The Path to Decay

The sun was shining through the window of the upstairs storage room in the factory that Twilight and her friends had slept in for the night. Creaking could be heard coming from outside the room they were sleeping in, and surely enough the door bursted open, and standing there was Cherry Jubilee, ready to give her wake up call.

Miss Jubilee pulled out a triangle, and started to use it to wake up the six sleeping ponies, and dragon.

"Alright sleepy heads, time to get up!" she rang, still playing her triangle.

The six mares were rubbing their eyes and yawning, not wanting to wake up after such a good sleep. Applejack could be seen reaching for her hat, and Rarity was off to the mirror in the side of the room to brush her mane.

"Y'all slept like babies last night, nothin' could have woke ya up, but it's time for breakfast!" she continued.

"Spike" Twilight called out.

"Spike, wake up...", no response from the sleepy dragon.

Twilight got a little frustrated, so she simply got close to his ear and shouted ever so loudly.

"SPIKE!"

Spike immediately jumped out of bed, alerted by Twilight screaming right next to him.

"Oh, uh...I'm awake Twilight!" Spike said, in a bit of a panic.

Twilight simply giggled, and used her magic to lift Spike onto her back, and she went downstairs to the mess hall with her friends following close behind.

They made their way to the mess hall. The mess hall was quite literally a mess, as there were squished cherries around some areas of the floor because of some of the slovenly workers, and even on one of the tables was a rotting apple.

"Eww, what a mess!" Rarity whimpered "No wonder it's called a "mess hall", eugh".

"Ah, quit yer fussin', Rarity" Applejack replied.

"So miss Jubilee, what kinda grub are we havin' to eat?" Rainbow asked.

"Ah just made y'all some sandwiches for the road ahead, along with some drinkin' water. You girls are gonna need some water"

"I'm parched, thanks miss Jubilee" Rainbow responded.

"Anything for you girls!"

The girls began to have a bite of their breakfast, which was a simple sandwich with a glass of water. It wasn't much but it was better than nothing, especially with the kind of trip they were about to go on.

"So, girls I hope you know what we must do once we reach the Empire?" Twilight asked her friends.

"Yeah, we're going to go there, kick Morior's butt and make the people happy again!" Rainbow said excitedly.

"Right, so we need to be careful when approaching the Empire though, I've heard that guards are everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE" Twilight put emphasis on "everywhere" for a good reason.

Just as she said that, Spike had started to choke and gag, signaling that Celestia was sending her a letter. Why was Celestia sending her a letter now? How did she know they were awake right now? Many questions were running through Twilight's head.

Spike eventually burped out the letter that had been causing him to fidget and not finish his breakfast, and hit Twilight in the face.

"Ow!" she shouted.

"Sorry about that, Twilight." Spike apologized.

Twilight opened the letter and started to read it aloud.

"Dear Twilight and friends, we have got some disturbing news to report. It's just been discovered that Princess Cadance has been abducted and brought to the Mernallian Empire. We fear for her safety, and we hope you can rescue her from King Morior's evil clutches."

"Signed, Princess Celestia..."

Twilight just dropped her glass of water on the ground, smashing the glass. She put the letter down on the table, and she was devastated. Her foalsitter, one of her best friends, now under the capture of the evil unicorn king. Twilight was now in a mixture of sadness and fury. A simple tear rolled down her face.

"No...no....that MONSTER!" Twilight yelled, slamming her hooves on the table in a fit of rage.

Her friends were just sitting there, looking upset at both her friend's outburst, and after hearing the shocking news of Cadance's abduction.

King Morior was seen, taking a stroll around the downtown boardwalk accompanied by Regal Will and Cairo, his two favorite guards, and his most trusted. The rotting king picked up a dead flower and examined it.

"Hmm, just the way I like my wildlife: DEAD!" Morior shouted, now starting to laugh.

"Uh, your majesty it's almost ten AM" Regal reminded the king.

"Oh, I almost forgot about the execution today!" Morior replied, puzzled as to how he could have forgot.

