September

Chapters

Chapter 1 - Prologue
Chapter 2 - A story long lost
Chapter 3 - A monster inside
Chapter 4 - The loss of a love
Chapter 5 - A stranger in Ponyville

Chapter 1 - Prologue

A lonely unicorn is walking through an abandoned city. His grey fur is stained with dirt and his dark green mane and tail are frazzled. It's easy to see it's been days since he slept properly, or had a bath.
On either side of his flank is a brown saggy saddlebag, both of them covering his cutie marks. "He... hello, is anypony there?" he says as he walks around the town. "Ugh, it's useless, everypony is gone," he sighs discouraged "you're never gonna find anypony Tim, they all abandoned you." The grey pony brings up a black journal, a small well of ink and a feather from one of his saddlebags using his magic, and then he starts writing.

Journal Entry 54, October 17th
I arrived at Fillydelphia today. Where the hell is everypony, the only signs of life are the small critters scattered around feasting off whatever food is left. I'd just wish I could find SOMEPONY who could tell me the damn story of what happened before I became so alone. I guess I just have to keep searching.

As he finishes his entry and shuts his journal he can hear his stomach growling at him, he's starving. He goes off to find some food and notices a small white house. It looks like the house has been abandoned for years, the roof has several holes in it, the brown door hangs from only one of its hinges and the paint has started wearing off. The house feels familiar to him, he starts to approach the house, but his growling stomach reminds him that he should find some food first. He makes a mental note to check out the house later and proceeds through town.
As he walks through town he can see that a lot of the houses haven’t been tended to for a while, the gardens have been growing furiously, some houses are falling apart, it looks horrible, the worst is the smell though, not because it smells bad, but because it doesn’t really smell at all. It is as if someone took away any scent of anypony, the marketplace is usually characterized by the bad smell of sweat, ponies sweating because they’ve been standing out in the sun all day selling their goods, but now, nothing. No smells, no stenches, no scents, nothing.
After a few minutes search the grey pony finds a small wooden restaurant, in hopes of finding food he enters the restaurant to see that all the tables have been set neatly, white tablecloths are covering every table and there is a glass and a plate on every single table. However most of the tables have started gathering some dust, as if people haven’t used them for ages.
He proceeds to the kitchen, imagining all of his favourite meals as he walks: Daisy soup with oriental spices, Daffodil sandwich made from rough bread and fresh daffodils and more. As he finally reaches the kitchen he gets pleasantly surprised to see it has an almost full storage room! He finds a big pot, pours some water in it and puts it on the stove which he powers with his magic, he chops up some daffodils and pours them into the water, soon the water starts to boil, he adds some salt and pepper and puts the lid on. A couple of minutes later he lifts the lid, adds some carrots and some red oriental spices from the lands of the griffons, and puts the lid back on. He remembers learning how to cook from his mother, he used to help her in the kitchen whenever she wasn’t too busy. He finds a bowl and a plate, pours some soup in the bowl and finds some bread which he cuts a slice of. The soup smells absolutely delicious, he uses his magic to make a small ball of the orange soup which he slowly leads up to his mouth, he blows at the soup to cool it down and puts it in his mouth. It feels as if the ball explodes in his mouth, kickstarting his sense of taste, the sweet taste of daffodil followed by the burning sensation of the oriental spices.

"Mmm, that was some goooooood soup" says the grey pony patting his stomach, he packs down some of the bread and starts moving towards the familiar white house he saw earlier.
"Hello, is anypony here?" he whispers while slowly opening the creaky old door, "hello..? Oh great, another wild goose chase, this place is more abandoned than the rest of Equestria." The small house indeed seems very abandoned and old, all the furniture has been covered by dust, he proceeds carefully towards second floor up the creaky old stairs. "Maybe if I'm lucky there's a-" he freezes as he enters a teal room, he recognizes this, this very room, the small bed in the corner fit for a foal or filly, the box at the end of it, the bookshelf in the other corner of the room. He used to live here, but not just before everypony disappeared, no, this was where he lived as a foal.
"It's all coming back now, my old bed, my toys," he sprints to the window "my old treehouse" he says with a smile, glaring at a small treehouse outside..
He hurries downstairs, beaming, smiling more than he has for months, runs to the living room and stops. More memories, these however not as pleasant, his smile turns to a frown in less than a second "Oh no..."

