ACT I: Something Long Lost - Chapter 1: A Lone Mare
Everything Ends
By Ghostwriter95
Act I: Something Long Lost
Chapter 1: A Lone Mare
Snow silently fell onto the earth as the wind howled a song to rock the earth to sleep. This lullaby from the air gently drifted to a mere whisper, calming to nothing but dead silence of the night. The only sounds that could be heard were those of animals nestling lovingly into their homes, hoping to find warmth.
The snow sifted to the side as a single hoof broke through the smooth cover, causing a drift of snow to settle besides the hoof. The figure squinted its eyes as it gazed the land before it; a barren land of nothing that they wished would return to that of which it was before. Snow began to fall once more, coating the figure in white frost, a feeling it was all too used to.
The figure dropped its hood, revealing its white muzzle to the snow. She sighed in exhaustion from her travels across the wasteland of snow and ice, a journey which she no longer remembered the point of, save for the fact she was looking for something. She began to make her way once more forward, the only thing stopping her the faint noise of hooves hitting dully against the snow behind her.
"Stop right now, you pony filth," the Zebra growled, standing in a battle stance. Most ponies feared the call of a Zebra, with good reason. But she had nothing to fear; nothing to lose. Her sigh caused a puff of smoke to emit from her mouth, her violet eyes staring at the Zebra as she turned.
"For what?" she whispered, her voice tired from the journey. "So you can force me back out here, but for you own benefit?" She slowly walked towards the Zebras, who were startled slightly by her not fearing her.
"Don't take another step!" His threat fell on deaf ears, the mare still advancing slowly towards the Zebra.
"Maybe you'll be the one to finally give me death? I keep looking... Never finds me." Her eyes screamed at her to close them as the snow violated the surface of them, to no avail. She continued to stare at the Zebras as she hypnotically advanced them, never giving them the satisfaction of scaring her.
"If it's death you want," the Zebra laughed, looking to his two partners, "we'll be happy to oblige!" The mare teleported herself behind them as the three dived at her, smiling at the chance to fight more Zebras. The trio turned around to see the mare staring at them with murder in her eyes, her smile revealing a row of gleaming white teeth. Her expression was almost maniacal in concept, her eyes reflecting the now scared expressions of the Zebras.
"Looks like death still can't find me..." With a sigh, she stepped hoof by hoof towards the three Zebras. "Which means I'm her messenger again." The three Zebras scampered to their hooves again, preparing to engage with the unicorn.
The first attack was that of the rightmost zebra's, a swipe with his bladed hoof armor. This effort was utterly pointless, as the mare simply jumped backwards and directed it to his partner, impaling him in the throat. The Zebra went wide eyed at the sudden amount of blood flowing from his throat, his eyes fogging over as he fell backwards.
"Holy..." The Zebra immediately retracted his blade, turning to the mare that simply stood and stared at him. Her eyes were filled with sadness. Not for the Zebra, she had no sorrow for him. Rather, because the beautiful white snow was now tainted with the crimson of yet another living being.
"I'm sorry..." she whispered to the earth. “Maybe one day this can end... One day, it will be my blood spilled and I can return to you." The remaining two Zebras stared wide eyed at the mare as she talked to the ground. Shaking their heads, they saw a chance to attack while she was distracted. They both swiped their blades at her, missing miserably as she dropped to the ground.
She bucked the two of them as she stood, knocking them both into the snow. They quickly struggled to stand, but only one made it back up. He almost threw up at the sight of the mare standing before him, her horn impaled into his late partner’s chest. The thick red liquid streamed slowly down, pooling inside the groove in the snow around her hooves. She groaned as she pulled her horn from his chest, a bout of the thick red liquid spraying against her face.
She wiped the blood from her face using her magic as she looked at the final Zebra. She blinked once and sighed, a single tear falling from her eye.
"One day, this is all going to be over... Our races will return to harmony, you know?" Her sudden civil talk made the Zebra even more scared of this mare. "These lands," she mumbled as she looked over the wasteland around her, "they used to be so peaceful; so sunny. I haven't even seen the grass in a year, that lovely grass the earth produces for us to enjoy."
"W-who a-are you?" he squeaked, receiving a blank stare as an answer.
