One

Chapters

Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter IV

Chapter I

Dear Princess Celestia,

I’m writing to you to request your immediate intervention. Something terrible has befallen Ponyville.

I awoke this morning to find the library empty. By that time, Spike would usually be in the middle of cooking the two of us breakfast, but there was absolutely no sign of him. I had not yet realized anything was wrong, so I went to find a good book to read while I awaited his return.

It was when I went to grab my first edition copy of “Of Mice and Mares” when I noticed the layer of dust covering the bookshelf. A quick once-over of the room revealed that everything else was under the same coat of grime.

Spike was always on top of his chores. There’s no way he’d just leave the library in this condition.

I searched every square inch of the house with no luck, so I went out to find him. Nothing could prepare me for what I’d find instead.

The first thing that hit me wasn’t the sight of the empty, desolate streets. It was the silence. Even when Zecora used to scare everypony into hiding, you could at least hear the ambient sounds of the countryside. The singing of birds, the buzzing of insects, the occasional croak of a toad; there was none of that. The only thing I could hear was the occasional breeze that blew through town and my breathing.

I did my best to ignore the unnatural silence assaulting my ears. My number one priority was finding Spike. I could figure out where everypony else went after that.

I went to Rarity’s first. If Spike was going to be anywhere during this, it would be at Carousel Boutique. During the journey there, I didn’t encounter any signs of life. It was as if everypony just dropped whatever they were doing and left to destinations unknown.

I passed by Sugarcube Corner on the way. The front door was hanging ajar. Its hinges squeaked as it swung in the wind. I couldn’t see much inside, just the unoccupied front counter. I could smell the scent of rotten sweets leaking out of the building.

I continued on and eventually made it to Rarity’s, only to find it deserted. It was a mess. Clothes and sewing supplies lay scattered across the front lawn. I searched through the house in desperation, finding it unoccupied and trashed. Rarity’s belongings lay scattered all over the place. The air was musty, and a thick layer of dust covered everything. Clearly, nopony had been there in weeks.

I left and continued my search elsewhere. I doubled back and searched Sugarcube Corner for Pinkie Pie, only to find it in the same state as the Carousel Boutique.

I searched throughout the town for any signs of life. I looped the entirety of Ponyville three times over before I had to call it a night. I didn’t find anypony. Just a desolate town, its streets clogged with belongings and forgotten supplies.

I wasn’t able to check on Applejack, Fluttershy, or Rainbow Dash before the sun set. I’ll report back after I see if they’re missing.

I hope you’re safe. Please, write back to me as soon as possible.

Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle

Chapter II

Twilight eyed the Everfree Forest wearily as she trotted along its border. There was a tense stillness in the air. Even here, her ears didn't pick up any of the usual sounds she had become accustomed to hearing since she moved to Ponyville. She couldn't hear the ever-present bird song that rang through Ponyville, nor the croaking of a toad, or even the buzzing of insects. All she could hear was the crunch of her hoof against the dirt trail as she trotted toward Fluttershy’s cottage.

Her house was Twilight's last stop of the day. She had already stopped by Applejack’s and Rainbow Dash’s homes. There was no sign of either of the two mares nor the rest of the Apple family.

She noticed that their houses looked practically untouched, unlike much of the town. It seemed odd to Twilight. If the two of them were around for whatever calamity prompted the disappearance of the whole town, then why weren’t their homes hastily abandoned like everypony else’s?

An unpleasant, sickly scent knocked Twilight from her thoughts as she approached Fluttershy’s cottage. It was a stench that was unfamiliar to the mare, but made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Twilight barely suppressed a gag as she crossed the bridge onto Fluttershy’s property. The smell seemed to grow worse with every step she took.

She sucked in a breath of mostly fresh air before she trotted up to one of the cabin's windows and attempted to peek inside. However, Twilight found it too dark to pick out any details beyond a few indistinct silhouettes.

“Fluttershy!” She called as she tapped on the glass. “Are you in there?”

