As they descended towards the ground, the scenery became bleaker and bleaker. It was hard to discern one location from another. There were no hills. No mountains. No trees. No grass. At least none that they could immediately see, but even a glance at the horizon in every direction didn't seem any better. The only saving grace was the debris. It was the only way they could identify anything. Pieces of shattered shards of logs and sticks were the only things that even hinted there was ever a forest here.

"It's...so awful..." Lilly said, gazing at the scenery below them.

"There is still hope....there's gotta be..." Rainbow Dash muttered, though whether that was towards Lilly or herself, she wasn't sure. "So what's your name?" she asked, deciding to distract herself by striking up a conversation.

There was brief moment of silence before she answered, "I'm Shaded Lilly, But most people just call me Lilly."

"I'm Rainbow Dash, surely you know who i am, right?" Rainbow Dash asked in her usual confident tone.

Lilly could tell she was trying to lighten the mood, though it felt wrong to laugh at the moment. "Of course, who doesn't know the Element of Loyalty, and one of the six Heroes of Equestria?"

Rainbow Dash chuckled and gave a fading smile. If this were any other situation, Rainbow Dash would have gave a reply. But for now, she had other things to worry about. Making sure she had a good grip on Lilly, Rainbow Dash flew forward, towards the direction of Ponyville. She needed to know. She needed them to be safe.

Lilly screamed when she felt Rainbow Dash lurch forward and gain speed. They flew like that for a only a few minutes until they stopped. The ruins of Ponyville laid before them. Everything was quiet and unmoving. It no longer resembled the quaint little town it once was. Everything was gone. Rubble and debris scattered across disheveled dirt plains. Ruin and rubble could be seen for miles on out. It was evident that whatever it was that caused this had blasted through, scattering, demolishing and pulverizing everything in its path. Scattered spots of blood could be seen along with the miscelleaneous limb or organ strewn about, from both pony and animals.

Rainbow Dash put Lilly down for a moment, and continued to flit about, calling out, praying for anyone to answer her.
"APPLEJACK?" Rainbow called, "RARITY? PLEASE SAY SOMETHING! IT'S ME, RAINBOW DASH!!" Panic continued to fill her voice as no answer came. "TWILIGHT? FLUTTERSHY? PINKIE PIE?" tears began to pour down her eyes, "SPIKE? ANYONE?" there was no reply but her own voice echoing across the desolate ruin.

It was then that Soarin and the others finally caught up to the two, and they began hollering out names as well, searching for any survivors. Lilly was about to say something when Rainbow Dash suddenly froze. Her body stiffened, and her eyes dilated back in both shock and horror.

There, on the ground by the crumbled remains of a chimney, was the disembodied head of Fluttershy, with half of her face crushed by a rock. Her remaining good eye hung out of its socket, and her brain and blood seeping out of the cracks left by the wound. Her mouth was agape, missing all the teeth of the front and left side, and her tongue was a bloody, shriveled mess. Her hair drooped, showing shades of both pink and blood red, as it laid shambled on top of what remained of her skull.

There was nothing else of Fluttershy to be seen or found. Lilly began to gag again, wanting desperately to puke, but her stomach still had nothing left to vomit. Rainbow Dash, however, remained there unmoving, tears pouring from her unblinking eyes. "F-F-Fluttershy...?"

Soarin finally flew over, "Rainbow Dash! What is it? What did you--" He stopped as he noticed the head. He almost gagged, but he caught himself. He walked over to Rainbow Dash and put a hoof on her shoulder, but she remained unresponsive.
"Rainbow Dash....I'm sorry. Fluttershy is...was the kindest pony i ever met. I'm so sorry." He pulled her into a hug. "I promise, we will find whatever, or whoever did this, and we will make them pay." Rainbow Dash gave no reply.

"Now come on Rainbow Dash, we have to keep searching, we'll have time to mourn later," he said, tugging on her hoof. She remained unbudged. "Rainbow Dash." No answer. "Rainbow Dash!" Her ear flicked, but no reply. "RAINBOW DASH!" Soarin finally hollered, jolting Rainbow Dash out of her shocked state. "Huh? What?" Rainbow asked in a confused tone.

