Chapter One: The Last Ordinary Day
The train ride for a young dragon and a lavender mare had been a long one. They had spent much of it talking and listening to the radio, but after several hours they had begun to run out of conversation topics. So the dragon tried to waste his time by looking out at the Equestrian countryside. Amidst all the corn fields and plains, there wasn’t all too much he deemed scenic.
“Ugh!” groaned Spike. “Why does it have to take so long to get to Ponyville?”
Twilight laid the book, she was currently immersing herself in, onto the seat next to her. “Spike, for the tenth time, Canterlot is almost three hundred miles away from Ponyville. It’s going to take some time before we get home.”
“And why did Rarity have to stay in Canterlot? I can already feel her heart ache for mine.” Spike raised his claws over his chest in an effort to make his statement seem more dramatic.
Twilight shot him a very un-amused expression, while secretly trying not to laugh. “Also for the tenth time, she’s staying so she can meet her parents from their vacation in Fillydelphia. And you should feel happy for her. She did seem pretty excited about seeing them.”
Spike shrugged. “I still miss her though.”
The lavender unicorn smirked slightly. “Trust me Spike, I think you made that very clear when I literally dragged you out of the hotel.”
Spike found himself blushing a little. “Well, I wanted milady Rarity to know I’d fight for her.”
“Trust me, I think she knows that, along with half of the hotel’s staff.”
The young dragon’s blush was beginning to grow in intensity, so instead of continuing a conversation which he felt was becoming increasingly awkward, he reached over to the nearby radio and flipped a switch. A boom of music came blasting out of the speakers. Quickly he reached for the volume dial and began turning it. Suddenly, he saw a magical ore engulf the device and yank it out of his hands. He looked up to see Twilight adjust al the dials to her liking simultaneously before setting it back down.
“Uh, sorry about that,” apologized a rather embarrassed looking Spike.
The lavender unicorn shook her head and flashed him a warm smile. “It’s okay.”
He found himself blushing still and smiling back briefly. However, after a moment, he returned to looking out of the window, letting the rhythmic tunes flow over him. Spike didn’t recognize the song at first, but after a few verses he remembered the tune. As the song ended, there was a typical news tune and a colt with an iconic radio voice began to speak.
“It is noon, September twenty ninth. And once again time for Equestria Daily’s hourly news broadcast where we tell the story you tell your opinion. Today in Canterlot, Princess Celestia is preparing to address the nation as her national approval rating reaches an all-time low. Many ponies say that she didn’t take a stern enough stance against the unprovoked changeling invasion of Canterlot, spring of last year. It is believed that today she will be addressing several accounts of civil unrest and rising fear that Equestria is not as safe as it once was.
Now we’re going to take a few calls to hear your opinion. Okay caller one you’re on the air.”
A new colt’s voice could be heard. The speaker he was using sounded of a much worse quality that the radio host’s.
“Thanks for having me. Well, I’d just like to say that I think we should drop a few firespell warheads on those changelings. I mean that whole attack was completely unjust. Also I’ve been hearing rumors that Discord has now been working with Celestia after recently being ‘converted.’ I for one am not buying it.”
The radio host chuckled a little. “Well, that’s quite a bold statement friend, but it looks as though half of Equestria is on your side.”
Twilight was beginning to feel rather annoyed by the reckless ideas being thrown around on the radio, so she quickly flipped off the broadcast. Trying not to release her full fury, the lavender mare decided to vent only a little.
“This is absolute bull crap! I mean what kind of militaristic idiot would even suggest something so reckless and heartless. Do you honestly think all changelings are bad? What about their newborns and children? Did they have any part of the invasion?”
Spike flinched a little at Twilight’s sudden outburst, nonetheless, he found himself thinking that she had quite a few good points that could be held up rather well in an argument.
“I agree with you Twi, but not everypony knows the princesses the way we do. All they have to go on is news and rumors.”
The lavender mare sighed. “I know, but ponies just need to understand how things really are now.”
Spike smiled warmly. “I understand Twi, and they will too.”
Twilight returned a sheepish smile. “Thanks Spike.”
As the pair shared a brief grin, they could feel the train beginning to decrees in speed. Looking out of the window Spike began to see the familiar sights of his equine home.