Twilight moved to the front door as she continued to knock and call her friend’s name. She paused, her ears perking up as she listened for a reply.

‘Nothing’, She thought to herself after a few moments of uncomfortable silence.

She gave the door a quick once over, noting that it didn't appear locked. The only thing stopping it from opening were two tiny latches, one for the top gate, the other for the bottom part. Without thinking about it, Twilight undid both of the latches and let the door swing open.

If Twilight thought the smell was bad before, she was terribly mistaken. A wall of stench rolled out of the open entryway, smelling much like a landfill mixed with the scent of a skunk. The reaction was immediate. Twilight instinctively ducked her head between her legs as the contents of her stomach forced its way up.

She groaned as she spit out a few morsels of her partially digested breakfast, before looking up, peering through the open doorway. Twilight's eyes shot open at the sight before her, her jaw hitting the floor.

Fluttershy’s living room was still dark, but enough light had flooded in to reveal the interior. Everywhere she looked there were bodies, all in the later stages of decomposition. There were a myriad of cages filled with the small, petrified remains of Fluttershy’s birds and rodents. She could spot the large silhouette of Harry the bear’s bloated cadaver lying in the far corner of the room. Around him were countless corpses that lay scattered across the floor like lazily discarded laundry.

Twilight had recovered control of her senses long enough to slam the door shut, finally breaking her gaze from the horrifying view. She fell back on her haunches, narrowly avoiding sitting in the remains of the oatmeal she ate earlier in the day as she hyperventilated.

She gasped for air, unable to break her gaze from the now closed entryway as she struggled to regain her composure. As soon as Twilight regained command of her shaky hooves, she made a break for it. She ran all the way back home, gasping and wheezing the entire trip. She didn’t care how terribly out of shape she was. She needed to be as far away from Fluttershy’s cottage as possible.

“Dear Princess Celestia,” Twilight dictated to herself as she wrote. “I’m sad to report that Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash are all missing. The rest of the Apple family are also missing. There has been no sign of anypony else, either.”

She paused writing as her mind wandered back to Fluttershy’s cottage. It made little sense to Twilight. If something had prompted everypony to leave town, why wouldn’t she let her animals out? Why would she abandon them to such a cruel fate?

Twilight shifted her focus back to her letter, and her current predicament. “I’m running low on food and other necessities. Though much of the town looks to be picked clean, I plan to go house to house to look for supplies and other ponies who may be in hiding.”

She took a few more moments to wrap up her thoughts, before rolling up the scroll and sending it Celestia’s way. As the letter disappeared with a loud pop, she glanced over to her study window and looked to where Canterlot should be. It was difficult to spot in the dark horizon. As with Ponyville, Canterlot was dark. Twilight could only pick out a dark outline dimly lit by the moon above.

'Was Canterlot in the same state as Ponyville?' Twilight thought to herself. 'A forsaken landscape with not a soul in sight?' Her mind turned to Princess Celestia and her mentor's lack of communication. 'Was Celestia even there? Heck, was she even out there at all? It was very unlike her not to respond to my letters.' A grim thought dawned on Twilight. 'I wonder if something happened to her. If whatever happened claimed her as well.'

She did her best to shake those thoughts from her head. It was just crazy talk. Princess Celestia was easily the most powerful being in Equestria.

There’s no way anything could ever happen to her.

Chapter III

“Daisy?” Twilight asked cautiously as she poked her head inside her neighbor's house. “It’s me, Twilight! Are you home?”

There wasn't a response. This wasn't shocking, given the past week’s events. Over the past five days, she had searched through much of the town.

Unfortunately for Twilight, luck hadn’t been on her side. She was only able to scrounge up enough food to fight off starvation for a month, at most. However, it might just buy her enough time to come up with an exit strategy.

'Maybe Daisy will surprise me with a food stockpile,' Twilight thought hopefully, though she knew better. Based on how things were going, she'd be lucky to collect another week's worth of food from the remaining houses.

