The Day After

by HerpicusDerpington

Rating: teen
Tags: Sad, Tragedy, Dark
Length: 1401

Equestria is a sunny, beautiful, and friendly land. The land's inhabitants aren't much different. However, the rest of the world isn't the same, especially the griffons. They'll do anything to wipe Equestria off the map. Anything.

Equestria. It's a sunny, beautiful, playful, and friendly land. The inhabitants are, mostly, the same. What about the rest of the world? Not always. Let's look at the griffons, for example. For reasons unknown, the griffon government would love to wipe Equestria off the face of the world. Even if it means, say, weaponizing uranium. Perhaps splitting the atom. They will do anything to achieve their dream. Anything.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The chapters are meant to be short. This is ultimately a short story; each chapter being from a different pony's perspective with an aftermath of it all at the end. Don't bitch about the length of the story, please. Thanks.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-02-22 22:45:25 UTC

Prologue

It was a busy morning in the United Wingdom. It was a Monday - young ones had school to attend and the adults had work to get to. Perhaps the busiest place in this entire land was right in the middle of its capital. In a large, dark, metal tower barely touching the sky, an utterly important meeting was taking place on the top floor. The Chairman of the Communistic government was sitting in a worn leather chair at one end of an oval table made of polished maple wood. Eleven seats surrounded the table - five along each side and one at the other end. Each seat was taken up by some important government official. The Chairman breathed a long sigh before speaking.

"I think it's time we put our 'secret' to use." he spoke. "Equestria, whether knowingly or unknowingly, has been a pain to us since this Communist party was established. As I'm sure you all know, so many pony officials have tried freeing people from this land, calling us a "danger" to our own civilization and even threatening to go to war with us if we don't transform our government into a democracy or monarchy."

Many of the griffon officials at the table nodded, most likely having flashbacks or memories of personal letters sent by Celestia herself addressing the issue of a Communistic country bordering her lands. The Chairman squeezed a cup of coffee with his claws in front of him, took a long sip, and set it back onto the table.

"With the captain of the royal guard married to one of the princesses," the Chairman continued, "he'll be bound to invade this country if she demands it. Before disaster strikes, we must strike first... with disaster."

The Chairman clutched a remote on the table and tapped a red button. The lights in the meeting room dimmed and a guard standing at the doors proceeded to close all the curtains in the room. A projector hanging from the ceiling turned on and shined an image onto the plain white wall behind the Chairman. The Chairman thrusted his feet, sliding his wheeled leather office chair across the tiled floor towards the windows to provide a better view for his company. The image presented the letter and numbers "u-235" on a blank white page. The Chairman tapped another button on his remote, and yet another, and another. The slideshow was showing clear images of uranium and gravity bomb diagrams.

The other griffons in the presentation room began to nod slowly, getting the picture. One of the griffons, wearing a small black bowtie, raised his claw in the air. The Chairman stopped cycling through the slides and looked at him. The rest of the room turned his way in unison with the Chairman.

"Permission to speak, sir?" the griffon slowly spoke nervously. The Chairman nodded.  "Okay, um, well... this must mean that we're going to use...  atomic weapons on the ponies? That will kill hundreds of thousands of innocent beings. Shouldn't we focus on their government?"

"No," spoke the Chairman. "We need to send a message and get Equestria off our backs. Attacking their perfect little monarchy will only make them retaliate. If we attack their citizens and they retaliate, we'll only keep attacking!" he finished with a raised voice. He pressed his remote once again, revealing the last slide of the presentation. It was a diagram and explanation of how the griffons will deliver each bomb - it required an airplane used by creatures without wings with an openable bay for dropping the weapon. The officials around the table all nodded and began to gather their things, knowing what they must do.

"One last thing," the Chairman said. The griffons looked at him. "I want the bombs underway to Equestria by tomorrow afternoon. Get to work."

With that, the Chairman turned off the projector and told the griffon guards to open the shades back up. He still sat while the room was fully empty, thinking hard to himself about the operation. He decided he should get all of his tasks done today and prepare for tomorrow.

Tomorrow was a big day.

Chapter One: Fluttershy - This World Is Pefect, Isn't It?

Ponyville, Equestria

The Day After The Prologue

As the sun rose and brightened the horizon of Equestria, the small town of Ponyville gradually began to wake up and its inhabitants started their days. The bearers of the Elements of Harmony resided here, and their days started out normally as well. The town was relatively important due to these six mares living in it. The settlement was quite busy this fine morning, and everywhere you turned, you'd be met with the hundreds of voices of different ponies and bustling businesses. The only calm place - more or less - was at a shed on the edge of the Everfree Forest.

This shed was home to the Element of Kindness -- a shy mare named Fluttershy. Her humble abode was full of animals running amok and trashing the place. She worked hard to keep them calm, but to no avail. At one point, she deeply sighed and rested on the couch while listening to a newly-acquired radio she had positioned on a coffee table in front of the couch. The animals seemed to slowly get worn out by themselves and return to a calm state. Fluttershy smiled as her favorite little bunny, Angel, made his way onto the couch and onto her lap.

Suddenly, the soft classical music coming through the radio was cut off by an emergency news broadcast. A male voice spoke of several airplanes coming from the United Wingdom with eerie-looking devices strapped to the bottom of them. He advised ponies to stay indoors until the government got to the bottom of the trespassing vehicles.

Fluttershy was unsure how many ponies were actually listening to a radio when that broadcast appeared, but she hoped they were informed somehow. She got up from her spot, lightly nudging Angel off of her and trotting into her backyard trying to lead her animals into her house. Once all of the creatures had gotten inside, she came in behind them and locked the back door. She returned to her spot on the couch, much to Angel's joy, and continued to hear what the radio had to say.

It appeared the broadcast was over, and Fluttershy worried she missed something important while gathering her animals. Then again, is anything more important to her than her animals? She listened to the music being played on the radio for a few more minutes before, much to Angel's disappointment, getting up to look outside her window. Were these planes even visible over Ponyville?

Yeah. They were.

Fluttershy could see about three planes in the far distance and one particularly close to Ponyville. It had one of those "eerie-looking devices" on it's underside. It drew closer to the town before releasing the object. Fluttershy gasped, though unsure why. She didn't even know what this thing did. Though, maybe it was a weapon? She assumed the plane belonged to the griffons, who, by heart, hated ponykind. She tried to love and tolerate any griffons she saw, but they always ignored her or used extremely hurtful insults against her. What did ponies ever do to them?

Her train of thought was cut off by a bright flash of light coming from the city. She fell backwards and hit her head on the coffee table, blurring her vision and delivering an extreme pain to the back of her head. Winds going at the speed of lightning hit her house, blowing trees apart and tearing her roof off. Things began to get very hot and she tried to hold all her animals as close as she could. From the floor, Fluttershy could see a cloud of smoke resembling a mushroom towering over the city through her window. She began to cry hysterically, only to have her tears instantly evaporated by the heat. Her animals screeched as they burned and had skin peel off, only forcing her to cry even more. Before falling unconscious, she saw a frame contraining a piece of paper with a phrase written on it, surrounded by fields of green grass and a bright sun, while the whole thing slowly burned in a fire. It read;

"The World Is A Perfect And Friendly Place, Isn't It?"