The loud voice of the conductor boomed over the intercom. “Next stop; Ponyville.”
Applejack was beginning to grow rather impatient with Fluttershy’s failing solution to her rat problem. The orange pony had actually pondered her own fix to the situation that was much less benevolent than her shy friend.
Sticking her head into the barn, Applejack saw Fluttershy crouched over a small rat hole, right where her and Rainbow Dash were about to lay some new siding. “Any luck sugar cube?”
The timid Pegasus looked to her and replied “None yet, he says he wants to be sure his family will have a safe place to stay.”
The orange coated mare was careful to make sure Fluttershy didn’t see her roll her eyes. After all, the slightest sign of offense would instantly crush the yellow mare’s spirits.
“Well, okay. Holler if ya need me.”
Fluttershy smiled and nodded weakly. “Will do.”
As Applejack trotted away from the barn’s entrance, she mumbled something inaudible under her breath. It was quite obvious to everyone, except for Fluttershy, that she was becoming increasingly aggravated. However, when one considers the fact that that she had been planning these repairs for a week, they could begin to understand why.
“Any luck yet?”
Applejack looked up to see Rainbow Dash lying awkwardly on a few bales of hay. She trotted over to her and found a bale of her own.
“What the hay do you think?”
Rainbow Dash smirked briefly. “That good huh?”
“Yup. Ya know I should have just stuck with plan A and threw a few fire crackers in there and put a cage at the entrance, but of course I thought it’d be more ‘humane’ to get Fluttershy to help me instead.”
“Well, my plan was to get Spike to burn them all up, but since he’s in Canterlot…”
Applejack smiled. “Trust me RD. That one crossed my mind too.”
“Hey, speaking of ponies, or dragons, that aren’t around, where is your little sis at? I thought for sure she’d be trying to get her cutie mark in something now.”
“Oh, she’s off on a field trip to Appleloosa. You should have seen how happy she was when she found out Braeburn would be their guide. But they should be getting back here soon.”
“Yeah, I bet she was. Hehe, I can see them trying to get their cutie marks in Appleloosa now.”
Suddenly, images of several burning Apple trees and collapsed barns crossed their minds. Their mildly humorous expressions quickly turned to that of fear.
“I’ma go call my cousin, kay?”
“You go do that.”
Though the Cake’s were a busy family at Sugar Cube Corner, the coupled did always find time to talk and maybe gossip a little as they worked. It was almost like an orchestrated routine for them. Balance pans and treys over each other and talk as calmly as ever. Though, whenever they would speak of a new pony, or anypony in general, a pink mare always had a tendency of overhearing it.
As Mrs. Cake lifted a freshly bake cherry pie out of the oven, she said to Mr. Cake “You know what I heard was that he bought the old Sunflower’s house in bits. No loans, no payments. All bits.”
Mr. Cake lifted a tray of cookies into a second oven, before looking over to his wife. “Well maybe he’s just one of those rich ponies from Canterlot who just want to get away from it all.”
“He didn’t look very rich, and really didn’t seem like the Canterlot type; Fillydelphia or Baltimare maybe.”
Poking her head around the corner, Pinkie Pie shouted “What!? There’s a new pony in town!?”
The two ponies were so startled that they nearly dropped the baking sheets they were currently maneuvering. Since they were honestly quite used to the sudden interruptions, they quickly recovered before there were any massive kitchen disasters.
“Pinkie!” shouted Mrs. Cake, “You nearly gave us a heart attack!”
The lively pink pony found herself sporting a rather embarrassed blush. “Oops sorry. But you guys said there was a new pony in town and I just have to say hi!”
Mr. Cake closed the oven and smiled. “Yes Pinkie, we know how you are about these things. There’s already a welcome basket waiting on the counter for you.”
“Thanks Mr. Cake! I can’t wait to meet him!”
And with that the Pink ball of life shot to the counter and took the basket in her mouth. However, as she stepped out of the door she turned back to them and said something neither could really understand, but they had begun to translate it to “See you guys later! Bye bye!”
As Pinkie Pie pranced down the streets of Ponyville, she couldn’t help but fantasize about how the new pony would look, talk, play, and even what his cutie mark would be. Quite needless to say, she was absolutely overflowing with excitement and anticipation.