"Doesn't matter... The names of ponies never mattered to you Zebras anyways. All it is to you is a name on a piece of paper, traded to another like an item in a store. We're nothing to you but merchandise, so why do you care?" she snapped, growing slightly angry at the topic. He tried to reply, but came to no suitable response. She levitated the hood back over her head as she walked towards the Zebra.
"Wait! Don't kill me! I have a child that's waiting for me!" he pleaded, panic filling his body. The mare stopped in front of him and stared down with a frown. The blizzard died down once more, allowing her to gaze upon his frightened face.
"Don't worry about your child..." she ensured, her tone of voice dying down to a mere tone of sadness, "Because..." The Zebra screamed in anguish as she impaled him with her horn.
"Everything Ends."
Three years ago, the beautiful country of Equestria was raided by the Zebras, the neighbors to Equestria. It started with small occupations; small towns falling to the new force. While Equestria had magic, the zebras were much more prepared for a war.
Using their specially made war suits, which have retractable blades in the hooves, they were able to easily take small, unprotected towns. Those that fought back against these invaders were systematically executed in front of their families. It was only a short day before the Princesses sent the Royal Guard to nullify the situation. Sadly, despite their advanced training, the guards were ultimately beat with casualties of 5 to 1.
This continued for about two weeks. The Zebras would take a small town; the Princesses would try to combat it. The result was always the same, the only thing trying to fight accomplished was thinning their forces. Eventually, much to the horror of the ponies, the Zebras made their way to larger towns. The first example of their might was the fair sized town of Ponyville.
After a day, the town was but a shell of its former self. Buildings lay in ruin, corpses littered the street, the town hall itself now just a collapsed mass of ruins. Taking the town was never their goal. No, they wanted to send a message. If they could raze a town that easily, especially one so close to Canterlot, where were they to be stopped?
Seven cities fell as well, their collapse happening in a short time of a week. The Princesses began to realize how much trouble there were in. They agreed to arrange a meeting between the leaders of the Zebra nation, in hopes of bringing an end to the invasion of their homeland.
Nopony knows how the treaty signing might have ended, because the city of Canterlot was attacked the night before the signing. For two days, the Royal Guard tried to hold the invaders back, all the while wondering why their Princesses weren't helping. Finally, after two days and night of war, the Zebras slayed the final guard. The city of Canterlot laid in utter ruins, any inhabitants laid dead in the streets.
But the Zebras weren't done there... They entered the castle, in search of the two Princesses, only to find that the castle was completely empty.
The Princesses had vanished.
It was only another miserable month before the entirety of Equestria was under the regime of the Zebras. Anypony that didn't fight back was forced to watch as their way of life was ended. The one that did were paralyzed with strong potions, before they were taken off to a place unknown. Those that were taken were never heard from again.
About two years after that, the world was plagued with a never ending blizzard. The ponies believed it was the legendary windigos, the cursed creatures that brought snow and suffering to those that didn't show love and friendship. Neither Nopony nor Zebra knows what caused it, even to this day.
But still the ponies cling to hope. Hope that one day, their Princesses will return and save them from their miserable existence. Each day, the ponies slave for their striped masters, fearful of being taken where the lost ones go. It was the horror of not knowing what happens that drove them to continue to work. Who knows, maybe they are just taken out of sight and just killed. Nopony was willing to find out though.
Slowly, the ponies lost hope. Their Princesses had forsaken them, left them to live the worst lives imaginable... Why would they ever come back for them? But more importantly, a new question began to arise in the minds of the ponies.
Will anypony ever fight back?
The snow fell silently, not a noise in the air. Each step she made crunched the snow beneath her hooves, the cries of the earth for relief from her hooves. Her white muzzle protruded from her black cloak, her new toys on her hooves black as the night.
After her scuffle with the Zebra troupe, she had taken the bladed shoes and placed them on her own hooves, in case she was to run into any more of them. Personally, she dreaded the weapons of murder, wanting only to see them all gone. Still, she wasn't stupid. Having one, or four in her case, insured her survival from a premature death.
She stopped walking as she headed a hill, the sight below her shocking her to the slightest. Beneath her was an olden town, one she strangely felt accustomed too. She knew not where she hailed from, nor did she have any connections to any of the towns she knew of. From that day, three months ago she had woken in a snow dune, she had just traveled.