-----Flashback-----

A small grey foal is playing with his father, his dark green mane is kept tidy, his flank is blank, he has a small horn in his forehead and he's roughly 5 years old. His father has a black fur coat and a long purple mane and tail, he has a horn and his flank is decorated by a chalkboard. "Rawr, I'm a horrifying monster and I'm gonna eat you" he says, charging at his son. They crash and roll for a few seconds before bursting out laughing.
"Alright boys, calm down, dinner will be on in a minute." says a mare standing in the doorway to the kitchen, she has a lime fur coat, a long yellow mane tied in 'horsetails' and a short yellow tail, her flank decorated by a picture of a chef's hat.
"Mommy!" yells the foal while rushing towards his mother, before embracing her in a hug.

The 2 adult ponies go to the kitchen to talk while the foal keeps playing with his toys. Suddenly the backdoor slams open, the foal walks to the doorway between the living room and the kitchen, watching silently as 3 ponies in suits enter the kitchen through the backdoor, the middle one wearing a hat.

"Time's up," the middle pony says "the don wants his bits now."

"No, please I... I can get the bits for next week," pleads the father.

"Funny, that's exactly what you said last week, and the week before that." A small glow starts to emit from the inside of the middle pony's hat, which spreads to the father's neck. "Time's up" says the middle pony as he snaps the father's neck with a nasty CRACK.

The light moves on to the now crying mother's neck, but then it suddenly stops. "Wait, how about we have some fun with this one first" says the middle pony with a smirk.
While the foal is watching, the 2 other ponies throw the mother on to the kitchen table and spread her legs wide. She looks at her son with tear-filled apologizing eyes, while the hatted unicorn starts thrusting his member inside her. As he finishes he makes way for one of the other ponies, who follows suit.
"Well that was fun," says the unicorn when they're all done, "but it's time to say goodnight" and with that he snaps the neck of the mother with yet another sickening crack “i guess we’ll have to explain this to the boss somehow...”
At this point the foal is already miles away, he started running when the unicorn began raping his mother. He's not sure where he's going, but he's definitely sure it's as far away as possible.

-----Flashback end-----

Chapter 2 - A story long lost

Tim snaps back into reality, "My parents, they... they were murdered?"
He puts down his saggy saddlebags revealing a cutie mark of a flask, with some sort of green bubbling liquid inside, on both of his flanks. “Think, think, where did I run when I tried to escape.” Sitting down he starts going over the horrible events again, trying to find out where he ran after his parents were killed.
After a few minutes of thinking he finally remembers that he ran west, since he was running towards the sun and it was afternoon. He brings up his journal and quill and starts writing again.

Journal entry 55, October 17th
I just made a shocking discovery, I found my own house in Fillydelphia. Not just the house I lived in before everypony disappeared, no, the house I lived in as a foal. I started exploring the house and found my own room. I started remembering all sorts of things about my foalhood.
I explored some more of the house hoping to remember some more, and that I did. As I entered the living room I had a flashback, I saw my dad getting killed, and my mom getting raped right in front of me. However, I found out that I ran west after that so I’m going to go west and hopefully find out some more about my past, perhaps even what happened to everypony.

Finishing the entry, Tim shuts the book and puts it into his saddlebags, which he puts over his flanks once again. He looks through the rest of house hoping to find some food or some more clues, anything that might be able to help him find out more about himself. The rest of the house is in just as bad condition, there are small holes in the roof all over the place, and the house has taken heavy water damage throughout time, various kinds of fungi has started to grow some places on the floor. The entire house smells rotten, pretty much where ever he goes and after a while he can’t take it anymore. He goes outside to his treehouse and thinks about the many times he slept here with his parents and friends. Going through the house brings lots of memories from his foalhood, how he used to play with his dad in the afternoons when he got home from the university where he taught math and English, how his mom who was a professional chef always cooked dinner for them, and how delicious it always was. After about half an hour of searching through his house he decides that he’d better move on before nightfall arrives. He puts some of his old toys in his saddlebags, closes them and goes outside. Turning around he says a small prayer for his parents before he moves on.