Being so caught up in her own imagination, she almost trotted right past the pony’s house. Mentally face hoofing, she turned and started bouncing in its direction. Pinkie Pie looked around the quaint little house and noticed it didn’t seem as lively as she had hoped; for instance, the walls were painted a dark shade of blue, the shutters were nothing special and the small window garden had not a single flower in it. Nonetheless, she still hoped that the pony inside was a bit more exciting than the decor.
Pinkie Pie knocked on the door three times and laid the basket of treats on the welcome matt. After a moment of waiting, she was about to knock again, when unexpectedly the door flew open. The colt in the door way was a little tall, nothing compared to Big Macintosh though, he had a grey coat, a dark grey mane, and yellowish brown eyes.
Wasting no time with the introduction she shouted “Hi there! My name is Pinkie Pie! I heard you were new here so I thought I’d bring you some goodies from Sugar Cube Corner, and welcome you to Ponyville!”
The stallion smiled meekly. “Well hello to you as well. My name is Felix.”
“It’s nice to meet you Felix! It’s always nice to meet a new friend!”
The rather calm pony raised an eyebrow. “Friend?”
Pinkie Pie beamed a little more. “Yeah silly! Everyone in Ponyville is my friend, and I just know you’ll be my friend too!”
Picking up the basket with his foreleg, Felix replied “Well I hope so too Pinkie Pie. However, I’m really busy at the moment. But thank you very much for the welcoming basket.”
“No problem Felix!”
Suddenly, Pinkie Pie wrapped the new pony into a tight embrace. It was quite obvious that the stallion was not expecting such a warm, and personal, welcoming, but he still did enjoy it. Nonetheless, he was sincere in the fact that he was rather busy at the moment, so Felix broke the embrace and stepped back inside.
He smiled as he reached for the door. “See ya, Pinkie.”
The lively mare grinned as she waved her hoof. “Bye, Felix!”
As the grey stallion closed the door behind him, his happy and playful face instantly turned serious. He knew he didn’t have much time left and dearly hoped no more interruptions would hinder his work any further.
Rarity sat in her parents’ house, smiling as she flipped through old photo albums of her and Sweetie Belle as infants. She tried to remember some of the events captured in the film, but she found many of them hard to recall except for a select few. Turning the page she saw a photo of Sweetie Belle in the bath tub with a lump of soap on her mane. She remembered this memory due to what happened next. Looking to the next page she saw a picture of herself, covered in soapy water. Rarity smiled as she recollected that day.
She was only nine years old, Sweetie Belle was two, her mom had left to get something in the kitchen and had left her alone with the baby filly. As soon as her mother had turned the corner Sweetie Belle began to cry. She had tried everything to make her stop, yet it was all to no avail. Then Sweetie Belle began splashing around in the bath. It didn’t take long before Rarity was hit with a wave of soap and water. Right after that, her mom came in and thought the whole ordeal was so funny and cute that she had to take a picture. Rarity had another Idea of what she wanted to do in that moment, but looking back on it she did find the whole thing kind of cute as well.
“Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Dong! Dong!”
Disturbing Rarity from her inner thoughts, she looked up to see the clock on the wall was chiming. It read two in the afternoon.
Somewhat annoyed, Rarity stood up and laid the photo album in her chair, before trotting over to the phone. She hoped that perhaps she could call the Fillydelphia Airship Dock to ask if her parents’ airship had departed yet. Then maybe she could get some kind of an explanation as to why they’re being so late.
Rarity had specifically remembered calling her mother the night before and being told that their flight would be docking in Canterlot just before noon, yet here she waits at two P.M. with no explanation what so ever.
Then, just before Rarity’s hoof touched the telephone, it began to ring. Without hesitation, she picked it up, and lifted it to her ear.
“Hello?” she asked in her typical eloquent manner.
“Hey there sweet heart.”
Rarity instantly recognized the voice to be that of her mother, this caused the mussels in her cheeks to tug at her lips slightly.
“Hello mom, where are you?”
“We’re still at the docking port in Fillydelphia. They’re saying something about security procedures and what not.”
Rarity made a confused expression. “Security? In Equestria?”
“That was my reaction as well.”
“So, when do you think you’ll be getting home?”
