Five to One

by Perception Filter

Rating: mature
Tags: Tragedy, Adventure, Dark
Length: 496

Just a cough.

It was in the water. But of course nopony knew that until it was too late. It seemed so insignificant at first, but then it became something more. Something worse.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-12-30 20:54:55 UTC

Prologue

Five to One

Prologue

Dead. They were all dead. You know, it’s funny how hindsight works. I would’ve done this, or I would’ve done that. I see how this entire situation could have been prevented, in my head each night as I go to sleep. It’s torture, seeing as how I could have saved my friends, seeing each and every one of their deaths over and over right before sleeps embrace finally takes me, but that didn't make it stop.

I dream about the same thing every night, with little deviation. First it was Fluttershy. I can still hear her crying as she coughed and coughed. I tried comforting her, but there wasn’t much that I could do. Eventually after a few weeks the coughing stopped for a few days, and we all thought it would get better, but then she started having trouble moving. She started crashing into everything. She started crying in pain as she clutched at her stomach and started coughing again.

She would hold her head and beg me to make the pain stop, just to make it stop. There wasn’t anything I could do except hold her and hope it would be okay. Her coughing eventually started getting worse, and soon she was coughing up blood. I think she suffered the most. I’m not one to judge, but... Poor Fluttershy. After a few weeks, she finally passed. I was glad, actually. She finally had a respite from that horrible pain.

After that, I cried. I cried so much. We had planned on giving her a funeral, a proper one, not just burying the dead in graves so big you could fit a lake into them, just to get rid of the dead bodies. I can still hear all of their screams of agony. Not just Fluttershy, but Twilight, Pinkie, Applejack, and Rarity. I don’t know how I managed to survive. Normally, Twilight would spout some egghead mumbo-jumbo about genetics or variables or something.

I wasn’t the only one that survived though. There were others, Lyra Heartstrings. Her roommate Bon-Bon didn’t make it. When I first left, I offered to let her come with me. To find a place away from all this death, but she silently shook her head. I had offered so many people to come with me, but they all turned me down. So now, I’m alone.

... Do you think that the others blame themselves? I know I do. I blame myself for their deaths. They would say it wasn't my fault, and that I did all I could, but I didn’t.

But, there’s one thing that has stuck with me throughout all of this. Two numbers, three words. A ratio if I remembered correctly. I heard one of the earth ponies say it before I left town. The towns coroner, who we hadn’t really needed until that point.

Five to one.

My name is Rainbow Dash, and this is the time my life fell apart.