Not hearing a response from her neighbor, Twilight slipped inside, gently shutting the door behind her.

Daisy’s house was a small two-story cottage with the living area and kitchen on the bottom level and two bedrooms upstairs. Twilight preferred to search the bedrooms first for survivors, so she walked towards the staircase. She paused as she approached the first step, spotting a collection of photographs taken of Daisy and her husband, with whom Twilight was not acquainted. Her gaze lingered on a particular photo: their wedding photo.

Twilight frowned as she took in the photograph, her mind wandering as she thought about the mare in the picture. She hadn't gotten to know Daisy exceedingly well, but she was a regular at the library. She stopped in every Friday after work to pick up a few books and drop off the previous week’s supply of literature.

The last time she saw Daisy, she had confided in Twilight how stressful her job is. Apparently, selling flowers can be a rather cutthroat business. She told the librarian how the only thing that helped her relax was a nice mystery novel, accompanied by a tall glass of red wine. This was a sentiment Twilight could completely understand.

The two of them had talked for a while longer. Eventually, Daisy had to excuse herself, saying that her husband would be home soon. She promised to bring by some freshly baked blueberry muffins next time she stopped by the library.

Twilight never got those muffins.

She was ripped from her thoughts as she smelt it: that same stench from yesterday, lingering in the stairwell. The sickly sweet scent of death.

Twilight tried to keep her composure as she trailed the source of the smell upstairs, which led her to a closed door adjacent to the staircase. A pit formed in her stomach as Twilight's gaze lingered on the door handle. A shiver ran down the length of her spine as every fiber of her being begged her not to open that door.

Yet, Twilight knew she needed to open it. Something inside her already knew what laid in wait on the other side, but she had to confirm it.

Reluctantly, Twilight pushed the door open. It creaked loudly as it gradually swung open, revealing the bedroom inside a little bit at a time. She saw a corner wall first, followed by a nightstand, occupied by a stack of familiar looking books and empty pill bottles. A wine bottle lay knocked over on the furthest edge of the table, its contents long gone.

Then the bed came into her line of sight. Twilight gasped reflexively when she first spotted the decrepit hoof sticking out of the bed. The rest of the room revealed itself as the door opened all the way. She felt a tightness form in her chest as Twilight looked over the pair of bodies occupying the bed.

It was Daisy and her husband. Their corpses were laid on their backs, their gazes permanently fixed on each other as their hooves kept the two of them connected long after death. They had mostly rotted away by now. All that was left were bones and what little remained of their coats.

The smell wasn’t as bad this time, nothing like what Twilight had encountered at Fluttershy's cottage. She wasn't sure if she was just starting to get used to scent or if the smell had just dissipated.

Her gaze only lingered for a few brief moments before she backed out of the room and softly closed the door behind her. Twilight hesitated outside the door, a small part of her wanting to give the couple a proper burial. She decided against it. She couldn't bear the thought of separating the two and further disturbing their peace.

Instead, she made a bee-line for the front door. She didn't grab any supplies or even her old books. She had disturbed Daisy’s peace enough.

Twilight tried to move onto other homes after that, but no matter what she tried, she couldn’t shake Daisy from her mind. She decided to call it an early day. She figured she could search the last few remaining houses in the morning.

Twilight returned to her study and sat at her desk. Her words formed in her head as she stared at the fresh piece of scroll, her quill dipped in ink and hovering at the ready above the piece of paper.

“Dear Princess Celestia,” she dictated to herself. As she wrote, visions of Daisy’s decrepit body flashed before her eyes once more. She bit down on her bottom lip, hard enough to draw blood, as fresh tears rolled down her cheek. “I have concluded my search of Ponyville. Unfortunately, the town has already been ransacked, so I only found a few week's worth of food.”