At first, it wasn't easy for her. The cold was unbearable and the Zebras constantly hassled her to get back to her duties. Then one day, a certain Zebra tried to force himself on her. She lost her temper and killed in, as well as an entire platoon in a rage. That was about two weeks ago, back near the edges of Las Pegasus.
Her breath fogged the air in front of her as she continued to gaze down at the town she felt she knew. Never had she been there before as far as she knew, but she couldn't help but feel something she was connected to there. A sigh escaping her, she made her way down the slope, sliding carefully down the side of it. The snow she unsettled from the slide down drifted across the sky like a mist of white, carrying itself to another place where she wouldn't unsettle it.
The ruins screamed in agony as the wind passed through them, creaking from the threat of collapsing at any moment. Shutters of nearby windows slammed themselves open and shut, almost like the buildings themselves were telling the unwanted visitor to go away. From first sights, this town was one of the first to be leveled. Any buildings that were still intact barely stood, their husks ready to collapse upon themselves.
The mare hummed to herself as she made her way through the town. To most ponies this was a tragic reminder of what had happened. To her, it was just a walk through a town, a normal day just like any other. It was the only existence she had ever known, so was it to be forever in her mind. Until the day the world granted her the chance to return to it, a soul freed from its suffering. Still, even though she wanted so badly for this, she knew that the world still expected something of her. What that was, she still had no idea.
"Is it a Zebra?" a hushed voice called out, the whisper lost to the silence of the night.
"Quiet, it'll hear us." The mare stopped and looked to the direction of the voices. Either she had just heard a ghost, or there were survivors here. For a moment she though on whether or not to introduce herself. What if they were spies for the Zebras? After a short moment, she sighed and walked over to where the voices had come from.
"I'm not one of them." she explained, her voice tearing the stillness of the night. "I'm... Not hostile." She looked as a head poked out from behind some nearby rubble.
"How can we trust you?" a voice asked, not the one that was looking at her though.
"You can't. Nothing can be trusted," she whispered, a single tear welling in her eye. "The world trusted us... And look what we brought it. This beautiful nation, a tragic ending..." The six mares hiding behind the rubble were now all looking at the cloaked figure, bits of her mane flowing from underneath her hood.
"Who are you?" the purple one asked, her voice filled with sadness at what the mare had just said.
"My name never mattered to anypony before... Doesn't matter now." she explained, her tone of voice dropping to shallow sadness.
"I'm Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends. Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy."
"Twilight, she said it herself. We can't trust her!" Rainbow chimed in, her voice filled with slight panic. She turned to the mare and looked at her "Are you a spy?!"
"Just a mare that's looking for something. Something..." she stopped, trying to remember what exactly she was looking form. "I lost a long time ago."
"Where'd you get the death boots, huh?"
"Some dead Zebras." The six gasped and backed away from her, none to her surprise. "Go ahead, run... I won't plead for you to stay with me."
"Did..." Twilight choked, afraid to ask the question. "You kill them?"
"I'm not proud of it... Ending a life is something you never get used to, but it had to be done."
"I... I understand. Sad as it may seem, that's the life we live now. Don't worry, we won't judge you. We don't have much, but feel free to hide here from the Zebras."
"Thank you for the offer," she sighed, "but I can't stay. I lost something, and even thought I don't remember what that is, I'm going to find it."
"Want some company?"
"You don't want to come with me. Death is my ally; she follows me wherever I go. I've never wanted her company, but we're inseparable. Sisters to the end."
"Uh, Twi?" Applejack worriedly said. "Isn't she a might bit... depressing?"
"Applejack!"
"No, it's alright. I'm not the happiest pony ever, but it's hard to know happiness when you've never had the chance to experience it. Please, for your own sake... Don't come with me."
"If you need help, we'll be there. Us ponies have to stick together in these dark times, or else we're just giving up." The mare nodded to Twilight, indeed to all her friends.
"Maybe that's what I've been missing... Friends." Her tone lightened a bit, almost to a happy level. "Maybe it's time I get new companions."
"So you'll have us? Excellent! Even though this place is... was out home, we've nothing left here. You girls okay with leaving?" The five mares nodded in agreement, although all had fear of leaving. "Okay then, it's settled! We have three young mares and a dragon out gathering supplies right now, so would you mind waiting?"