The king and his accompanying guards then started to head to the town square, as there was a public execution taking place. In the Mernallian Empire since Slifer's rule, public executions were quite common. Though Morior didn't approve of his father's savage ways of execution such as burning them alive, or stoning. He preferred a simple beheading, either by sword or axe, but since there was now the guillotine, he much preferred that over a skilled swordsman or axe wielder. It was much cheaper that way, and Morior did not like to spend his money frivolously.

As they arrived on the town square, the priest was giving the pony his last rites. The pony on the execution center today was the very pony that tried to assassinate Morior, from cell C-18. He was originally going to be left in the dungeon for until he died, but that was costly to do since feeding and giving him water would be an expense in itself, and he didn't take kindly to ponies who tried to kill him.

Once the priest was finished giving the attempted assassin his last rites, the executioner spotted Morior in the crowd, and had asked him to come onto the stage. Morior came onto the stage accompanied by his guards, and he simply ridiculed the poor pony, even before he was going to be executed.

"Well, my little friend. This is what happens to bad little slaves who try to murder the king" the king yelled to the pony.

"For the attempted murder of I, King Morior, I wish you the best of luck in Hades, and may you burn in eternal hellfire. Now, OFF WITH HIS HEAD!" Morior chanted.

The audience started to chant along with the king.

"Off with his head, off with his head!"

Surely enough, the pony started to beg for his life to be spared.

"Please, please don't kill me your majesty, PLEASE!" he begged, tears streaming down his face.

Morior simply looked back at him and said 4 simple words, to seal the deal.

"Fuck you, kill him"

And so it was, the rope was released, and down came the blade, slicing through his neck swift and cleanly, his head dropping into the basket below. Morior walked over to the basket, grabbed the head by the mane, and showed it to the audience, who simply cheered and whistled. Even if they were applauding their king as if they all loved him, they actually did fear for their lives if he ever made a public appearance.

The girls finished up their breakfast, and were preparing for their long journey to the Mernallian Empire. They carried saddle bags full of survival supplies, such as water, food, a first aid kit and a small hunting knife.

"Now, before we go, does anypony need to use the rest-"

Twilight was cut off, seeing Pinkie make a dash for the outdoor restroom by the train station.

"Anyone else?"

The others simply shaked their heads.

Pinkie returned from the restroom, picked up her saddle bag and followed her friends to the train station, heading farther north to the Mernallian Empire that the train could actually make it to, but was never scheduled to go there for years because of recent events. But Twilight had told the conductor to head straight there on her special request.

"Alright girls, next stop: The Mernallian Empire!" Twilight said eagerly.

"Let's get this monster..."

They all boarded the train, found a comfortable spot to sit down in the front of the train, and relaxed. Twilight requested they sit in front so she could talk to the conductor when she was ready for him to start moving.

"All right, I think we're ready to go" she told the conductor.

He simply nodded and started up the train, slowly but surely they started to move, and before they knew it, the train was taking off from the station, and they were going straight north, instead of west like the route normally goes.

For the next few hours, they were talking amongst each other, rationing their food and water supplies, and taking naps. And before they knew it, 4-5 hours later they finally arrived at the Mernallian Empire's train station. The scenery was not a pretty sight for the six ponies and Spike, as instead of beautiful, healthy trees like they see in Ponyville, all the trees were dead, bearing no leaves, and some trees even had fallen over due to decay. The sky was as always a dark scarlet with dark grey clouds looming overhead.

"Well, this is sure a happy place..." Spike commented sarcastically.

"This place looks super scary, I'm not sure the king has had a good smile in a while" Pinkie also commented on the scenery.

"C-can we go home now? I'm scared...." Fluttershy chipped in.

"No, we have to rescue Cadance, the citizens and get rid of Morior, we have no time to lose." Twilight commanded.

The gang were on their way to find Cadance, when out of a dark alley way near the train station, King Morior appeared. He apparently had heard over the conversation between the ponies, and simply chuckled as they walked away, unaware he was waiting there.

"Oh Twilight Sparkle, you underestimate my power..." he said to himself.

"You'll see soon enough..." laughing ever so quietly.

"You'll see..."