Twilight tried to blink away the tears, her breathing labored as she fought the desire to break down and cry away the rest of the evening. Try as she might, she couldn’t get the sight of her neighbors’ remains out of her head. She decided to jot out her experience. Maybe Celestia would have some wisdom to share with her, if her mentor would even respond, that is.

“I found an acquaintance of mine. Her and her husband.” A whimper escaped her throat as she held back a sob, before she continued to write. “They’re dead. Whatever happened, it looks like they took the easy way out. I didn’t see any sign of anypony else. Ponyville is a ghost town.”

Twilight didn't know where else to go with the letter, so she wrapped it up and signed off on it.

However, she paused short of rolling it up to send it off.

It had been a week, and like everypony else, Celestia’s whereabouts were too a mystery. In the past, she had never left Twilight without a response. Yet, here she was, doubting the princess would even get back to her.

“I wish you’d write me back,” Twilight vented as she wrote out her words on the bottom of the scroll. “Your lack of response has been worrying. Are you even getting these? Please, write back to me!”

Twilight choked on another sob as she placed aside her quill. Sending it off in her current state ended up being more difficult than expected, but she managed to pull it off. The scroll disappeared with a pop and a small flash.

With her distraction now gone, the full brunt of Twilight's sorrow hit her. She leaned forward, burying her face in her hooves as she broke down, the tears now rolling freely down her cheeks. There she remained all night long, crying until sleep granted her a brief reprise from her suffering.

Chapter V

Dear Princess Celestia,

Last night, I had a dream about my friends. This wasn’t the first time I’ve dreamt of them. In fact, my friends have appeared pretty regularly in my dreams since they all disappeared. I’ve haven't been able to figure out if these dreams are a comfort, or nightmares that torment by holding what I can’t have over my head.

However, this time, I can conclusively say that this past night’s dream was a nightmare. It started off pleasantly enough. My friends and I were at a picnic, enjoying the warm Summer day together. It was gorgeous out. The birds were out singing,

The pleasantness ended when Spike ran up and choked up a letter from you. I grabbed the scroll off the ground and unfurled it, intending to read it, only to find no words. The page wasn’t blank, however. It looked as if someone took all the letters, took them apart, then fused them all back together in an indecipherable mess.

I asked Rarity if she could read it, and when she answered she could, I noticed something was wrong. Her voice sounded off. Like somebody was imitating her voice.

Something clicked for me when I came to that realization. I noticed other irregularities too. Not only did everypony sound different, they looked off. Rainbow Dash’s coat was the wrong shade of blue. Applejack wasn’t wearing her hat. Pinkie Pie \ was sitting calmly, and her usually poofy mane sat straight alongside her head.

I woke up. I tried to remember my friends. What they looked like, what they sounded like.

Nothing I imagined was right. My memories of my friends are starting to fade, and I fear there's nothing I can do about it.

I cried when I came to that realization. I cried until I couldn’t shed anymore tears.

I miss them. I would give anything to see them one more time. Same with you, and my family too. Everybody else I know. Or anypony at all, just somebody I could talk to. Somepony I could call my friend.

That won't happen, though. This land is cursed. It’s no pony’s land.

I’m coming to Canterlot. I’m nearly out of food, so I can’t stick around here any longer. Canterlot is my best bet for survival. It’s only a few days’ journey from here on hoof, and even if the city were picked clean like Ponyville, I’m certain the royal stores haven’t been touched. Those should have enough supplies alone to keep me going until I’m self sustaining.

There’s something else. Something deep inside me is telling me the answers I’ve been searching for are in Canterlot. I don’t know what it is, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I doubt I will find you there. I haven’t heard from you once in the month since I woke up. I don’t know why I’m still writing to you at this point. Maybe it’s therapeutic? Makes me feel less lonely? It’s hard to say.

I can self-reflect another time. I depart early in the morning, and I need to rest. It’s going to be a long walk.

Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle

Chapter VI

While the trip via train only takes a matter of hours, walking to the capital from Ponyville is much less direct. The distance paired with how terribly out of shape Twilight was made the journey drag on. It wasn’t until late afternoon on the fourth day that she finally passed through the main gates into the city.