“I’m not sure; maybe four or five hours. So, feel free to order in if you’d like. We have a few bits in the bottom drawer of my jewelry cabinet.”
Rarity let ought a light chuckle. “That’s quite alright mother. I can wait.”
“Oh, okay dear. I can’t wait to see you. It’s been far too long.”
“Indeed it has.”
“Well I had better go. There’s ponies waiting to use the phone, and your father…” Her mother’s voice began to trail off as though she were distracted. “What in the world?”
“What is it mother? Mother? Mom, are you there?”
Suddenly there was a blast of static followed by the dial tone. Rarity quickly hung up the phone as a rush of anger flowed over her. ‘Stupid cheap payphones; absolutely useless!’ she thought.
Knowing that she wouldn’t be able to call her mother back, the white unicorn decided to take this time to see if Twilight had gotten home and to ask about the odd security in Fillydelphia. So she lifted the phone and began to dial the library’s number, but she did keep an ear out for the incoming caller tone; just encase.
Twilight tried desperately to adjust the dials on her radio until Princess Celestia’s voice was perfectly clear. Feeling satisfied with her tuning she smiled and said “There we go.”
“Now many of you are questioning my response to many crises Equestria has recently faced. Well in my one thousand years I’ve seen many horrible things and you know what I’ve learned? Violence gets us no wear. What we need is to do everything we can to keep this world peaceful. For it should be an internal commitment to leave this world as a better place for not just Equestrian foals, but the children of the entire world.”
“Ring! Ring! Ring!”
Twilight groaned and rolled her eyes when she heard the telephone begin to let out, what she swore at that time was the most annoying noise in the world. Reluctantly, she stood and trotted over to the phone and levitated it off of its hook.
“Hello?” she asked in a somewhat frustrated tone.
“Hello Twilight.”
Upon noticing who had been calling, Twilight’s annoyed tone had shifted to one of confusion.
“Oh, hi Rarity. What is it?”
“Oh nothing. I just wanted to see if you and Spike had made it home okay, apparently you have.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Is that all?”
Rarity let out a nervous sigh. “No, it’s not. I was talking to my parents, and then all of a sudden the line went dead.”
Suddenly, Twilight’s radio went straight to static. It was so intense that it was as if the channel had never existed at all. ‘Oh not now!’ she thought.
“Hold on Rarity, my radio’s on the frits.”
“Wait there was something else. My mom said something about security being…” Rarity’s voice began to trail off in the same manner that her mother’s had previously. “What in Equestria is that?”
Twilight was now beginning to feel a little nervous herself. “Rarity, what is it? Are you okay?”
Rarity’s voice was no longer calm as usual; she was now so frantic she was almost screaming.
“Oh my goddesses! Oh my goddesses!”
Suddenly there was a loud crash followed by the deafening noise of static.
Quickly, Twilight levitated the phone from her ear and placed it back on the hook. “What the hay just happened?” she asked herself. Still in a daze of fear and confusion, it took her a moment to realize the radio was still blaring static. So she trotted to it and flicked it off with her magic. Suddenly she heard a nearby crash. Looking up she saw a small wooden box, which her father had given her, smashed at Spike’s feet while the young dragon stared perplexed out of the window.
Instantly, Twilight could feel her nervousness turn to anger. She must have told Spike a thousand times not to drop it when he was cleaning. Yet it now lays ruined at his feet.
“Dang it, Spike! I told you to be careful!”
Spike didn’t even flinch when Twilight scolded him. She honestly doubted that he had even heard her. This made her begin to wonder just what he was staring at.
“Spike, what are you looking at?”
On their way back from Appleloosa, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and the rest of their class, were all having fun on the Train ride home. Unlike Twilight and Spike’s experience, all of the fillies couldn’t possibly run out of things to talk about or do.
“I can’t wait to see Rarity again!” cheered Sweetie Belle.
“Yeah! Applejack will love to know all the things cousin Braeburn taught us!” replied Applebloom.
“Well, me and Rainbow Dash are going to do some serious pranking, Apple style!” announced Scootaloo.
“So what do y’all wanna do when we get back?” Applebloom asked curiously.
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both put a hoof to their chin, both looking very deep in thought. Then suddenly Sweetie Belle screamed “I know!” This unexpected outburst almost frightened Applebloom and Scootaloo, but before Sweetie Belle could realize it, she was already explaining her idea.
