back of your mind only grows when you truly realize the gravity of the situation. For some, flight is nothing more than a secondary instinct. A quick flick of the wings and they soar. But for our dear Twilight, her wings lay in a state of disarray. One plucked and the other a mess of static. There wasn’t anything she could do to save herself as the black pit quickly approached. Clenching her eyes shut and hiding her face, she braced for the shadows to swallow her.

Eyes heavy and head pounded, Twilight slowly opened her eyes in the dark room. The only light in the room was the moonlight filtering in from a small hole in the ceiling. She got up only to stand on shaky hooves. With a deep breath, she had to look around the room for anything. Something for defense? Offense? She found a knife. An attempt to use magic caused sparks to fly from her broken horn.

The room flickered with the sparks as they scattered to the filthy floor. A piece of paper caught a spark and started to burn. Panicked, Twilight tried to stomp it out. The burning from the small flame didn’t even register as pain. It was miniscule at this point compared to everything else.

She picked up the paper with her hoof. It might be one of Pinkie’s. She’d be mad if she knew Twilight burned one of her files on somepony. After all, she took pride in knowing everything about everypony.

Pinkie. Information from before her impromptu nap came flooding back. Pinkie wasn’t Pinkie anymore. She was one of those things. Twilight felt tears prick her eyes. Her dear friend had been twisted beyond recognition. But there wasn’t time to mourn, not now. Twi shook her head lightly as to not exasperate her lingering headache. Bringing the paper to the spotlight of moonlight, she examined it.

It was a folded sheet of paper, on the front of it, it said “Twilight”. Twilight’s heart stopped for a millisecond as she recognized her hornwriting. Another note. She unfolded it to read the contents.

Twilight,

Pinkie is fading fast and I don’t think I can save her. The disease is eating at what makes her Pinkie. Her joy soaked caring. It’s not just greed that can turn ponies anymore, I’m afraid. I theorize it to be any intense emotion. It doesn’t bode well for the rest of my friends. I fear I may be the only one left uninfected. I don’t know how.

We have to f

The rest of the note was burnt. Twilight felt the tears returning. There wasn’t much she could do to hold them back this time. The warm tears felt cold on her burning cheeks. With a shaky sob, she dried her face off a took a deep breath. Folding the note back up, she laid it on the table. There was an odd feeling in her stomach that she's read it before. She didn't want to think of how many times she did. She didn't want to think of how many more times she may read it.

Her mind traveled back to the knife. What good would a weapon do, especially something so small a measly as a knife. The monsters would have to get close for her to use it and she knows that she wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight if they were. She found the knife next to her disembodied wing. Fighting a retch, she tried to reach for it to pick it up.

Twilight's body shook like a leaf in the wind. The closer she got to the weapon, the more she could feel the pain spreading through her body. With a deep breath, she grabbed the handle. Immediately, her body retched again and she felt the bile rising in her throat. She dropped the knife and stumbled backwards, falling flat on her butt. She sits, panting as she wait for the nausea to subside.

There's no dancing around the subject, she couldn't take the knife with her. At least not that one and she didn't have the means to go find another one. Standing on unstable hooves, she raises her hoof to her chest and took a deep breath. Extending her hoof out in front of her, she exhaled. A simple action yet calming enough to help clear her frantic mind.

Now she only had one objective, get out. She strained her ears and cast her eyes upward. All was still. All was quiet. Maybe Pinkie finally left. Or maybe she was lying in wait. Twilight wracked her brain, she thought that there had once been a back way out of this room.

Stumbling in the dark, Twilight moved to the back of the room. She regretted not being able to have a candle. A soft breeze came from somewhere. Using her other senses, she tried to follow it. Losing count of how many times she tripped, she came to a wall. A few sparks from her horn illuminated enough to show her a door handle.

With heavy dread, she slowly opened the door and looked up at the night sky. The night sky. Twilight felt like crying. That had to mean that Celestia or Luna is still okay. She added a mental note in her head to find a way to get to Canterlot. But for now, she wanted to check on her friends. There was a slim chance that at least one of them is okay. But that's all it took to at least give her a glimmer of hope. The closest place she could think of was the Boutique. Maybe Rarity was okay. Spike could be with her too.

It was enough to get her moving as she silently stalked forward. Tentatively sniffing the air, she tried to catch any scent of rot coming her way. She kept her hoofsteps quiet.

The shabby ruins of the the town seemed even creepier now than they did during the day. Her instincts where on high alert and her ears swiveled around trying to catch the sound of anything. The deep eerie silence of the town did nothing to quell her fears. Seeing the two creatures, she couldn't figure out where everyone else was. Unless they got eaten, then it makes sense. She shuddered at the thought as she pressed onward.

Trying to stay in the deepest shadows, her entire trek is slow. It was both in part from the pain rocketing up from the wound on her side and part from the terror that she might get caught. Making the bend to see the Boutique, it was in every bit of disarray as everything else in the town was. The windows were all boarded up from the inside, but sizzled claw marks suggested something tried to get in anyways. One of the pillars in the front has been knocked down and it lay snapped in half on the ground. Following the trail of scratches up the building, it was clear to see that something had climbed up to the top. Whatever had did that had taken a bite out of one the pony statues and had taken the head off the other one.

Twilight can't help but feel a pang of melancholy. The one beautiful home of her friend reduced to something so meaningless and decrepit. She walks to the the front door and gives a good tug on the handle. Something stopped her from opening it further, but a quick investigation proved it wasn't a lock. Maybe it had to be a barricade and if it was a barricade, someone could be inside. The warm feeling of hope surged through her body, bringing new life and energy to her battered and broken body. She knocked on the door and let her ears flit as she listened for any sort of sound. Shuffling in the building, even hoofsteps from behind her.

Silence answered her knock after what felt like an eternity of waiting. The feeling of hope was starting to fade. With a deep breath, she just tried to chalk it up to the fact that she didn't knock very hard in the first place. Walking away from the door to go around the building, she thought that she could find another way in. She had to be smarter than those beasts wandering the town, there had to be something.

She froze in place upon getting to the back. Her ears lay flat on her head as her jaw drops in surprise. The entire back half of the building was torn to pieces. What wasn't torn by claws, was eaten away by the acidic ooze that came off the creatures. Fabrics and sewing supplies lay scattered across the area.

A hoof goes to cover her mouth as she chokes back a sob. Any hope she had quickly faded as the reality of everything around her was starting to sink in. Her friends were gone, either dead or eaten. The town was destroyed and monsters prowled the streets. She sinks to her haunches, unable to keep herself upright anymore.

She can't remember what happened.

Why can't she remember what happened?

Why is so important that she can't remember?

Her eyes move up into the sky to stare the moon. The soft glow attempted to spread a sense of calm across the twisted scene. A single tear falls from her eyes and drops onto the earth below.

She can't understand why she's the only one left.

Author's Note

how's that for a hiatus