"I'm in no hurry, so sure."
"So..." She looked up at the pink pony, who she recalled was named Pinkie Pie. "I'd throw you a party, but we're a bit low on supplies and cake. Can't have a party without cake, I always say!"
"Meet Pinkie, the morale of our group," Twilight snickered. "If you're ever feeling down, just talk to her."
"So, what's your name? Oh, that's right; you said you didn't have one! Or did you say it wasn't important. I forget!"
"Pinkie, don't bother her. Can you go keep a look out for Spike and the others?"
"Fine..." Pinkie sighed and made her way to a nearby street.
"I'm sorry about her, she's just happy to meet new ponies is all," Twilight explained, laughing a bit to herself as the pink pony walked away.
"Must be nice, being that happy." The two looked over the ruins of Ponyville, Twilight's library in front of them. The mare looked up as snow began to fall once more, sighing. Twilight watched as she dropped her hood back, her midnight blue mane falling right above her eyes.
"My name is Eclipse." Twilight looked at her new companion, then back over the ruins of her home.
And Smiled.
"Twilight, we can't just leave here!" Spike protested, looking to the three fillies. "Here, we're safe from the patrols. Out there though and the Zebras will surely find us."
"What choice do we have, Spike? This town is completely devoid of supplies anymore. If we continue on like this, we'll be dead within a week."
Eclipse looked slowly to the two arguing, shaking her head. "It's not any better out there."
"See? Even she agrees with me!"
"I don't agree with you... Staying here is a bad choice too. But leaving is sure death as well. Only, out there you'll have some fighting chance. In the end, death still comes to reclaim the lives we were loaned. It's all a matter of how willing we are to live... That's what modifies our life spans."
"How can you even think that?" Twilight yelled, jumping up and looking the mare in her eyes.
"Because it's true. Life's end... It's beautiful; almost tragic. When life fades, it is but a farewell from the world to us as we pass to another existence. It happens to everypony, everybody because we are meant to return to the earth's essence." she calmly explained, her face showing no emotion.
"However true that may be, you can't just go saying ponies are going to die!"
"Would you have me lie? Say everything is going to be sunshine and rainbows? No, that was the way of the old world. Still, I'd love to experience that in my lifetime... The happiness that you all had in the old times."
"What are you talking about? You look the same age as me!"
"I'd like to believe that... Been around for three months." Both Twilight and Spike's jaws dropped.
"Three months?! How is that even possible?"
"I have no idea. Three months ago, I woke up in a snow dune and the Zebras couldn't identify me. I had no memory of anything, nor did anypony in my travels recognize me. This," she said, waving her hoof around the destroyed city, "has always been my life."
"Celestia, I had no idea..."
"No one could. So that's why I travel... Maybe one day death will find me, or I'll find answers to who I am. The worst part? Even though I know no past, I feel as though I lost something so long ago... Something very dear to me." The three sat in silence, their breathing the only audible ambiance.
"You three done in there? We need to know if we're leaving or not before sunrise." Applejack called from inside the library. Twilight had tried to insist that Eclipse come inside, but she had refused saying that she preferred the calm of the snow.
"Yeah, I'll be up in a second," she yelled up, turning to Spike. "Spike, we have to go. We can either stay here and wait until we..."Twilight glanced at Eclipse "die. Or we can fight back for Equestria. Celestia wouldn't have wanted us living in fear..."
"Okay, Twi... Okay."
"Let's go pack our things." She turned to Eclipse. "You want to come inside?"
"No, the blizzard will fall again soon. It's the only time when the evil is eclipsed by that white blanket," she whispered, while looking up at the sky. "You learn to live in it... I've grown so accustomed that it's like a welcomed friend whom I've not seen in so long."
"Okay, then... We'll be ready in about thirty minutes."
"Take your time." Eclipse said, looking back up to the dull gray sky. Clouds slowly passed by, controlled by the devices of the Zebra, terrible machines that controlled everything from the weather to the raising of the sun and moon. She hated it so much, to hear stories of the Pegasi once controlling the weather and the two Princesses controlling the sun and moon. It's saddening.
Twilight looked down at Eclipse, who was sitting happily in the snow. Even though she shivered lightly, she continued to sit there, not moving an inch as she stared into the sky. "Did I make the wrong choice? Trusting her I mean."
