Twilight Sparkle swallowed her fear down again. The destroyed buildings were devoid of life. She was alone. Not entirely reassuring, but at least they weren't here. She turned her eye away from the street, and tried not to remember the sights she had seen. The buzzing grew louder, but she was used to the flies by now. A week trying to survive in a no-longer-thriving town had hardened her beyond the care of insects.
At least the buildings didn't have any living things in there. This was her latest attempt to find more food, and her stomach rumbled even at the thought. She hadn't eaten in five days. It was all she could do just to keep trying, her body almost refusing to keep going, demanding that she just give up and die. But she couldn't do it. Maybe the Princess had gotten her last message. Maybe she was planning a rescue even now. Twilight Sparkle didn't have a clue. Spike had died, just like everypony else. But not Twilight Sparkle. Oh no. She'd survived. And she would survive now.
She slowly made her way across to the next cluster of wrecked buildings. The housing district. She doubted even the tiniest scraps of food would be here, but her hunger forced her to look, even so. She poked her head inside the building, and withdrew it hurriedly. But she forced herself to look again, to ignore the slaughtered foals, mare, and stallion in the house. Forced herself to ignore the missing limbs. Forced herself to forget what she had seen the things do to those they killed. Forced herself to ignore the pleading expression on the dead mare. They had done worse.
The flies buzzed and left the rotting corpses as Twilight Sparkle disturbed them. She forced herself to lift the bodies, hating the feel of them as her magic lifted them up, hoping beyond hope they might have fallen on even the tiniest scrap of food. Her hopes were dashed, however, and she released her telekinetic hold at once. She no longer had the strength to check for long. But she kept doing it. She looked around the room. Cupboards were torn open and bare.
Wait. She could feel the sense of something living…a pony! Down, below. She hurriedly searched the room for some sort of trapdoor, and felt it in her magic. Pulling it open in haste, she looked below. A little foal, maybe two, was there. Before his hooves was a scrap of bread, and Twilight Sparkle’s eyes locked on to it. The foal looked like he was going to take it. No! screamed Twilight Sparkle’s mind. I need it! And before the colt could take the scrap of bread, Twilight Sparkle’s magic snatched it away. She ate it greedily, swallowing it in mere seconds. Below she could hear the colt’s cry, but she pushed it out of mind. She walked outside, and looked to Canterlot. A haze had covered it, but she did not care. She was alive.
Gloriously, gloriously alive.
