Sanguine Ashes. Looking back I realize the name fit the surroundings so well. My coat a brackish grey, my mane blackened like the starless and moonless nights. It was a perfect camouflage while the others died in those bleak surrounding... Well, my original surroundings... My new home is a lot more peaceful than the first I'd witnessed. The transition wasn't always steady, but at least the ponies in this time still breathe when they move...not like they did when I first saw them....
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"Sanguine, I'm bit...just *hach* just keep moving, I'm gone...We know where it is though, get to it, end this all!" a brackish white pegasi coughed as blood began to ooze from his ears and mouth. It was clear he was deteriorating, and there was no cure. The pegasi pulled two magical explosives from his vest and about faced running straight back towards the hordes. He was a brave soul, and he would rest in peace.
Sanguine watched his friend go for a mere second before continuing along. His right leg, an ani-magical prosthetic, clanked loudly against the ruined and bloodied streets that had once made up Canterlot. His target was simple. He would get to the castle, use the once great Luna's severed horn to open the door, and go down to the vaults. The vaults that were rumoured to hold a secret powerful enough to eradicate the plague.
It sounded far fetched; Sanguine Ashes knew this well but that wasn't the point. The point was that they at least knew there was a secret, and that meant he could set it off and take as many walking corpses with him as possible.
Rounding a corner Sanguine found himself faced with one particular corpse, granted it wasn't walking. This one was so far gone, a remnant of the beginning of the end, that it was little more than rot and bones and shifted idly on the ground. Mercifully, brutally, Sanguine slammed his prosthetic leg down on the remains and gave the soul the peace it deserved.
Peace...
That was the worst crime of the plague. Early studies proved that the original pony did not actually die. They were just forced back in the consciousness. They saw everything, but could do nothing... nothing to stop their own former body from slaughtering their own children, nothing to do but lay on the ground until somepony like Sanguine happened upon them to end it all. A literal prison, a literal hell.
Shrugging himself out of the mental miasma that made up the morality of killing the miserable wretches Sanguine looked up and started moving again. That's when he noticed something that hadn't happened in years.
It was raining.
"The sun bleeding tears for her people." As he'd once heard it phrased. Stupid phrase, Celestia was dead, used all her energy to turn herself into the equivalent of a bomb, hoping her sacrifice would immolate Canterlot and save the whole of Equestria...sadly she hadn't realized that she couldn't reach into the sewers.
At this point Sanguine had made his way to the castle walls. Somehow, some way the damn things still stood. Stretching his wings out Sanguine arched over the long forgotten brick and mortar and into the grounds of the Castle Gardens. It was rumoured to have started here. The blood stained statues and the one blank base, its name ruined and unreadable through the browned stain of blood that marred it.
Moving forth Sanguine was quick to realize that once Celestia had sacrificed herself the rest of the castle had become relatively clear. The moans and groans behind him didn't let him forget that they were still out there though. That and the thuds of former pegasi attempting to get after him over the walls.
Grimacing in disgust the lone stallion pressed forth into the building and started his way down stairs.
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Looking back I realize how stupid it was. The turned pegasi could barely fly and before the living were outnumbered it was a small game to trick the things into lifting off and then out manoeuvring them before ending their un-lives. Had we taken back Canterlot castle we would have had an easy time taking down any of them that had tried to go over the castle walls....
Such foolishness, such waste....
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Sanguine licked his lips in anticipation. Sure, swarms of them were now in castle walls and coming for him, but he'd found it! Lifting Luna's former horn from his pack in a black aura of magic Sanguine opened the vault doors to reveal many items that the twin Princesses had hidden from the world in an attempt to keep it safe. For a moment after extricating Luna's horn Sanguine thought to his own horn, cracked and broken as it was. Thank the stars to the changes ponies underwent to survive the more hostile lands. Off to the side he found a group of pictures showing different ponies, all ones Celestia or Luna had known on more personal levels. Sanguine noted how none of them had four canines in their mouths; how none were both winged and horned.
It made Sanguine realise how truly blessed he'd been to have been born with both appendages. His magic had been invaluable, his wings his saviours many a time. Then those odd fangs. His best guess is they came from the changelings who had joined with Equestria to battle the threat that had arisen.
Moving deeper Sanguine made note of many items, one of which he'd decided to take, despite his imminent death. It was called an Adamantite Pickaxe. He honestly had no knowledge of what Adamantite was but the pick axe itself was bladed and looked cool.
A few yards further in was a oddly shaped mannequin with a trench coat on it. While he wasn't sure exactly what it was, it read 'NCR' on the front. Moving past that, he came across another oddly shaped mannequin that was covered in metallic armour and read 'Spartan'. Neither of these were his goal though.
At the very end of the hall was a book. As Sanguine used his magic to pull the books open, the features of a strange creature with yellow eyes filled his view and the book flashed suddenly. Sanguine attempted to step back, but the book flashed brighter, before releasing a blast of magic.
Everything went white for the alicorn stallion.
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