"Probably, but it's too late now," Applejack replied. "You're right, we can't stay here... As much as ah hate to admit it, our home is run dry of supplies. If she is who she says she is, then we'll be much safer with her than anything. Doesn't mean we have to trust her."
"No, you're wrong. We have to trust her, because we may run into times when we depend on her." Twilight responded, looking down at Eclipse as she stood and stretched.
"Hope she's trustworthy..." Twilight's eye met with Eclipse's, those eyes filled with sadness. It was right then, she knew she had met Eclipse sometime before, but couldn't quite place a hoof on where.
Eclipse looked up from her stretch, the purple mare staring at her from a window. Their eyes connected, sadness filling Eclipse as she realized what it was she had lost.
She had lost herself.
Chapter 2: A Family 'Til The End
Chapter 2
A Family 'Til The End
White snow fell from the night sky, highlighting the sky in the occasional twinkle of light reflecting off the flakes, if not for a single second.
"Tears of the Princesses, sparkling from the moon, Luna's child," Eclipse said to no one in particular. In fact, she was still sitting outside waiting for the others to finish gathering supplies. The town around her groaned for mercy, to be put away from it's miserable existence. "Isn't that right, Luna?" she questioned, looking to the moon, barely visible behind the cover of snow. Her eyes shined from the light entering them, illuminating her beautiful violet eyes, the pain they suffered washed away by the cleansing light of the moon.
"Sugarcube, what are ya'll doing?" Applejack asked, shattering the silence like a thin sheet of ice.
"Just admiring the beauty our Princesses left for us," she replied, sighing happily as the wind blew her mane every which direction. "You know, that place I awoke... It was the only place with was grass left. Even though it was cold outside, I was so warm. I believe to this day that Celestia was there, next to me, cradling me in her arms, protecting me like a lost child."
"Well, that was... deep."
"Nothing deep about it," she lightly replied, her voice sweet and caring. "Our Princesses are gone, but yet they never left. In our hearts, they still live on, protect us as they always have. And they always will."
"Look," Applejack sighed, "I don't know who you are, or if we can trust you. But if you really believe that, then you and Twilight are two of a kind, so you're good in my eyes. Just please, for Twilight, refrain from mentioning them around her. She took their loss hard and never got over it."
"Everypony did. I wasn't there for it for all I remember, but even though I wasn't, I still hear Equestria's screams of sorrow from losing its protectors. Our land is still only a baby and those Zebras ripped its parents away from it, took the bottle right from its mouth and forced it to grow up."
"Alright, enough with the personification," Applejack groaned.
"It's not personification if the land is alive. But some ponies just weren't to ever understand, so I'll keep to myself."
"Yeah... You do that," Applejack replied, backing away to the library.
Eclipse stood and shook the layer of snow that covered her back and made her way to the library. Not because she was cold, nor feeling lonely. Rather because she felt, deep inside her, that she was always meant to find this library. What fate meant for her to find, she'd never know until she looked. Until now, she had simply hid in the shadows, hoping that one day somepony would just tell her who she is.
"-all I'm saying is that she might be working with the Zebras," Rainbow said, her and the rest of the group just around the corner. Quickly, Eclipse hugged the wall, listening to the conversation.
"If she was, don't you think she would have already called them in?" Eclipse hadn't heard this voice yet, but it sounded more ladylike than the others.
"Maybe, but she could easily be getting on our good side then leading us into a camp of theirs!"
"Quiet, she'll hear you," Twilight scolded. "I know you're only trying to protect us, but we have to learn to start trusting our fellow ponies. It's the only way we're going to survive here."
"Just look at those things on her hoof! You expect me to just believe she killed a Zebra just like that and stole their boots? Even I'm not that heartless," Rainbow snapped, growing angry at her friends trying to defend a stranger. Eclipse allowed her mouth to droop to a frown at being called heartless. Sure, she wasn't the nicest pony to ever exist, but she wouldn't call herself heartless.
"Enough, Rainbow. What do you propose we do? Use your head. If she is indeed working for the Zebras, which I highly doubt, then she'll just tell them we are hiding out here," Twilight explained, trying to remain calm with the hardheaded Pegasus.
"I know that."
