Prologue: The Announcement is Made
Light lazily slapped the shipping label on to the box infront of him before sliding it to the right, the next brown box moving itself to take the previous one's place. He sighed, slapping down the next label, looking up at the clock that rested on the other side of the room.
10:21
He rolled his eyes, looking back down as the next package slid its way infront of his station. He gripped the sheet of shipping labels in his hooves, and gently tugged at the sticker itself with his teeth. The label ripped, and caused many a "shhh" to come his way. He looked down at his hooves for a moment, slowly bringing himself to look back at his attempted label removal, the torn thing still flapping in two directions.
He stuck it down on to the box anyways, figuring it wasn't his problem once it left his department. He glanced to the left, running his eyes up and down the form of the female unicorn at his side, horn glowing blue, with her blonde mane curling around her brown coat. He smiled to himself, and looked to his right, not letting himself linger on any aspect of the male unicorn. He snapped back to attention as what sounded like a smack emanated from his station, causing another chorus of "shhh"s to rise from all around him.
Light gripped the label sheet once again, finding himself to be having a much more succesful time. He slammed his hoof down upon the next two boxes that came his way, clearing up his area for the time being. He closed his eyes and focused on the world around him; the ticking of the clock, the steady breaths of his co-workers, the way their labeling of the packages seemed to create a beat. He nodded his head slightly as he tuned in to the beat the ponies around him were unknowingly creating, but came back when an invisible force gave his mane a quick tug. He looked around, trying to find a culprit, but the search yielded no results.
He settled back in to his routine of ripping off four or five shipping labels, then placing one on each box that came by. You couldn't really call it a routine, and he knew it, but it was just how he viewed things. He looked back up at the clock, feeling that at least ten, if not fifteen minutes had gone by.
10:25
He groaned, disregarding the quiet work of the ponies around him. It was bad enough that he had been stuck in the labeling department for the day, but it really hurt when the entire section of the buisness held nothing but unicorns. How was he, just a simple earth pony, supposed to compete with a unicorn? The boxes began to pile up, three currently holding up the line, with a fourth rapidly approaching. Light took one look left, then one look right, then stood up in his station. He manually slid the four stopped boxes forward without labels, then turned and walked away, causing several unsatisfied moans to come from his all-unicorn group of co-workers. He walked towards the door, but was stopped by the department's supervisor, who, you guessed it, was also a unicorn.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Light did not reply, choosing instead to stand still and keep his mouth shut.
"Where are you going?", the unicorn repeated. Light still said nothing.
"Hey! Where the bu-"
"I know what you said, dammit!"
The magical workforce behind Light let out a collective gasp at his outburst, and his supervisor looked absolutely dumbstruck. He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it shortly after, deciding instead to hang his head, waving his hoof in the air, signaling for Light to just leave.
And leave he did.
Light stepped out through the gray door that led back outside, the gloom of his enclosed environment inside replaced with the bright, open environment of the outside word. The door closed itself as he walked forwards, inhaling deeply as he went, savoring the feeling of having cool, clean air flow through his lungs. He closed his eyes, continuing his stroll, beginning to hum a happy tune as he went.
He went about like this for several moments before colliding with a stranger on the street, knocking them both back. The pony he crashed in to looked at him as if he were stupid for doing such a thing, but looked away as Light began to stand himself back up, turning his attention towards the sky. Light followed his gaze, and found that it lead to a cloud.
Nothing special, just a cloud.
He was perplexed by this behavior, and heard murmurs from his right, and looked to see that it was a pair of mares doing the same thing, but occaisonally pointing at the sky. His interest was piqued.
He wandered around both groups, trying to see if there was something he was missing from the cloud, but found nothing. Over time, more and more ponies began to accumulate at the point where he was, greatly limiting his movement.
He finally looked over at a pony behind him, asking, "So, do you know what's going on?"
"I heard Celestia herself is supposed to be up on that cloud!"
Light found this strange for many reasons. First, why would the Princess just hide up on a cloud instead of staying in her castle? Second, what could possibly warrant a visit from Celestia?
He was about to give a reply to the pony that answered him, but was stopped as a booming, feminie voice filled the air.
"Citizens of Ponyville", she began, stopping as several cheers started, among them being several shouts of "Yeah!" and "Awesome!", even a few "That's us!"s broke through the wall of sound. The cheering slowly subsided, and Celestia began again.
"Citizens of Ponyville, I come to you with grave news."
The crowd fell silent, only one instance of "Woo!" coming from an individual, which was quickly followed up with several "Shut up!"s.
"Yes, very grave news. I know that you all look up to me like a-"
"We don't fucking look up to you, you bitch!", shouted a stallion from somewhere behind Light. He watched as two Royal Guards swooped down from the cloud Celestia was on, grab the non-believing, and fly away, the stallions cries echoing throughout the silent town.
"Hehehe...it always amuses me when that happens. That's not the point right now, though. As I was saying, you all look up to me, but there are tasks that even I cannot complete."
She paused, waiting for anymore outbursts, but none came, and she inhaled before delivering the news. It was sure to tear them all apart, but they had to know.
"My sister and I have both seen it coming for the past week now, but it has only just recently become a threat. We all only have three days before this meteor collides with Equestria, and when it does, it will errdicate all life as we know it. I'm sorry that I can't save you, and I hope to see you all in The After."
A 'pop' was heard as Celestia left, presumably teleporting back to Canterlot Castle, but the large crowd remained silent anyways.
Light whispered to himself, saying, "Mother of-", but was cut off as a scream pierced through the veil of silence.