“Since Rarity is going to be super happy to be back in town, we could all surprise her and stay the night at the boutique! Then we could stay up all night singing, dancing, playing games, and all sorts of cool things! I’m sure she’ll love it!”
Scootaloo and Applebloom stared at the little white unicorn with blank expressions as their brains caught up with Sweetie Belle’s hyper active speech. Then, after a second, the two fillies jumped up and yelped in unison “I love it!”
The young white unicorn beamed with excitement. “Oh I can’t wait! We’re going to have so much fun tonight! We’re going to play cards, listen to the radio, and maybe get our cutie marks!”
“That sounds awesome!” cheered Scootaloo.
“Yeah!” agreed Applebloom.
Sweetie Belle continued to smile as she thought of more ideas, but as she caught sight of something out of the window, her smile faded. Slowly she lifted a hoof in its direction.
“What’s that?”
All of a sudden, the train came to a grinding halt as a sound of smashing metal boomed from the forward compartments. This abrupt stop was so quick that it sent the three fillies hurling out of their seats.
Fluttershy was beginning to grow inpatient with the rats herself, but she managed not to display her emotions. She knew if they caught sight of it, all of her work would be for not.
“Come on Mr. Ratington. There’s nothing to worry about. I promise I’ll take good care of you and your family. Okay?”
The small animal did begin to move forward, but suddenly, it noticed something behind Fluttershy and quickly scurried back into its burrow. The yellow Pegasus made an angry face as she turned around, half expecting Applejack to be behind her, despite telling her numerous times not to come in until the rats were out of their den. However, to her surprise, there was no pony behind her. The barn was empty.
She found this a little strange, so she decided to momentarily abandon her rat removal efforts and try to locate Applejack or Rainbow Dash. As she stepped out of the barn, the first thing she noticed was how quiet everything had gotten. Not a bird sang, not a cricket chirped, not even a wind blew. It was as if time it’s self-had stopped.
Needless to say, Fluttershy began to feel a little uneasy, so she began to quicken her pace in finding her friends. However this didn’t take very long at all, for when she turned a corner, she saw the two mares staring at something off in the distance. Fluttershy looked in the direction they were and caught sight of the most terrifying thing ever seen. Off in the distance was an massive, ominous, oppressive mushroom cloud, directly over Canterlot.
Rarity awoke gasping for air. Her lungs burned as she breathed in the dust of rubble. Involuntary, she began coughing and wheezing violently, but after a moment it had passed.
Still trying to process what had just happened, she looked around in horror to see her parents’ apartment in shambles. The ceiling had caved in over the living room and the only thing preventing the tons of concrete from falling on her was a small half-shattered column of marble.
Quickly, she tried to escape what would soon become her tomb, but when she tried to move, she felt something heavy pinning her foreleg. Looking down she saw that a large slab of the ceiling had broken off from the part being supported by the column and pinned her leg to the floor.
With all of her strength, Rarity began to try to yank her leg free. The pain elicited a scream, but she still continued to tug. After a moment more her leg began to slide out. With another pull it was almost free. Then finally, she jerked her leg one last time, freeing herself and sending the slab crashing to the floor.
The sudden tremor must have caused the marble to weaken, because when she did this, Rarity could see a crack begin to spread down the pillar. Wasting no time, she jumped to her hooves, ignoring the pain of her right foreleg, and darted out of its way. Seconds later the massive slab came crashing to the floor, sending up a plumb of dust.
Rarity held her breath as she waited for the dust to settle. Looking around, she saw that there was light pouring in from one of the windows. She trotted over to it and saw that she was near the ground, despite the fact that her parents apartment was on the second floor. The entire first floor must have been crushed beneath her hooves. She couldn’t imagine what must have happened to the ponies down there. Quickly, she pushed that thought out of her head and kicked at the window. Much of the glass was already gone, enough for her to climb through. So Rarity pulled herself through the opening, causing her to tumble to the ground.
The white unicorn looked around to see many chariots and buildings on fire as well as several charred and bloody ponies. Rarity honestly couldn’t tell if they were dead or alive. Not able to take the horrible scene around her any longer, she looked up to the sky and saw the source of all this destruction; the mushroom cloud.