Following his memories Tim walks for days trying to figure out where he went as a foal, he passes through many small villages, they all look pretty much the same though, abandoned houses with an outrageous amount of garden growth, or no growth at all. There’s the same pure smell everywhere, it smells abandoned.
After a few days he reaches a small village. He goes through the same procedure as always, looking for ponies, scavenging whatever food he might be able to find. After a few minutes of walking his stomach rumbles again, he takes out some bread and picks some nearby daisies. He starts making a daisy sandwich when he hears a vague voice, ‘Help me, somepony please help me...’ it says, he hurries to see if he can find the pony in need. Following the voice which slowly gets louder and louder realization dawns upon him, what if he can find somepony? A companion, someone to help him in his search. The thought makes him smile, finally someone to talk to, someone to help him, he’s no longer alone!
As he runs around the next corner he finds the source of the voice, and is strongly disappointed, the only thing he can see is an old record player gone stuck, it keeps repeating the same thing over and over again “help, somepony please help me.” In his fury he bucks the player and it shatters into a thousand pieces.

“I guess I’d better move on,” he sighs and goes back to the sandwich he was making. He walks around for another 30 minutes, filling up his saddlebags with whatever food he can find and brings out his black journal and his quill.

Journal entry 61, October 20th
I heard a voice just before and hoped it was somepony else, somepony who could help me in my search and keep me company, but it turned out it was just an old recording of somepony calling out for help. I just filled up my bags with some supplies and I’m gonna head west now, hopefully it won’t be too long before I find another clue to what might’ve happened... then again, there’s no rush, I don’t have to be anywhere.

Shutting the journal the grey pony thinks about why he’s making a journal, so somepony can find it after him? To keep track of when he did things? He’s not sure, but it’s most likely to keep himself from going insane and to have somewhere to put down his thoughts, now that he doesn’t have anypony to talk to. He gives a sad sigh, packs down his journal and starts walking west once again, searching his mind for memories as he walks.

After days of walking Tim finally reaches a city, to be more specific, a ‘metropolis’. Looking around he spots a sign saying ‘Manehattan’. He walks into the city with a smile on his face thinking that in such a big city, there has to be somepony he can talk to. The city is huge, giant skyscrapers are reaching into the clouds everywhere, huge streets made to fit hundreds of ponies, and the biggest marketplace he’s ever seen! However his smile disappears as soon as he realizes this city is just as abandoned as everything else, it smells the same as where ever else he’s been, the same pure smell of being abandoned. Tim sighs and starts searching the city hoping that he will find more clues from his past. He starts going through skyscraping buildings, restaurants, shops and so on, scavenging and searching for memories. While searching a small house he finds another record player, this one stopped and ready to play the record on it. Thinking that there’s nothing to lose he starts playing the record.

‘Hello *tap* *tap* is this thing on? Alright I just received some magical reports from all around Equestria. Ponies everywhere are sending out magic distress signals, but after a while they get cut short, this is very bad. I can also sense the amounts of magic being sent out slowly dying out this is most likely a sign that unicorns all over Equestria ar- *bzzzzzzzzzz*’

The recording was cut off. The pony talking was a colt, he sounded kind of freaked out, like he was panicking. “It sounded like he was saying that the ponies were defeated, but then it’d have to be everypony, since I haven’t seen anypony. I must’ve been lucky then, since I’m the only survivor.” says Tim while he keeps searching, “Wait, if it destroyed all of the ponies...” his legs starts to shake as he imagines what kind of power it’d take to destroy everypony in Equestria. Pushing away that thought he continues his search, for more clues of what may have happened. Once done he brings out his journal again to write another entry.

Journal Entry 69, October 24th
While scavenging some houses I found another old record player. Since I thought it couldn’t harm I started the recording and found out that the ponies didn’t abandon me, they were defeated. The ponies were defeated, and not just some of them, ALL of them. Or at least so I assume, since I haven’t seen any other ponies since I lost my memory. If all the ponies were indeed defeated it’d have taken tremendous powers to do it, and a monster or whatever it was with such power seems out-of-place here, like it doesn’t belong in our world. To sum it up, I just discovered the ponies were defeated by something really strong, it seems very weird and wrong but I’ll keep on searching for more survivors.

Tim shuts his journal and puts it back in his saddlebag as he prepares to move on. On his way out of town he notices a small orphan home, he gets the same kind of familiar feeling as he did at his own house and thinks that this might be another clue, so he heads inside and starts searching the place.

“Of course, I ran here when my parents died. It seemed so obvious back then, since I was an orphan I needed somewhere to stay.” he says to himself as he’s trotting around inside. The place has a very unique architecture, there’s a big room for all the small fillies and foals to sleep in, and some smaller rooms for the bigger ponies. The entire place smells as abandoned as everywhere else, except it’s very dusty inside, not as dusty as the house him and his parents lived in, but almost.