Unlike Ponyville, which was largely left intact by whatever befell Equestria, Canterlot wasn’t so lucky.

Entering Canterlot, Twilight encountered death and destruction for the first of many times that day. The Upper District was a bloodbath, the streets and buildings painted a mix of brownish crimson and alien green by the slaughter. Dozens of corpses lay strewn about in the open across the main courtyard, most being Royal Guards. Some looked to be burnt by magical fire, their body’s charred, and their once golden armor blackened and peeling. Others looked to have died through more conventional means, though little evidence remained of what could’ve been the cause. Their corpses have long since rotted away. All that remained were skeletons.

The District’s infrastructure hadn’t fared well either. There wasn’t a single building that had been left in one piece. All the doors and windows were smashed open, and all the interiors looked like they were meticulously ransacked. There were tracks leading out of every house, hoof-like, yet uneven, as if there were holes in their hooves. It was unlike anything Twilight had ever seen in her life.

It wasn’t the alien tracks or all the death that got to her, though. It was the countless drag marks that led out of the buildings that did, all of them leading in one direction. Canterlot Castle.

Twilight didn’t want to know what came of the residents of Canterlot. Everything was telling her that she needed to run away and never come back. That there was nothing good inside that castle. She knew deep down she was better off turning around and leaving.

But Twilight needed answers, and the only place she would find them was in that castle.

As she left the Upper District behind and found herself entering the castle grounds, Twilight was shocked to find them devoid of the horror that she had encountered in the other parts of the city. There were signs of a battle, but there were no bodies.

Approaching the castle’s primary entrance, Twilight found the large doors knocked off their hinges and lying on the floor. The interior was pitch black, which shouldn’t be possible with how much natural lighting the castle had.

Something about that sent a shiver down her spine. The temptation to flee back to Ponyville was ever enticing.

Twilight swallowed her fear, knowing the answers she wanted lay ahead, and marched forward. She cast a light spell to navigate the unlit halls. She followed the drag marks that stained the castle floors. The castle was unnaturally quiet, with only the sound of her breathing and the echoing of her hooves breaking the silence.

She stopped in her tracks when Twilight horn’s glow shined on something stuck to the wall. It was an emerald green, semi-transparent pod. Looking about, she found that there were more pods leading down the hallway, farther than her eye could see.

Twilight approached the object to get a closer look, only to catch sight of something floating inside. Something large. Pony-sized.

Upon coming to that realization, Twilight rushed the cocoon, hoping against hope that whoever inside was still alive.

She screeched in terror as her horn’s glow shined off of the stallion’s face. A pair of dilated, greenish-yellow eyes stared back at her. There was no life to his gaze, no sign of consciousness. He was long gone.

His skin was withered and translucent, like an apple that had been sucked dry by a fruit bat. The pony’s once vibrant coat had been drained of all it’s color, being replaced by a mixture of brackish green and brown hues.

Twilight desperately tried to rip her gaze away from the shrivelled up cadaver, only to spot a mare floating in the pod next to his, her body in the same state. Everywhere she tried to look for relief, her eyes fell upon a different mummified corpse’s face, their dead eyes staring blankly back at her. Twilight spotted familiar faces mixed in with the dead. Old classmates, castle staff she had known since she was a child, even some residents of Ponyville.

Visions of the ponies she grew up amongst being forcibly dragged from their homes, being placed in these cocoons, and drained of their life essence until all that was left was a shriveled up corpse flashed before her eyes. She could handle death, but this was too much.

She trained her gaze on the floor beneath her hooves and trotted forward. As she avoided the dead stares of the surrounding ponies, Twilight struggled to banish the thoughts of what these ponies had to endure out of her mind. She tried to focus on her main goal; the throne room. She didn’t have the whole truth yet, but Twilight knew she would find it there.