"Look, if it will make you feel better, we can leave her the moment she starts to do anything suspicious."
"We can't just abandon her out there in the cold," a kind voice said. Eclipse peeked around the corner to see who had spoke, revealing the yellow one with the pink mane standing up looking around at her friends. "What happened to you all? Before all of this, none of you would have even thought of abandoning a fellow pony."
"Fluttershy, we-"
"I'll leave right now if you all want," Eclipse interrupted, stepping around the corner. She glared at each and every one of the ponies, each of them looking away from her judgmental gaze. "I've survived this long alone. I don't need any ponies that don't trust me next to me," she growled, immediately turning around and making her way outside.
"Wait, Eclipse! See what you did, Rainbow?" Twilight chided, chasing after the offended pony. She stepped outside and quickly looked left to right, searching for any sight of the mysterious mare. Her eyes quickly locked onto the figure walking away from whence she came, her hood up. "Hey, wait!"
"Look, I said I'm leaving, alright?"
"Don't listen to Rainbow, she's just a little hardheaded is all." Eclipse stopped and swiftly turned around to face Twilight.
"It's not her, alright? I was listening to you all, and I just got to thinking... I'm always running into trouble, problems that have a good chance with me ending up dead. I don't want to be responsible for anything happening to any of you. I'd never forgive myself is all."
"We can take care of ourselves, you know." Twilight explained, trying to give some comfort to the depressed pony.
"It's me that can't take care of myself, Twilight. I'm on a steep slope down with the only thing at the bottom being my death." Eclipse turned back around and looked over the white field, the clearing night sky with its sparkling stars. "I'm careless, dangerous even. Those three Zebras... I could have easily escaped them. But you know what I did? I killed them in cold blood, just because I could. You know something else?" she asked, turning around once more to stare Twilight in her eyes. "I'd do it again in a heartbeat. That's why I had second thoughts."
"Look," Twilight said, putting a caring hoof onto Eclipse's shoulder, an amount of care she had never had before, "I'm not saying it's good what you did, but it was probably necessary. Killing is never anything us ponies ever dreamed we would ever do, nor something we ever thought was a reality three years ago. It was nothing but absolute peace back then... But that's just not the way things are anymore. Never will I approve of killing, but neither will I judge anypony for killing either."
"Will you hold those thoughts in your head even when you are the one that just claimed a life?" Eclipse asked, "It's always that first time you take a life... You see the pain in their eyes; their begs for mercy piercing your heart. Those wounds never heal, so you as yourself: can I carry on?"
"I'm sorry..."
"There'll be plenty of time to be sorry. But not for me, for yourself. Whether you like it or not... there will be a time when you have to kill. It'll stay with you forever; you will lose sleep, wish you could take it all back." Eclipse sighed and looked up to the stars, the sky completely clear for the first time in days. "Each day I tell myself that I'm a monster. And each day... I die a little inside."
Twilight began to open her mouth to say something, but instead just remained quite and looked sheepishly at the ground.
"There's nothing glorious about war. Each death is needless, but still each side wades on, never relenting until they die. On the battlefield, you don't think about any of the lives you end... the families they have that will never see them again. But when you go to sleep, you see that very family, crying at the loss. The child that gets to see his or her father or mother again.
"These Zebra's aren't heartless. I've snuck by a few camps, heard a few of them talking about how they too wished things would return to the way things used to be. Neither of us want to fight this war anymore, but we have a choke-hold on each other... If they withdrawal, we'll retaliate, then it will be their lands that suffer. But if they continue on, our lands will soon be gone. So we do the only thing we can... We fight."
"Do you think things will ever return to the way they used to be?" Twilight asked, her voice choked as she tried to hold back tears from the horror of the situation.
"Only time will tell," she said, slowly walking away from Twilight.
"Wait!" Eclipse stopped as Twilight called out to her. "I don't care if your dangerous, or even if you've killed hundreds of them. We're in this together, so please, stay with us." Eclipse sighed and turned back around, looking at the mare as she smiled lightly.
"You'd really have me? As a friend?"
"No, not a friend," Twilight replied.
"Then what?"
"A family member." Eclipse perked up as Twilight smiled. And for the first time since she woke up in that ditch, she smiled. Not a dead smile like usual, but a genuine smile. For the first time in her whole life, she was happy.