“It’s all coming back to me now, how they adopted me here, I met lots of friends here... friends long gone...” thinking about his friends he allows a tear to roll down his cheek, he thinks that they’re all probably gone by now. Looking around he finds a door to the old yard, where they all used to play together. As he enters the yard even more memories are coming back to him...

Chapter 3 - A monster inside

-----Flashback-----

The grey pony has grown, it’s probably about 13 years of age now. His mane and tail are a little longer and not as well kept as earlier and his horn has grown. A cutie mark has appeared on the flank of the pony, a small flask filled with some green bubbling liquid. He’s playing with a purple unicorn filly with a straight blue mane and tail, she has a mark of a book covering both of her flanks. She’s wearing bracers since her top teeth stands out more than her bottom teeth. They’re sitting on the ground of a big playground, it’s easy to see the orphan home is in economical trouble, one of the swings have fallen down, the windows in the playhouse in one corner of the playground has fallen out and the slide has collapsed completely. Smaller fillies and colts are playing some sort of ballgame in one part of the playground.

The filly and the colt are talking to each other as 3 other colts walk up to them. The leftmost colt is brown with a black mane and tail, the rightmost white with a grey mane and the middle is black with a yellow mane, all 3 of them have cutie marks of different balls.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t ‘Mister abandoned’” mocks the middle one.

“Leave him alone, you know his parents were killed when he was a mere foal.” says the filly, trying to defend the grey colt’s honor.

The grey colt is just staring into the ground when he whispers to the filly: “Let’s just go elsewhere, there’s no reasoning with them.”

“Stay out of this ‘brace-face’” mocks the middle colt “we want some alone time with mister abandoned, so beat it ‘big-teeth’”
Then it snaps for the grey colt, he can hear a sound of glass crackling inside his head, the same sound as if you throw a rock at a window and it cracks, but doesn’t shatter.
He turns to face the colt that mocked him, fury showing in his eyes as he says with a voice like deadly venom.

“You can mock me all that you like, I don’t mind that, you can call me names if you like, I don’t mind. But you do NOT, MOCK, MY, FRIENDS.” the 4 last words escapes his mouth in a shout as he turns around and bucks the mocking colt straight in the face. As he does so he feels a wave of sheer joy going down his spine, he feels something he hasn’t felt for a long time, power. He walks up to the pony now lying on the ground and bucks him once more, blood is now running from the nose of the pony he bucked.

“Apologize!” the grey colt yells, bucking the bully in the face again.

“I’M SORRY, I’M SO, SO, SORRY!” he cries out, blood is now pouring out of his nose, and a little blood is running from a hole in his forehead. The grey colt can feel the fresh blood on his hooves and he likes it. During the whole incident the 2 other colts are just staring at it all, they’re too scared to interact in fear that they might also be hurt.
The grey colt turns to look at the filly who is just staring in horror for a few seconds, before she runs off towards the nearby forest. In a matter of seconds he sets after her, leaving the bleeding bully behind with his henchcolts.

“Go away you monster!” yells the purple filly as the grey colt approaches. “I don’t want to talk to you!” she cries.
He takes a step closer but then he turns and runs away, leaving her crying in the forest.

He goes back to his room, wondering why he felt such a pleasure when he was beating that other colt, the blood on his hooves hasn’t dried yet, but it’s started smelling, as he inhales he feels like he’s gonna vomit. His thoughts are interrupted when his door is slammed open. “What have you done?!” yells an adult colt entering his room, “I heard that you beat one of the other orphans, what the hell were you thinking son?!” the adult colt’s face is turning red with anger. “You better go apologize, right, now!” he yells while dragging the grey teen-colt after him.

“I’m... I’m sorry,” whimpers the grey colt to the bandaged bully in front of him.

“It’s okay, no hard feelings,” says the bully as he reaches out a hoof.

‘Yeah right’ thinks the grey colt sarcastically, ‘cuz he’s toooootally fine by me almost bucking him to death’, however he puts on a fake smile and shakes the bully’s hoof.

“Alright, but that doesn’t mean you go unpunished,” says the adult colt “take a shower, then go to your room and go to sleep, no dinner for you today” he states sternly.