She caught sight of a glint of light down the hall. Believing salvation lay ahead, Twilight kicked up the pace, galloping desperately towards the illumination. She screeched to a halt as she reached the source, which revealed itself to be her final destination. Sunlight filtered through the open doorway, the towering main hall doors having been battered down much like the main entrance.

Twilight peered inside, finding the room in a state of disarray. Many of the beautiful stained glass windows lay shattered on the castle floor, glimmering dangerously in the light that filtered in through a massive hole in the wall.

Like the halls she fled from, Twilight found the ceiling lined with those pods. Only this time, with the sun’s rays leaking into the room, she could see all of their faces. Hundreds of them. Amongst them were dozens of familiar faces. Her friends, Spike, even her parents and older brother. They all stared back at her with the same blank, yellowish-green eyes, judging her for abandoning them to a fate worse than death.

As she stared at the horror that surrounded her, Twilight’s eyes flickered across her mentor’s throne. It was then she noticed the silhouette of a body laying before the seat. She rushed towards it, fearing the worst. She spotted a few pieces of faded scroll scattered around the corpse as she approached it. More features became clear as she drew nearer. A long, pearly white horn, adorned with an anti-magic ring. A pair of wings, larger than the average pegasus. Hooves sealed in chains. A faded pink mane blowing in the breeze.

There was no doubt about it. This was Princess Celestia’s final resting place.

As she looked down upon her mentor’s withered remains, it dawned on her. That terrible truth, the one that Twilight had sought since she awoke, was in her head this whole time. It was buried deep in her subconscious under multiple layers of trauma, regret, and despair, completely forgotten by the mare to save herself from the pain.

The memory flashes before Twilight’s eyes. She was at a picnic with my friends when she received an invitation to her brother’s wedding. The brother who Twilight used to be so close to, yet had dropped contact with her and didn’t even tell her he was engaged. She was indignant. So much so that she refused to go.

Most of Ponyville was there when it happened. The attack.

Nobody knew what happened, or what attacked the city, but by the time word had spread to what was left of the town, Canterlot had already fallen.

Twilight locked herself away in her study while everypony else evacuated. She watched Canterlot burn from her window, powerless to do anything. She couldn’t save the ponies she loved. She was back to being a scared filly, hiding under her bed and waiting for everything to pass.

She had damned everypony she held dear in her life to a slow and painful death. Even worse, they, whoever these unknown foes were, made Princess Celestia watch while it happened.

Twilight’s face twisted into a look of agony as she fell to her haunches before the decayed corpse of her mentor, and wept.

Chapter IV

Dear Princess Celestia,

I hope this letter finds you well. Having searched through Ponyville in its entirety, I’ve turned to watching the neighboring cities and countryside for signs of life. Day and night, I watch from my balcony, using the telescope you got me for my birthday to keep a close eye on Canterlot and Cloudsdale. If there were anything living around me, I would see something. Like smoke from a fire, or a light in the distance at night. Perhaps even a pony going about their daily business. Anything.

I had no such luck. Cloudsdale and Canterlot are ghost towns from what I can see from my vantage point. Even the rainbow factories that defined Cloudsdale were shut down, the rainbow waterfalls that normally fell from the clouds all having run dry. At night, the only lights I can see are from my library and the moon. There is nothing out there.

I’ve been thinking more about why I’m here. I don’t know if I studied or slept my way through whatever happened, but surely Spike or my friends would try to get me to safety. There’s no way they’d just abandon me.

And yet, I’m still here. Alone.

I’m starting to believe you’re not even getting these letters. That whatever cataclysm befell Equestria also took you. After all, why else wouldn't you respond to me after two whole weeks?

I hope that’s not the case. The Sun and the moon rising still gives me hope that you and Luna are still out there somewhere, but I also know there’s other means to raising them.

I don’t know if you’re dead or busy, but either way, there’s no point to this if I will not get a response. I will be taking a break from writing to you.

Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle