Princess Luna stared at her remaining guards, “I’ll ask one more time, how many... how many disappeared last night?”
“Uh, well out of... out of fifteen, there are only us four left.” The guard answered.
Another guard spoke up; this one more scared then the others. “How could this happen where did they go, how could twelve guards just up and disappear overnight?”
“Calm down” Luna said.
“Calm down calm down! Don’t tell me to calm down!” The guard immediate lowered his head, “I’m sorry Princess... it’s just one of the missing guards is my little brother.”
“That’s quite alright; we’ll find him and the others.” Luna turned around as the only remaining night guard appeared, “well Midnight Shine, what is left?”
“It’s not good princess. All the supplies are gone, save for a few things to eat and drink, but even that’s limited.” Midnight Shine reached into her bag and pulled out a small block then placed it on the ground, “well those things and this.”
Luna looked at the item suddenly realizing what it was and rushed inside Twilight’s shack returning with the broken record. “I think we can use this to find out what is on this record.” She placed the record on the record player.
“Princess I highly doubt that broken thing will play...” the guard was interrupted by a loud cracking a scratching sound, then, The sound of running and heavy breathing filled the air.
The running appeared to stop and there was a long silence. Finally the silence was broken by the sound of somepony going through a bag and pulling out something. Several clicking sounds were made followed by the sound of fire, probably a torch; either way it seemed as though it was trying to create a source of light or warmth.
The entity broke into a fit of coughing and was breathing heavily more than likely still exhausted from running. The next sound after the coughing fit sounded as if it was taking a few steps or even simply moving through some rough terrain, it made a sigh or grunting as if it were straining to sit-down. The sound of sifting through its bag and pages turning followed.
The sound of the pages turning went on for a while eventually stopping when a subtle, but recognizable sound occurred, the light source had been blown out; the entity gasped and frantically began to fumbled with an object which began to click the entity must have been trying to create a new light source.
Frantic footsteps filled the air, but not that of the main entity. The clicking sound stopped, but the sound of fire did not come, instead a harsh screech filled the records sound followed by silence and the record skipping.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Twilight’s eyes jolted open as she broke into a fit of coughs, spewing out more water with each cough.
“Huh, where... where am I?” Twilight looked around trying to get her bearings with no success. “Spike... girls... anypony!?”
Twilight coughed again, “where am I... this place sure doesn’t look like Equestria.” Twilight turned around, “...and that sure doesn’t look like Ponyville.” She took a step forward and was welcomed by an intense pain in her hoof. She screamed as she looked down to see her front right hoof was swollen. Twilight began to limp towards the strange looking village.
“Hello, is anypony here? My name is Twilight Sparkle, can somepony help me I think my hoof is broken... anypony?”
The entire village was dark, only visible thanks to the setting sun’s glow. It wasn’t until she entered, what was probably once the village’s town square, that she noticed the buildings were falling to pieces. Doors had been busted down, windows broken, huge chunks of houses missing, and cobwebs filled the corners of almost every house. No matter how many times Twilight searched the homes she found no sign of life.
“What the hay happened here?” Twilight hobbled over to a well; before she could get something to drink her eyes caught the sight of a single light coming from what appeared to be a church and broke into a limp gallop to the building.
Twilight opened the church’s door, “Hello, anypony here I need help... I’m hurt pretty bad.”
The church was empty and compared to the rest of the village, in decent shape. After searching and finding nopony she found herself on the other side of the church in front of a chest, above the chest covering the window was a sign with something hastily written that read:
HES ALWAYS WATCHING
He’s always watching... I wonder what that means, Twilight thought to herself.
“Um hello... if anypony is here and doesn’t want me to open this chest, say something.” Twilight looked around waiting for a response, when nopony answered she shrugged her shoulders and returned to the chest. Twilight opened the chest and found that it contained a bag, a journal (empty), a very shiny yellow apple, and a folded up note.
Twilight unfolded the note:
Eat Sleep Remember