Solar Singularity

Red.

It was everywhere you looked. It infected everything and everyone indiscriminately. It turned the world into a hellish husk that tried its best to infect you as well. The word terrifying couldn’t even begin to express how you felt in such a dire situation.

Red.

They were everywhere. They didn’t stop, they didn’t tire, they didn’t eat or drink. Hell, you were pretty sure they couldn’t even die.

Ɽ Ɇ Đ.

You can’t remember the last time you’ve used your voice for something that isn’t crying or screaming in fear. You can’t remember the last time you’ve seen another human in person. The only things you had to remember anyone by were sparse videos and pictures of your family and friends on your phone.

It was a horrible thought wondering if you were one of the last humans alive. Out of over eight billion people you–and possibly some others–were the last humans alive in this hell. It was an even worse feeling knowing that you would never see any of them for the rest of your life. That you were destined for nothing but eternal loneliness and suffering.

R̶͖͗̄ É̵̯̓ D̴͉̹̰̑̑.

They found you. How could you have been so stupid? So careless? It was supposed to be a normal supply run. A quick in-and-out of the city before sprinting back to your safe haven in the sewers. How they never found you until now is nothing short of a miracle. But you suppose it doesn’t matter now. Not when you're stuck in a storage room shaking as if you're going through a seizure and sobbing until you run out of tears.

“You don’t have to cry anymore. Just come with us. The sun’s beautiful around this time!” one of the voices said, sounding a lot like a friendly grandma trying to calm her grandson.

“G-Go a-a-away!” you stammered as you tightly hugged your legs to your chest, your voice dry and squeaky.

“Please, dear. Don’t make us come in there,” they emphasized their point by slamming into the door hard enough to make it bend under the pressure and cause one of the hinges to snap off.

You winced and whimpered in fear. This was it; this was the end. You knew it was a fruitless endeavor, but you began to pray. Your mother and father were devout Christians, and while you were never really one to care for religion, you still respected their rituals. It was one of the only comforts you had in this world devoid of human life.

And so, you clapped your shaky hands together, closed your eyes, and prayed. You thanked God for allowing you a chance at life. You thanked Him for such wonderful parents. You thanked your parents for raising you as best as they could, and you prayed for peace to come to their souls.

They slammed into the door again, making you cower. Thankfully, the last hinge held.

You thanked God for sending such wonderful friends your way and allowing for many great memories to be made. You thanked Him for all the food that was fed to your belly and all the water that quenched your thirst.

Bang!

Right as you were about to thank God for giving you the strength to survive this long, the door fell to the pressure of the red horde. All the terror and fear you were feeling at that moment skyrocketed as you felt their slimy, squishy hands greedily clutch your arms and legs and start to hastily drag you out of the building.

You screamed, so much that it made your throat burn and your voice crack. Your prayers turned into desperate pleas for whatever God there was to save you from this fate that was worse than death! You writhed and struggled against their grip on your limbs, animalistic desperation taking control of your body as you screeched and twisted and turned. So much so that you probably would’ve ripped your limbs from their sockets had the flesh not increased their restraint on you.

“It’s okay~” one of the contorted faces cooed, “There’s no need to cry, soon you’ll be loving the-“

The voice was cut off by the sound of loud sparks arcing all around you. In your panic, you didn’t notice the blue sparks bouncing around your body until a sudden, bright flash appeared, blinding all in the room. But, just as quickly as it appeared, the flash disappeared, taking you with it, and leaving many voices expressing their disappointment at not being able to bring another person under the beautiful. Red. Sun.

Golden Oaks Library, Ponyville

Twilight flinched as a loud bang of thunder echoed throughout the small town of Ponyville. Taking a deep breath, she refocused her efforts on reading the book that was in front of her, having nothing else to do as she and Spike hunkered down for the storm.

The storm. It was a bit strange actually. Ponyville didn’t even have a storm scheduled for today. It just… appeared, for lack of a better explanation. Some Pegasus volunteers tried to clear the storm before it could start, but the dark clouds didn’t budge. Not even Rainbow Dash could get them to fall under her command. As a precautionary measure, Twilight sent a letter to Princess Celestia, asking for her assistance. Shortly after, the beautiful, white alicorn with a multicolor mane appeared in a flash of white, and Twilight quickly filled her in on the situation.

After getting a grasp on what was happening, the princess used her magic to try and scan the storm clouds, but she quickly realized that it didn’t work. After multiple attempts using different methods and spells, the Princess revealed that they weren’t responding to her magic either. In fact, it seemed as if the clouds were nullifying any attempt to manipulate them using magic.

At first, everypony began to panic, thinking this to be the work of Discord. But Celestia was quick to reassure everypony that Discord had not escaped petrification and was still in the Royal Gardens.

Seeing no other option, Princess Celestia urged everypony to hunker down in their homes and wait the storm out. She also informed Twilight that she would have guards on standby to aid the town should she request it. Reluctantly, everypony canceled all of their plans for the day and retreated to their homes.

At first, the storm started off relatively tame, with nothing more than a light sprinkle. But it quickly began to get worse. A light sprinkle turned into a downpour, and a downpour turned into a cascading waterfall of rain, with strong winds and frequent lightning.

The rain pelted relentlessly against the bark of the tree Twilight was living in. To say the wind was roaring outside would be laughable. It was like a train was constantly blowing its whistle right next to her window. Twilight can only imagine how badly her friends and the other citizens were taking it.

Another bang of thunder boomed outside, making Twilight’s ears instinctively flick away from the direction the sound came from. Ugh, she sure hopes this storm ends soon, she’s not sure if she’ll be able to sleep if it continues through the night.

Twilight’s thoughts were interrupted when she felt two scaly claws wrap around her side and hug her close. She turned her head and looked down to see Spike hiding under a blanket while tightly clinging to her. Twilight couldn’t quite see it, but she could feel him trembling as he hugged her close.

“Spike? Are you alright?” Twilight asked soothingly.

“Alright? O-Of course I am! Wh-Why wouldn’t I b-be?” Spike stammered in reply.

Twilight smiled fondly at her assistant before leaning down and nuzzling him, “Would you like to sit with me?”

“…Y-Yeah,” Spike replied meekly.

Twilight nodded and allowed Spike to sit in front of her and cling to her belly for warmth and protection. Twilight took a moment to wrap a hoof around Spike and nuzzle him once more before turning her attention back to the book she was reading. Twilight let out a happy sigh as a burst of light flashed from somewhere outside. Despite the negative circumstances, this night wasn’t turning out so ba-

BOOM!

Twilight and Spike yelped in fright as their wholesome moment was ruined by a powerful explosion of lightning which left the unicorn-dragon duo tightly cuddling each other as they shook like leaves on the floor.

Twilight changed her mind. This is by far the worst storm she’s ever had the misfortune of experiencing and she hopes it never happens again.