The girls made their way through the barren wasteland once called a downtown. It was a terrible thing to see, as houses were run down and decaying, dead tree leaves littered the streets and decayed trees had toppled over onto houses, some had even been caved in due to the structural integrity of the buildings being weakened by negligence. Posters showing Morior's face were across every surface area of the Empire, with the words "OBEY" underneath, pretty much signifying that Morior seemed to think himself as the all-important king that must be obeyed. But none of these sights were as bad compared to what Spike had just spotted; a dead pony lying in the street, with a visible ribcage and thin like a toothpick.

"Oh no..." Spike whispered, as he stared at the lifeless corpse.

"How could Morior do such a thing to his own people?" Twilight questioned.

Suddenly, an explosion could be heard and seen, as a unicorn had shot a magical blast at Twilight and Spike, who were inspecting the corpse. This unicorn looked like everyone else in the village, skinny with a visible skeleton, dirty and had a look of fear in her eyes. Twilight picked up Spike with her magic and lifted him on her back, aiming her horn at the citizen who had shot at her, readying to combat this unicorn.

"Why did you shoot at me and Spike?" Twilight roared at this pony.

"That pony is MINE, YOU WON'T HAVE HIM" the pony yelled back at Twilight.

"What are you talking about?" Twilight asked.

"I don't have to answer your questions, now get out of my way" replied the strange pony.

The ponies backed up and just watched this pony do something horrific; she started to cut open the corpse and looked for any organs to feast upon. As you remember, cannibalism was quite common amongst the citizens as food was scarce to them. Morior kept all the food to himself, his guards and his council. The citizens were left to fend for themselves and starve to death, surviving on what little rations they were given.

The ponies simply looked in horror, while Fluttershy simply covered her eyes, and Rarity just turned around and threw up at both the sight and the smell. They watched as this pony ripped out the heart of this pony and bite into it like an apple. Spike simply threw up as well after seeing this, and was very uneasy.

"I think we should just go" Rainbow suggested.

"Good idea" Spike responded.

They started to walk away from the citizen who had now begun to harvest on the dead pony's intestines as some form of nourishment, as she looked like she had not eaten in weeks. They continued to walk down the streets of the empire until they made their way to the town square, when out of the corner of her eye, Pinkie spotted another citizen who was lying on the ground, covered in blood, dirt and urine. She decided to walk over to this poor pony and comfort him.

"Aww, you poor thing" Pinkie said, comforting this pony in his time of need.

"What happened to you, sweetie?"

"I...I had gotten something to eat for my family for...for the first time in weeks"

Tears began to well up in this pony's eyes as he was saying this.

"But this group of thugs jumped me....and stole everything, food...water...and then they just urinated on me, kicked me and..."

He just stopped talking, and started to sob loudly. Pinkie started to tear up as this poor citizen told her his story. Pinkie never liked to see anypony sad, and seeing this pony crying and hearing the story that came beforehand, she reached into her saddlebag and pulled out some rations out of her own supply, and handed it to the pony. She handed him 2 full sandwiches and 2 bottles of water, that he could share with his family. He stopped crying momentarily, wore a smile on his face, and gave Pinkie a very embracing hug, to which she returned the favor.

"Thank you very much, madam, you are too generous to me!" he told Pinkie.

He started to cry once again, but this time there were tears of joy and happiness, and he hugged her one more time before she got up and went back to her friends.

"Pinkie, that was very generous of ya. Maybe y'all should be the Element of Generosity instead" Applejack playfully commented to Pinkie and her kind act.

"Oh, I just couldn't resist, he just looked so sad and you know how I hate when ponies don't smile!" she replied, in her always gleeful tone of voice.

"Well come on girls, we must get to the palace. I see it over in the distance and I think we should get there as soon as possible" Twilight called out to her friends.

"Twilight..." a voice whispered from somewhere she didn't know.

"Who's there?" she questioned.

Ominous laughter could be heard by her, but only by her judging by her friends just giving Twilight strange looks.

"Uh Twi, who are ya talkin' to?" Applejack asked.

"I just heard a voice, it called my name and I have no idea what it was"

"Are ya sure, sugarcube? The rest of us didn't hear anything"

Twilight instantly began to panic, as she was hearing a mysterious and ominous voice call her name and laughing, and only she could hear it

This was not good.