"We need to keep searching. We need to head over towards Canterlot and see if we can find the Princesses. They should be able to help figure this all out, okay? Who knows? Your other friends might still be alive somewhere out there. But we aren't going to find them if we just sit here, okay?"

Rainbow Dash blinked a few times before nodding. "O-Okay..." she said in a voice that was barely more than a whisper. Rainbow Dash then took flight without a word and began heading off towards where Canterlot used to be. Soarin turned towards Lilly, "You need a ride?"

She nodded.

It took them a bit longer to find Canterlot, or at least the ruins of it. The drastic change to the entire world scenery was enough throw even the more experienced navigators for a moment. However, they finally spotted the rubble and moved on forward, to continue their search. It didn't even look like Canterlot anymore. The only things that even hinted it ever was were the scattered bits of castle debris strewn about, and a sign or two of various stores that were lively and bustling not a little more than hour ago. But that was before this cataclysm. Before some mysterious force came and ended the world as they knew it. Like with Ponyville, the scattered debris also held patches of blood and body parts, even more than what was in Ponyville.

Soarin and the others began to holler out Princess Celestia and Princess Luna's names. Rainbow Dash simply kept hollering out her friends names. But for Lilly, there was only one pony she wanted to find. One pony whom she hoped with all her heart was still alive. She searched the among the scattered body parts, praying not to find his. Nothing so far. Please. Please let Thunder Sparks be okay.... she prayed.

Suddenly, there was a noise in the distance, which caught everyone's attention. It was followed by the distant sound of coughing. "Survivors!" Soarin called as they all dashed to see who it was. A segment of debris suddenly shifted over, clattering about as it rolled away. From the hole behind it emerged a single white unicorn, adorned in gaurds armor. Lilly's heart dropped for a moment. She had been hoping it was Thunder.

"Is it just you in there?!" Soarin called, flying up to the pony.

The pony coughed for a moment as dust blew out away from him. "No!!" He managed to say in between hacking coughs.
Lilly's heart jumped a bit, eagerly watching. Hoping. Praying.

Three more guardponies came out, though these were all pegasi, and they seemed to be dragging somepony behind them. "Who do you got there?" asked one of the other Wonderbolts.

"It's her Majesty, Princess Luna! She's alive!" Despite it not being Thunder, Lilly felt relieved. At least they found one of the Princesses. She began to look around again, desperately looking for any sign, anything to give her hope that--

She paused. Her eyes deadlocked on the sight before her. On the ground, next to a rubble segment of castle wall, about twenty ponylengths away from her, laid a small trail of golden feathers. The lead just behind the debris of another demolished building. Without hesitation, Lilly followed the trail.

She stopped, tears falling from her cheeks as she stared unmoving at the sight before her.

Not seven hoofsteps in front of her laid the broken hind half of a golden pony. With a Cutie Mark she knew all too well. The front half was gone, completely mangled beyond recognition. And a single, beautiful golden wing laid next to the cyan blue tail, no longer attached to its body. The fresh stench of blood and decay was everywhere.

This was it. It was too much for her. She closed her crying eyes, and a long, mournful, weeping wail escaped her lips. And she just let it all out. Her light, her world, her heart. All of it had been stripped from her in a single day. A single, Tartarus-cursed day.

As she bawled and wailed, in her mind she prayed and begged the gods above, any gods, any that would listen, she begged and prayed for her to wake up from this awful nightmare. She prayed that she'd wake up and all would be well, the world back to the way it was, and all this blood and death be nothing but a dream.

She prayed and begged.

But there was no answer....

Author's Note

And the story has only just begun. Took me a bit to figure out what direction i wanted to take this story, and i already have the next few chapters planned. Don't worry, it won't all be dark(for those of you that are worried) but also don't expect things to cheer up anytime soon, we still have a few chapters dealing with the aftermath to go through.

still, i hope you are enjoying it so far, and i hope to see you in the next chapter!