Charred, barren landscapes lay all around as he shifted throughout all of the rubble. Where just a few days ago the great city of Canterlot had stood, now there was nothing but a large, still smoldering crater. All around the stallion, the ashen remains of the city and all the dust that had been kicked up in the explosion drifted gently down, creating a beautiful yet ominous feel. Canterlot had fallen. Everything was gone; nothing was left of the once glorious nation that had once stood so proud against the rising sun. Everything was silence as the stallion plopped onto his rump, taking a seat amongst the debris as the smell of death and destruction charred his nostrils and singed his soul with mourning for the lost.
Why had this happened? What had catalyzed this event and pushed ponykind over the edge? What could have made them turn on each other? The stallion couldn't be exactly sure what had caused everything. He had only been a foot-soldier on the front lines, loyal and following orders to the end. Not now though, there were no orders to follow. The world had ended and he was alone; alone in the city, the lone survivor.
He looked back to the ruins, taking in the last of the waning fires. He gazed around the landscape at all of the destroyed buildings, resting his eyes on each individual home before stopping on a school house for little foals. The school house was a crumpled mess. When the bombs had hit... He had to fight the urge to wipe a tear from his eye as he viewed the tragic scene.
All of those children who had been going about their day when the bombs had dropped... All of them were just... They were just gone. Nothing remained of their flesh and blood bodies except for their vaporized remnants drifting through the breeze. All of these ponies that had been just going about their normal day, not knowing what was going on behind the scenes, had been unjustly and suddenly snuffed out. No time for closure, no time to make amends with whatever deity they believed in. They had all been wiped out.
Sighing heavily, he stood on all four hooves, walking into the now ruined town. The silence that surrounded him brought him a strange unease that no sound could ever hope to give him. Such a sudden end... but why? He could only assume that it'd had something to do with the civil war that had slowly been growing behind the scenes. He continued forward against the oppressive silence.
Maybe there were... Maybe there were survivors? Maybe somepony was out there and still needed his help? He knew that he was getting his hopes up, but he couldn't help it. Hope was the only thing that he had to cling to right now. Hope that he wasn't the only one left; the hope that he wasn't alone.
"H-hello?" his shaky voice penetrated through the disconcerting quite, "I-is anypony there? Can anypony here me? Please?! Anypony?!"
No response, just the sound of his own voice reflecting off of the ruined infrastructure of the city. He stepped shakily into what had once been what he could only assume was a coffee shop. Around him the structure seemed to rebuild itself as shadows of the past danced around him. He could clearly make out a stallion, the pony that had been his captain. The one that he would have followed until the very end... Beside him was another stallion, a light yellow pegasus pony in dented grey armor. It was him.
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"Spark Plug, I'm going to need you for a special assignment," the older stallion said in a grave voice.
"What is it sir? Anything you ask, I'll do it. You know I'm with you to the end," Spark Plug replied.
He was slightly suspicious of his captain in this moment. Never before had he been asked or trusted to go on a special assignment. Was this some sort of test of his faith? How could he order him away from the battlefield to go on a special assignment? He couldn't just leave his brothers there to hold the city by themselves.
They had taken up Canterlot as their base of operations after the public had abandoned and turned on them. They were rebels, just trying to bring a higher standard of living in Equestria, trying to be a group of modern day Robin Hoods. Apparently some of their methods were frowned upon. Violent crusaders taking from the citizens of Equestria under the name of the Crusaders had assured that. Now they were fighting against the Equestrian monarchy as well, acting as rebels.
Canterlot had been seized after a grueling ten day siege and they had only forced the Princess' forces to retreat after the threat of nuclear warfare had been introduced. Even small as they were, the Crusaders still had nuclear bombs in their arsenal. Gigantic tools of mass destruction, usually the combination of unicorn magic and earth pony technology that split apart atoms at a subatomic level, causing massive explosions and devastation.
"I need you to gather some valuable intel. A cottage twenty miles outside of the city is where you'll be meeting the informant. Can you do this for me?" the older stallion asked, looking Spark straight in the eyes.
"I... Of course sir, right away!"
With a salute, Spark took off out of the building, rushing off to his desired destination. The captain sat down in a chair, breathing in a deep sigh. Soon this will all be over.