The grey colt heads to the colts’ showers to take a shower, it’s dinnertime so he’s the only one there, it feels good to be alone for a while, he needs a bit of quiet time on top of the incident. He turns on the water and it feels good, the warm water running down his body, it fills him with a feeling of peace. It feels like the shower washes out all of his anger, all the bad things in the world.
The colt fills his mouth with water, gurgles it and spits it back out. He puts some shampoo into his mane and tail and scrubs thoroughly, then he picks up a sponge and starts scrubbing the dry blood off his hooves.
When he’s mostly clean he steps out of the shower and dries himself with a nearby towel, the stench of dry blood is gone and instead he can smell the lavender shampoo, he takes a big sniff and heads into his room. He covers the window with his curtains and starts thinking as he lies in bed. He thinks about how he has to apologise to his filly friend in the morning, he falls asleep with a smile thinking of the purple filly.

-----Flashback end-----

“Wow, I was really a ticking time-bomb back then” Tim says to himself still staring at the yard. The
playground is in a worse state now, much worse. The playhouse has fallen apart, the slide is rusty and the swingset has collapsed.
“I better see if I can find my old room” he says heading off to the rest of the building to find his old room. He searches everywhere and finds many interesting memories he had long forgotten, memories of him and the purple filly growing up, how he was teased and bullied by the 3 bullies continuously as he grew up, until he bucked one of them. He had other friends as well, but he didn’t spend much time with them compared to the filly which he remembers having an affection for.

Eventually he finds his own room, it looks just like he remembers it, except the furnishing has been replaced by something newer, and there’s dust all over the place..
He removes a floorboard he remembers is loose and finds his memory stash. In the hole are all sorts of things he had forgotten, old ‘artifacts’ like posters and books from when he was a foal, heck, there was even a piece of paper with the signature of each of the wonderbolts, in the middle was written ‘Never stop chasing your dreams’. He puts whatever he has room for into his saddlebags.
As he is almost at the bottom of the box he finds a small photograph. On the photograph is him, and the purple mare with the blue mane standing next to each other. They are both dressed in the fanciest outfit they had at that time and on the back is written: ‘Our first date <3’
Tim takes a look at the photograph and smiles a sad smile before he puts it into his saddlebag.

As he prepares to leave he yawns and realizes that he hasn’t slept for days. Looking at the bed the bed he thinks that he could probably take a small nap, since he’s in no hurry. He walks up to the bed and thinks back to his foalhood, or whatever small part of it he can remember. Then he starts to think about what could’ve possibly happened to everypony and he starts revising the last month or so.

He remembers that he woke up in that bunker about one month ago, it was completely sealed off from all of Equestria, and it smelled horrible in there, as if it has been sealed for weeks. He tried to open the solid metal door, but it simply wouldn’t budge. He turned around and saw a lot of metal letters lying on the floor, they spelled out ‘Tim Kellhall’ and he assumed he had placed them like that in order to make sure he would remember his name. He tried to think back to what happened, but gave up as it gave him a smashing headache, instead he opened up a can of conserved flowers and started eating them. The door was locked for 5 days, 5 long days where all he did was eat, sleep and try to remember, the remembering part to no avail. After 5 days the door made a loud *clonk* and a series of other sounds after which it opened up, revealing a barren outside.
At first he had no clue where he was, but he started walking and eventually found a small village, he remembers it looked like most of the other small villages and towns he’s been passing through lately, and it smelled the same. He didn’t care about it back then, since he was just happy to be relieved of his bunker.
After searching the village and finding no signs of life he found some saddlebags, packed down the most necessary supplies and found a blank journal where he could put down his thoughts.
The next month he spent trying to remember who he was, what happened to everypony and how he ended up in that bunker, however it seems he has no memory of anything that happened before he awoke in the bunker.

Chapter 4 - The loss of a love

Tim snaps back into reality, brings forth his journal from his saddlebag and starts writing.

Journal entry 70, October 24th

I found my old orphan home today. I ran here when my parents were killed and lived here for a long time. I just had another flashback of me when I was a teen-colt, I was playing with a purple teen-filly with a blue mane when 3 bullies started mocking us. I eventually bucked one of them in the face several times, causing the purple teen-filly to run away. That day I had to go to bed without dinner, after apologizing to the bully I smashed up. I also went through a small box of things from my foalhood, I found a small picture of me and the purple filly from before our first date and a lot of other things. I think I'm gonna take a quick nap since I haven't slept in days, and then I'll continue my quest once I wake up.

