//------------------------------// // Prologue: Gone. // Story: Life After Ponies // by Scourge the yellow cat //------------------------------// During each morning, the city of Canterlot experiences phenomenon that is unable to be viewed anywhere else in the world. When the morning sun shows itself to the royal city and to start the day, the sunlight goes and hits the ivory and golden spires of the buildings. As a result of this action, the city will have the appearance of a heavenly glow, as if it was from the land where the angels frolic and live. The prime example of this effect is the mighty Canterlot Castle, where the morning sun makes the entire castle complex radiate a halo of pure power and energy. Because of this, Canterlot Castle has a nickname that has been coined that although not official, everyone agrees that the name is very fitting: the Heavenly Castle. Moving away from the complex exterior, the Throne Room is no less impressive. Although the room hasn't changed that much since the castle has had a change of ownership, the absolute beauty of the architecture still brings up strong emotions. And the crowning detail, both metaphorically and literally, is the platform that has the seat on it. The platform itself is nothing special, but rather the seat. The seat itself had been in that spot since it was made a millennium ago. The frame was of Great Oak, being covered with pure gold. Not only is gold symbolic to royalty and power, but compared to other metals it is very malleable. The golden coating has had very etiquette detailing into it, with figures of ponies doing poses that make them appear like they are floating in free thought. Moving from the hightly detailed gold, the ancient crimson cushion holds no less of a story. Having been created by makers long since gone, the cushion had to take a great journey from where it was made to being a part of the seat fit for goddesses. Moving from the seat and the Throne Room, weaving through the corridors of the strangely-vacant castle, there is a room with two large wooden doors. This room is not like the others, as seen once the doors are actually passed. It is a bedroom, with a large Queen bed in the middle of the back that has purple bed covers neatly done. To the left of the bed is a balcony leading out to a view that encompasses both the city of Canterlot, as well as a small little town that neighbors a big forest. Clearly, whoever lived in this room had a deep connection to both settlements. Returning to the room, to the right side of the bed is a table and a drawer. On the dresser were a few pictures in frames, most of them depicting the same six group of mares, varying in detail and colors, enjoying whatever moment the pictures had captured them in. To the right of the pictures was a book that had a golden outline of a unicorn head, which seemed to have what was nine years of pages bound within its cover. Finally, there was a letter, the black ink clashing wildly with the tan-colored paper it was written on. On the picture was a young pink unicorn smiling. Right next to the drawer was a table that had items of shimmering gold that were in three different pieces, likely regalia. One looked like a set of legwear that seems to be capable of being put on an equine's hooves. The second seemed to be a collar of some sort, with a dark pink gem specifically cut to look like a six-pointed star. The last piece was a tiara, crowned by jewels that sparkled no matter what direction you looked from. Normally at this time, they would have been placed on by their owner, to serve another day of ruling a nation. Instead, the regalia will appear to stay in their places, still shining brightly and polished nice. If their owner would return, they will certainly be able to put the regalia on and resume their job as working for its nation. The owner, however, was not in the bedroom, or even in the castle complex. In fact, the city was way too quiet right now, with the streets of the city lacking any species walking on them. Something was very, very off. Angel Bunny woke up as the sounds of the morning began. Yawning, the little furry bunny rabbit stretched himself awake as the disorientation of waking up slowly faded from him. After the former was done, Angel noticed that Fluttershy was not making any noise in her bed. Hopping his way to Fluttershy's bed, the bunny thought that she had probably just overslept again. When he got there, however, Angel saw that the bed was empty of a certain yellow pegasus and instead had unkept sheets. Angel pondered for a bit, before chalking it up to her absence being caused of that off her being in as rush. Besides, although he knew that her job of whatever should be done now, with the new younger kids being the new Elements, maybe there was an emergency that required Fluttershy? Shrugging to himself, the rabbit hopped his way to the kitchen, where he saw the rest of the animals there as well. This was the point where Angel began to worry a bit; Fluttershy, even in an emergency, would have at least gave each animal she cared for some food. Well, maybe she had a really big emergency that she needed to go to. That can happen, right? And so, Angel, with the help of many of the other animals, helped give each animal their breakfast. Fluttershy had trained them to a certain extent to take care of themselves in the event of her being off for a long journey, just in case it were to raise. Besides, she can't be away that long, can she? =|= Winona had been barking for a good while at the farmhouse. She was hungry, and when she went on her daily journey across the farmhouse to greet her masters a good morning, they were all gone from their rooms. This was curious to the canine, as they would normally be in their beds when the sun came up. She walked off, assuming that they were probably off on a trip somewhere. Being the good girl she is, Winona will wait for her masters to return; they will have to return at one point, she knew that. As pets woke up all around the world, they would face the same scenario: their owners would be missing, and they would assume it to be nothing more than to be that their owners to be off on a trip and would return to them shortly. Little did the pets (including the farm dog and the cottage animals) know, but their owners were indeed on a trip, but on one that they would never return from. The owners of these pets had disappeared over the night, anything could have happened to them,the cause of which is uncertain. One thing is for certain, however... Welcome to Equus, Population: Zero.