To Chase The Shadows of Redemption

Celestia touched down on what she believed to be a mixture of stone, ash and dirt.

There was scattered trails of smoke beginning thick and then slowly mixing into the sky all around her. Giant piles of detritus and demolished material scattered and piles to no end. The worst part was how tainted it all looked, somehow the situation not bleak enough, for it had it all looked like it had the life sucked out of it all. Burn marks of unnatural origin had lit things never designed to combust and stole the traces of life.

She began to walk forward slowly, unable to even think.

Blossom turned as a loud cacophony of distorted noises rang through her home.

"What was that?!"

"I don't know, stay here and watch over Hazel, I'm going to check it out."

Blake rushed through the front door and slammed it closed on his way out.

"Is everything okay?" She had such an adorable curiosity to her, and she was proud that she hadn't dropped down in a fright like most fillies would her age.

Blossom made for Hazel, and started hugging her from behind as she resumed her breakfast.

"I'm sure it was nothing, daddies just going to make sure everything is okay across town."

"Breakfast isn't the same without dad, I won't finish it till he's back.

"That's very cute of you sweetie."

Celestia tried to ignore everything around her. The acrid smell was nauseating and every step further she couldn't bare to look any longer more.

Admidst the ashen remains, charred bodies in all shapes and sizes lay scattered all around. Limbs and bodies contorted in different ways as though melting into the ground before having met the end.

The silence was deafening, and Celestia could hear her heart in her chest. It was pounding.

All she could do was keep looking and taking in the apocalyptic scene before her.

Celestia suddenly heard something crying out in the distance from her, it was quiet and weak, but she heard it nonetheless. She made for it.

"Mommies... just going to see what daddies doing, okay?"

Blossom quickly left and made for the sound the third explosion had come from carefully. This was quickly turning out to be something clearly abnormal. She turned the corner, and fell back in surprise. A horde of ponies were running away, from what she couldn't see.

She spotted Blake in the chaos, and made to yell to him, before she could his initiative found its way first: "Run! Blossom! Take Hazel and—"

An explosive wave of darkness and banshee scream passed through everyone and that made the ears bleed blew past every pony on the main path. Blossom just barely avoided the wave but ears rang from the scream, and she lay there disoriented for several minutes.

She slowly got up and saw the street again. Ponies were writhing in agony and screaming, a strange fire around them. Some had already passed out. Their fur looked fine, and it confused Blossom to no end what was causing them so much pain. She could see the unnatural pure blacken fires around them, with tealish aspects mixed in. Just as she saw one of the ponies give in with no previous signs of injury have their body sink into the ground halfway and completely collapse into a tar looking ash.

"BLA—"

Another building exploded, throwing debris everywhere.

It wasn't her fault. She had repeated that in her mind over and over since arriving like some kind of mantra. A mantra she knew was false. Still, surrounded by pure death and decay had made her blood run cold. She knew with every aspect of her being what must have happened, but it only became increasingly more painful as she trudged forth even knowing that towards the unknown sound.

Blossom finally got back up for the second time, her vision a haze now. There was something moving across her line of sight, and she heard a pony mumbling to itself.

"Help... help... why I cannot find any pony?"

It was quiet, but she had certainly heard it.

Strange beings warped around the figure, spinning and slowly making their way around her. Like other ponies she had seen, a horrifying fire had spread around the figure. Instead of the fire being small however, it looked like a massive bonfire exploding and expanding in pulses that sought to suck the life out of every pony in a kilometre radius. A body near her had one of the strange beings leave it and head towards the figure. Completely distorted and lacking any equine figure, it soon too joined the main mass of cursed energy. The voice she heard in the back of her head made out something along the lines of "protect her" among the sea of otherworldly madness.

Finally, her mind had cleared enough to snap back to what she should be doing. Ignoring the walking pony, she started making her way back to her young filly. She had to do this, if nothing else.

The sound got louder as Celestia finally made her way over the remains of Riftly. How many remains had she crossed over without even realizing it? The look of horror on her face had eventually surfaced after the initial shock. It had taken her a while to figure out what the poor fate of these little ponies had been most likely, but once she came to a conclusion it was nothing but grim. She needed to find her sister now, before any other tragedy could occur, but she couldn't break out of her current trance.

What was she supposed to have done? Who could've ever predicted something like this? She realized she had been crying without being cognizant of the fact when a few more drops landed on her chest. Was it really her fault for not forcing Luna's hoof?! Was she really so blind to how disastrous the situation was?! Had she unknowingly staked the lives of thousands of ponies on the vague notion she could send some small unit out here to help Luna?

All thoughts led her to self-hatred. The worst part was the fact that she still could not completely fault or disagree with her previous actions. But seeing the result...

She saw something stirring just up ahead beneath a crook in the piles.

Blossom was panting as she saw her home finally. She was far more exhausted than she had realized. Nothing was able to load in her mind besides the singular thought to save her little one. Her mind had been reduced to its base instincts faced against oblivion.

Slowly, she made her way inside and saw a frightened little filly.

"Don't... worry. Mommies here. Please... run and meet her later in the forest. Run... run..."

"Mommy!"

A small filly was crying below the crook of a darkened body that looked like a clay cast that resembled a mother hovering over and protecting her until the final moment. How this filly had survived was a mystery no one would ever know. It didn't matter.

Celestia used her magic to lift the filly and put her on her back. She would protect this one no matter what. That was all she knew and held onto. The filly reacted in fright and shock, and quickly started complaining to leave her with mother. After that, Celestia couldn't even listen, it was all a blur in her mind.

She started her search again reluctantly, hoping to find the source no matter how much it tore her up inside.

She would be taking Luna today no matter what. She feared that Luna wouldn't even be able to understand that, or be conscious for it at all.

She looked around for any sign at all of life once again.