He shuts his book and slowly crawls into bed, under the sheets. The bed is big enough for him and he realizes he hasn't grown much since when he saw himself as a teen-colt. He's tired so he dedicates one last thought to his ex-filly-friend and all of his old friends before he falls asleep. He falls into a deep sleep and more memories start to appear in his head as he sleeps, memories he had long supressed, memories he doesn't want to remember.

-----Flashback-----

The grey colt is a bit older now, he's sitting in his room with the purple filly, they're both about 16 years of age now. They're still living in the orphan home since they're not adult ponies yet. The filly's teeth have improved significantly and she's no longer wearing bracers. They're listening to the radio he bought with the bits he got for helping taking care of the smaller fillies and colts. The grey colt is sitting in the bed, the purple filly is lying on the bed with her head in his lap as he is moving his hoof down her mane gently with a sad smile on his face.

"Today it's 11 years ago," he sighs "11 years ago my parents were killed, on this exact day."

"Oh, I'm sorry" she says carefully "I'm sure they're both watching you from where ever they are now, and I'm sure they're both very proud of you."

"Yeah, it's easy for you to say that" he says sarcastically "your parents are still out there somewhere, you can just go seek them out once you're out of this dump."

"What? My parents abandoned me here when I was 3 years old, what makes you think they want anything to do with me now?" she says angrily, she had left his embrace and is now sitting in the bed next to him.

"Well, at least they aren't dead!" he shouts while wondering: 'Why am I getting so angry over this?'.

"Don't you think I feel worse? My family abandoned me when I was 3 years old, they left me on the doorstep to this orphan home, they didn't love me, they don't want anything to do with me, ever! But you wouldn't know, you were probably always loved by your parents!" she shouts at him.

Then it snaps for him, he can hear the sound of glass crackling again, this time it sounds more like if you put pressure on an already crackled glass pane, then comes the anger.

"I'M the lucky one? My parents were killed when I was a mere foal, I had to run for weeks to find this orphan home, i had to fucking beg in order to get enough bits to buy a fucking bread, I'm 16 years now, my parents are dead, I have no real home and the only bits I earn are for wiping the ass of foals that can't do it themselves!" he shouts at her, the purple filly feels like she's shrinking and suddenly, he seems a lot bigger to her "And you say I'm the lucky one? FUCK YOU!" and with that he bucks her, he starts punching her in the face with his forehooves, with the occasional buck using his hindlegs. She just cries in pain every time he hits her, until she's nothing but a bleeding pile of meat, and even then he just keeps punching her. He doesn't feel any regret, he doesn't feel any compassion, only anger.

The filly's lifeless body is lying on the ground, it doesn't even look like a pony anymore, with all the blood everywhere. The colt is standing on the floor in front of her(or what's left of her), breathing heavily. He can feel the anger leave his body with every breath he takes, and slowly he realizes what he did. "Oh no..." he cries as he can feel tears making their way to his eyes, "what have I done... She just tried to cheer me up, and I just... oh Celestia..." He starts crying openly, bent over her body. "I just killed the one pony I have ever loved." He feels his legs shaking under him, he feels sadness rolling over him like a tidal wave. He almost feels sadder than when his parents died, but a part of him feels... joy. Joy of inflicting pain onto another pony, the same kind of joy he had felt when he beat that bully 3 years ago. "What kind of monster am I..?" he asks himself with tears in his eyes.

"Hello, what's going on in there?" someone says while knocking on his door.

'Crap, I'd better run away, if someone finds out, I don't even know what'll happen, I don't even want to know.' the grey colt thinks to himself "Nothing, j-just a second, lemme just uh..." he says looking around frantically "lemme just tidy up in here."

"I'm so, so sorry," he whispers, giving the dead filly a kiss on the forehead, before he vanishes out the window, ready to once again run as far away as possible. Away from the problems, away from the memories, hoping to start anew somewhere else.

-----Flashback End-----

Tim wakes up in bed with a gasp and sits up instantly. Breathing heavily he notices that he has sweat, a lot. It's night so he uses his magic to illuminate the room in order to see. He looks around the room and thinks about the dream, he throws a glance at the spot where he last saw the purple filly, there is a small blood stain he didn't notice before he went to sleep, then comes the tears.
Tears of anger, tears of regret, but mostly, tears of sorrow. He curls into a small ball in the bed, a small ball of fur, and then he starts crying. He attempts to cry out his anger, regret and sorrow, even after he falls asleep he keeps crying. He cries until he's out of tears and even then he keeps sobbing. He cries because of his parents' death, he cries because of his foalhood gone wrong and he cries because of the death of his love.

