A mare is walking.
In the small town of Ponyville, there’s an even smaller borough. It’s seldom frequented except by the ponies who live there.
With the usual walkway cleaning up from the latest disaster, she had endeavored to take a detour, albeit a frequent one. A little slice of life that was so contrary to the hustle and bustle of Ponyville.
A gravel road, some houses, and a dead end. Even then, she always wanted to come this way. The times she had come down were few, but sometimes she could be bothered, or forced.
As she took a right, her hooves kicking up gravel, she noticed one pony sitting out, paying some light attention to his foals as he read the newspaper.
Bugbear Decimates Ponyville
The mare didn’t know if that was what he was reading about in the paper, or if it was even today’s paper. She’d have to check when she got home. However, it was on the front page.
“Settle down, the nice mare’s here,” he said, and she gave a sheepish wave.
The foals listened as much as foals do, and soon they were down and rolling around in the gravel once again. She stepped back quickly as the ball of revelers rolled squarely past her, stirring up gravel on the road and a laugh in her stomach.
Among the shouts of “Nightmare Moon!” from the ferocious foals, she walked further in the broad daylight.
Absentmindedly, the mare kicked gravel off the path and into a nearby lawn.
The lawn belonged to a foreclosed house. For all she knew, it had been foreclosed for a long time, and she smiled at the signs of wear, such as a missing wall, which was probably due to a stray fireball. Nighttime ivy grew along the stone paneling, and she stopped to observe it.
Usually, such ivy would be removed with some tender care. It was simply another weed that could easily be removed. After all, it didn’t grow in the day whatsoever.
However, it would grow in the night, and cause as much damage as any weed. Usually, nights ended, but during an eternal night, all was not so. It had been a while since that brief stint of nighttime, but violent vegetation would remain if untouched.
Sometimes the structure was simply too much work to replace. The mare wondered if such a pony had lived here once, and if they were forced to move, or if the structure was always abandoned and Nightmare Moon took its toll.
Regardless, it remained.
Spinning on her heel to walk up the pathway, she continued.
As she walked, she examined. She didn’t necessarily wave to other ponies, but many were too busy with their own work to care. They were mainly doing the same things, as they always did. Fixing up the borough— same as always— talking to their neighbors as if nothing happened or ever happened, and just generally enjoying themselves. Some ponies were indoors, but the mare didn’t mind. The ponies that were outside were interest enough to her.
She noticed a particular pair, friends, a couple maybe. She couldn’t tell by the look in their eyes. They were sawing pieces of wood and erecting a house. She had walked down this road before, and she knew well enough that the skeleton of a house had been a whole house mere weeks ago. The boards were battered with the rest.
The two ponies went about it, sawing away, and talking amongst themselves. This was another day for them. Equestria had a new threat every month after all. They’d often cause rampages before being stopped. Even the backroads weren’t safe.
At the end of the dead end a sidewalk split from the road. It ran to a nearby field, and the mare knew her house was a short ways beyond.
She noticed a spritely young mare, earth pony perhaps. The gardener wore a wide-brimmed hat, so the only thing the mare knew was that she wasn’t a pegasus.
A polite nod was shared between the two of them, neither feeling their presence warranted being commented on. After a smile was flashed, the gardener went back to tending to her half-destroyed garden.
The chain fence surrounding the property was not upright, askew as the plot markers were, torn asunder as the garden likely had been. One for tomatoes, one for cucumbers, one for daisies, one down so far in the dirt the signage was illegible.
Nothing else was of note. There was a chipped wheelbarrow, wheel melted, but nothing too out of the ordinary,
The mare hopped along the uncharacteristically uneven sidewalk. She had heard there use to be a school here, but after so long, it was apparently decided that it was too much to handle. The sidewalk had also been shunned maintenance since.
Now, there was only a sidewalk, an empty, scorched foundation, and an additional aimless sidewalk past that foundation, one that led to the adjoined addition.
A skip and a jump later, the mare had arrived on the way back. Some ponies were outside, watching the sun, sipping coffee, or doing the things that ponies do. A sight to see while she walked home.
The sidewalks were similarly janky, but since trees had been growing under them, it was less egregious. She stepped to her house quite quickly, excited about being home.
Unlocking the door, she took in all the building going on around her. She noticed, off in the distance, the little hole the security was trying to patch. It seemed to be almost done, with the ponies working tirelessly away to fill in the holes.
She wondered how long it’d last.
She stepped inside, grabbing the mail marked for a “Miss Snap Shot”. She paid it no mind, it was probably bills. She already paid enough in damage control.
She sat down, grabbed the newspaper, and started reading.
Bugbear decimates Ponyville
The heroes of Ponyville have been defeated, though not killed, again by a rampant beast in the streets. Their old age beset them as they lost again…
Author's Note
I was walking home one day. Took a side road. This came out of it. I think it’s pretty cool.