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Looking back, he wondered if his superior officer had known about the attack. He wondered if the stallion had known that he would be far enough away to survive the blast... That intel... That god damn intel was the only reason that he hadn't died with the rest of his companions. Now he had to deal with this. Why did this have to happen? Had things really gotten so bad as to warrant the nuclear devistation of a highly populated city? All they had wanted to do was change Equestria for the better... But this? He hadn't wanted this.
He walked over to the table, deposting those papers that had cost him so much. And for what? There was nothing left now; there was nothing left. He walked over the remnants of an old coffee mug, the only thing remaining of it being a charred and disintegrating handle. Some poor sap had just been having his morning coffee, minding his own business when it had happened.
Spark had seen the whole thing from a distance when he had been travelling back from the meeting. In a last ditch attempt to strike back before the bomb had hit, the Crusaders had launched their own nuke at Ponyville, the Princess' base of operations. One last attempt to leave a legacy, one last hurrah. He'd felt the explosion from nearly twelve miles away, hurrying back to find... To find this.
He walked out of the remnants of the coffee shop, stepping forward into the open square. Ruined wagons, children's toys, and market stalls that somehow survived the blast still stood as a testament to what daily life had been like before. A testament to daily life before it had become and uninhabitable ghost town. He picked up his pace to a slow trot, checking each building in the town square for any signs of life. There had to be somepony here. He couldn't be alone... He couldn't be alone...
Along a broken wall, he viewed an unscathed patch of brick in the shape of a small colt. Stopping for a moment, he wiped his eye, the ashen rainfall from the sky singing his eye sockets, and yet he didn't care. Seeing this... It had de-sensitized him. How could they have had to resort to this? Maybe if they had been stricter with their members... Maybe if they had tried diplomacy this could have been prevented.
He never wanted this for anypony. He'd joined the Crusaders to make a difference; he'd joined to improve the quality of life in Equestria. All that had occurred was destruction... How many innocent foals, stallions, and mares had been caught in the crossfire of this petty war? How many innocent lives had been sacrificed to make a point? They didn't deserve this... Nobody deserved this.
Everything that Spark had known and loved had been destroyed by this terrible conflict. His friends were gone and what respect he'd had for both sides had been lost. The Crusaders would live in infamy as the group of rebels had destroyed Equestria's way of life and shattered the country's harmony. This isn't what he had wanted...
"Hello! Anypony?! Please, if you can hear me, come out! I can help you! I won't hurt you!" he shouted, frantically running about and searching any of the ruined structures for signs of life. "Please... Please don't let me be alone..."
Wandering into a random home off to the right side, he had to stop in his tracks. Underneath an archway, in a pile of rubble was a strange mass. Spark gulped as he walked forward to check the damage. It was even worse than he could have possibly imagined. Two masses, not one, a larger mass huddled over a smaller one in a ball. It was a mother, trying in vain in her last moments to protect her beloved child. He found himself stooping over and retching as he imagined them going about their day, only for the mother to notice a hail of nuclear fire raining from the sky.
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Violet Sprinkle had just finished her daily chores. They had been tedious, but they had been a labor of love for her family. Outside her small colt had been playing in the streets, running in circles as children often would. She smiled a small genuine smile as she watched the young colt dance around carefree. The resilience and cheerfulness of children always amazed her. She loved her colt more than anything in the world.
She looked up to the sky for a moment, shielding her eyes with a foreleg. What she saw there brought her a sheer terror that she had never known before in her life. A bomb, A bomb was falling from the sky, headed straight for the city.
"Cupcake, get inside, run to the basement," she commanded in a panic.
"What mommy? But I'm having fun playing!" the colt shouted back, cheerfully oblivious of his mortal danger.
The mother looked up desperately, seeing the missile rapidly approaching. There was no time... She grabbed the young child, curling into a feeble ball under an archway in her house in a desperate attempt to protect him. She would give anything for her child to protect him. In her final moments, she prayed to Celestia that he would survive.
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He snapped out of his daydream and walked over to their still sizzling bodies, stooping low to address them.
"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry... This never should have happened. I'm sorry..."
For a while he couldn't move. He couldn't think. How could any governing body be this unthinking? Had this really been the only way to end the conflict? No. No, this couldn't have been. The many should not have been punished for the minority's actions. He knew that he had to keep moving. No matter what he had seen, he had to keep moving. There was still hope... Somepony could still be alive out there... Somepony had to be alive...