The rest of the night brings no dreams or memories.

The following morning Tim wakes up and can feel the trails under his eyes where the tears had run. He goes to the old colt shower room and surprised to see the piping still works, he takes a shower. It's good with a shower, he doesn't remember the last time he had a shower, must've been weeks ago. He feels the shower washing out all of the sorrow, anger and regret, for just a small while, and he feels like he'd never want to stop, but when his hooves start to look like prunes, he shuts off the water and goes off to dry himself.
When he's done he feels and looks like an all new pony, his fur is no longer stained with dirt, his mane and tail no longer frazzled, but instead straight. He brings up his journal using his magic and even though he hates it, he thinks back to his dream and starts scribbling.

Journal entry 71, October 25th

I had a horrible dream last night, when I finally fell asleep I dreamt of my past. I dreamt that I was with the purple unicorn in my room, we were having a good time listening to the radio. I remembered that on that day it was 11 days since my parents' death. We started discussing who had the worst foalhood and we ended up in a fight, a fight that I... finished. I entered a state of pure anger and started beating her until she was no longer alive. Not until after did I realize what I had done, and I regret it with all of my heart. At that point someone knocked on the door and I had to make an escape. I gave her body a kiss before jumping out the window and running away.

As tears start to make their way to his eyes he shuts the journal and puts it back, suppressing the tears he packs the last things into his saddlebags, and starts to move on, once again guided by nothing but the vague memories of his foalhood.

Chapter 5 - A stranger in Ponyville

Once again travelling Tim starts searching villages he come by, scavenging food, looking for survivors and clues to what might’ve happened. He still fails to find any survivors, but a few notes and audio recordings confirms the suspicions he’s got about how the other ponies have been defeated.

When he finally arrives at his destination after days of walking he looks like himself again, dirt-stained coat and frazzled mane and tail. He can recognize this place, he remembers arriving here when he ran away, at that point he thought it’d be a good place to start a new life. The city sign says ‘Welcome to Ponyville’.
Satisfied by reaching his destination Tim enters the small village to search for food and survivors, even though he already knows that he’s probably not gonna find any of the latter. He looks around for a while and finds a big gingerbread-looking building, as he trots up to the front door he can see a small note on the door saying ‘Sugarcube corner, open every day from 10-22’, curious he enters the building and finds that it’s a bakery.
The moment he enters the building he can smell it. The smell of baked goods is like a slap to the face, even though nothing has been baked for a long time the smell has stuck around. The smell of cakes, cupcakes, cookies, overwhelms him, he takes a big sniff and stars drooling. He walks around looking at the unique architecture before he finds a freezer with a lot of frozen cakes and such. None of the food has decayed due to the freezer being airtight, so he takes out a delicious cake to thaw it in the oven. Meanwhile he moves upstairs to check out the rest of the odd building and finds a big room with a bed to the wall. The room is filled with balloons and streamers in all the colours he could possibly think of. There is a big tub with some nasty water and rotten apples, which he supposed was used for bob-for-apples before everypony disappeared. There is a big chest next to the bed, opening it he can see that it’s full of things used for pranking. There’s a pair of glasses with a fake nose and fake moustache, an inkwell with a label saying ‘invisible ink’, a bottle of sneezing powder and many other prank tools. He closes the chest and inspects some more of the room. Next to the bed is also a small night-stand with a face-down picture frame on it. Curious of who lived here he picks up the frame and as he takes a look at he can see a familiar face, a pink mare with a big puffy candy-floss-like mane and tail. She’s beaming, smiling wider than he’s ever seen anyone smile before, on her back is a small green alligator with no teeth. As he inspects the picture he can feel the memories sneaking up on him once again, memories of his arrival to this village.

-----Flashback-----

The grey pony arrives at Ponyville after days of almost non-stop galloping. He’s tired, it’s easy to see by the bags under his eyes, his un-groomed mane and tail and his frazzled fur coat. He thinks this might be a good place to start a new life with a new home and new friends. As he enters the small village he can see that even though it’s small, it’s still busy.