"Please..." he muttered to himself as he set out once more through the town square, "Please don't let them all be gone... I can't be the only one... Celestia, please, if you have any mercy, please let me find somepony. Please let somepony be okay..."
Hours of fruitless searching had turned up only more charred corpses that had been unlucky enough to burn to death in the blast instead of being instantly vaporized. Hollowed carcasses of buildings and destroyed lives were littered about around him, keeping him a constant reminder of the tragedy that had occured. He paused as he saw the spot where the castle had once been. Thousands of ponies had been living their daily routines, just going about their lives when the bomb had hit. All that remained was a flattened hill.
This had place had absorbed a large portion of the blast. They had nuked their own hierarchy first. They had nuked their own damn hierarchy. Tears welled down his face openly now as he dropped to his knees and looked shakily at the ashen grey sky. This was all that was left behind. This was the legacy of Celestia and the Crusaders. This was how history would remember them. He could only imagine how things would be in Ponyville.
He couldn't believe it. Tens or maybe even hundreds of thousands had died that day. No doubt the country would be in shambles, with no leadership after the nuke had hit Ponyville... How could they possibly get over this disaster? How could ponykind rebuild? The actions of two feuding groups had caught so many in the crossfire... They had ended so many innocent lives needlessly. Diplomacy could have solved this, but instead both sides had decided to keep to their old ways, teetering on the precipice of war. It had exploded.
He realized it now. This had been inevitable all along. It was bound to happen eventually between these two groups. A chain of bad decisions, one after another had brought about the end of ponies. In their blind views and hasty decisions, ponykind had brought about themselves the end to harmony. An end to millennia of peace and prosperity, they had brought about the end of an era. Now all that remained was the shattered memories of those caught in the crossfire. Friends, families, lives all destroyed and lost, irrecoverable.
Spark Plug got up slowly, trotting slowly out of the city. How fitting that he would be the only one left, burdened with keeping the memories of those lost in this terrible tragedy. If only he had been there... If only he had gone with them; if only he'd not have to deal with the pain... The pain of being the last one left alive. He knew for sure now, he was the last survivor. His soul felt dead and bogged down. This level of devastation shouldn't have been possible. He'd never wanted this...
His ears perked up as he reached the edge of the city. He could hear a faint sound from somewhere nearby; it was coming from a building that had collapsed in of itself. It sounded like... crying? His eyes immediately shot open as he rushed to the building, scrambling to clear the debris from the ruined building.
"Hold on! I'm coming! Where are you?!" he shouted frantically, digging through the rubble as quickly as he could.
A faint voiced echoed from the inside of the pile, "I'm here..."
He doubled his efforts, his hooves chipping with the strain of digging. He was starting to make head way on the pile; he could see the dark blue mane of a small unicorn filly.
"Just stay with me okay? Hold on! Just hold on, I'm almost there!" he cried desperately.
With one final push, he opened a hole big enough to fit the small child through. He pulled her up hastily as she gasped for the air that she had been running so low on. She breathed in the ashen air, the vaporized flesh of other fallen ponies in her desperate need for air. She struggled against the strange pair of hooves grabbing her, trying desperately to escape from her captor. He realized in that moment... He realized in that moment that she was blind.
She was flailing about randomly, her eyes glossed over as she looked around frantically. He couldn't be sure if she had been blind before the incident, but he did know that she was freaking out right now and wasting valuable energy.
"Shhh... Shhh... It's okay... It's okay. I'll keep you safe okay? Just calm down, I'm not gonna hurt you..." he whispered reassuringly to her.
Slowly but surely, she began to calm down before falling asleep out of exhaustion. He looked down at the little filly, tears welling in his eyes. He wasn't alone; he had found somepony. His heart was lightened as he watched the filly resting peacefully in his forelegs. Her life had been destroyed, but they could rebuild. He took off, flying towards the closest town in order to get her medical attention.
As he did so, he couldn't help but think to himself, 'The country will be in chaos now... But we have to move on. We can't let this memory haunt us. We have to look back on our mistakes and learn from them so that the same thing doesn't happen again. We have to start over, but this time, we have to do better. We will do better. We will rise again, and we will rebuild.'