There are various stands all over the town square, some sell apples, other sell flowers and such. He can see a friendly-looking pink pony walking out of a store with a basket filled with streamers, balloons and other various party items. He walks up to her to ask her for directions, but as soon as he opens his mouth she puts on a surprised face, as if she’s seen a ghost and runs away before he can even say ‘hello’.

“Well that was awfully rude” he says to himself. A few seconds later a white unicorn with a glamorous purple mane and tail walks up to him.

“Oh my goodness, you look like you haven’t slept for weeks darling,” she says with a voice just as glamorous as the rest of her, “we simply must do something about that” she says, pushing him towards a spa saloon before he can protest.

“Quick, we need an all-over treatment,” she says as they enter the saloon, “this is an emergency!” 2 twin ponies, a pink with a light-blue mane and a light-blue with a pink mane, appear instantly and starts pushing him further into the saloon before he can say anything.
They start by dressing him in a white robe, then they take him to the sauna. He’s told to relax and just let the hot steam do it’s job and while he does that the white unicorn enters the sauna, wearing a robe much like his and a towel over her hair.

“Isn’t it just wonderfully relaxing?” she asks him as she sits down next to him, “oh my, I’m sorry, my name is Rarity, I run the carousel boutique here in Ponyville. I haven’t seen you before so I guess you’re new around here, why don’t you tell me something about yourself.”
‘Uh oh, If I tell her about my past I’m probably gonna give her a bad impression.’
“I don’t really know much about myself, I lost my memory a few days ago and now I’m just trying to find somewhere to live.” says the grey pony.

After a long and relaxing spa treatment the 2 ponies exit the saloon completely refreshed and rejuvenated. “By Luna, I feel more relaxed than I have in years. I’m relaxing muscles I didn’t even know he had.” says the grey pony as they exit.

“Yes, Lotus and Aloe are some of the best you can find.” says Rarity while waving at the 2 spa ponies, “now, let me give you a tour of the city and introduce you to my friends.”

The first place they stop at is a big tree in the middle of the town.
“Twilight Sparkle lives here, she’s one of the most talented unicorns in all of Equestria when it comes to magic, then again, magic is her special talent.” says Rarity as she knocks on the door, “Oh and she has a baby dragon called Spike help her with her daily chores.”
The door opens and in the doorway stands a strangely familiar mare. A purple unicorn with a dark purple mane with a pink stripe in the middle of her mane.

“Hello, I’m Twilight Sparkle.” she says to the stunned colt in front of her. “Are... are you okay sir?”

“Yes, you just reminded me of someone I know... I mean, I knew...” the colt’s face turns into a sad frown before he cheers up

“Anyway, I’m glad to meet you Twilight Sparkle.” he says shaking her hoof.

“And your name is...?” asks the purple mare

“I uh... I don’t remember.” he says

“Well, come on inside, both of you”

As the 2 ponies enter the library, the purple pony yells “Spike, drop whatever you’re doing, we have guests.”
A few moments later, a purple dragon with green scales enter the room.

“This is Spike, he’s my number one assistant,” says the purple pony, as she gestures towards the dragon.
“Moving on to more serious business,” she says, her face changing to a more serious expression, “you said you don’t remember your name?”

“Yes, I forgot it when I lost my memory,” lies the grey pony

“Well, let’s see if we can figure out what your name is. Now, the names of most ponies have something to do with their cutie mark, and since your cutie mark is a flask it must have something to do with science.” says the purple pony as she trots back and forth in front of the two other ponies, “We might not be able to find out your exact name, but maybe we can at least come up with a name for you.”
The 3 ponies sit down and start thinking about something to call the nameless grey pony.

After a long time of thinking, coming up with suggestions for names for the nameless pony Twilight finally comes up with a proper name, “How about Brilliant Bubbles?”

“Yeah, I can live with that,” says the grey pony smiling, “but I’m getting hungry, is there somewhere to get some food?”

“Of course, we can head on over to Sweet Apple Acres if you want” says Rarity, “Twilight, care to join us?”

“Nah, I’m busy, we’ve got lots of catalouging to do, Pinkie came by yesterday so now the whole library is a big mess.” replies Twilight.

“Well, I guess it’s just us then, Bubbles, let’s go shall we?” says Rarity as she walks towards the door.

“It’d be my pleasure,” says Brilliant Bubbles as he joins her by the door.

-----Flashback end-----