//------------------------------// // Is this how I die? // Story: Dust and Ashes // by Fearless Journey //------------------------------// Nobody remembers quite what happened that night. One moment there was silence. The next, a deeply distressing hum of empty white noise. Like a ringing in your ear, only it kept getting louder and louder and louder. Then came the heat. Burning, scorching heat, the fury of a thousand dragons bathing the world in infernal light. The fires of Tartarus painting the sky in brushstrokes of red and orange. (Note to self: You're no poet. Cool it with the metaphors in the coming entries.) From the ashes and the scorched, deformed bodies of ponies less fortunate, it's safe to say that at least half of us didn't see the aftermath. But those of us that did would soon be faced with a different problem. The sun would never rise again. Our divine light, our immortal hope, had been extinguished. There was no other explanation. Unless this was the sudden and strangely quiet return of Nightmare Moon, our celestial rulers, our sun and moon, must have met their ends. Not only that, but my earth pony magic seems to have... changed. I no longer feel the soft hum of the earth whispering its stories to me. The earth feels cold, not alive under my hooves. The few plants I've come across have felt foreign to me, despite being species I very much recognized. Is this simply the fault of the fires purging the earth, or is the magic of the other races acting up as well? It's been twenty moons or so since then. I've yet to meet a single survivor that didn't perish right before my eyes, starving, sickly or torn to pieces by magical creatures left uncontrolled. I haven't been able to ask. Surely someone else must have survived too. However, I'm nothing if not a survivalist. I'm determined for ponykind to live on, even in this ash-covered purgatory that Equestria has become. I'll bring us through the end, what few of us are still standing and not driven to an endless cycle of cruelty and distrust. We'll form anew, and live on through the dust and ashes. Finding a unicorn powerful enough to raise the sun should take priority. Within the ruins of Fillydelphia wandered a young stallion, exhausted and looking for shelter. He wasn't much of a fan of the larger cities. The bodies were everywhere, in every imaginable state of decay. Skeletons of fillies lucky enough to have perished when the first flames erupted, never to suffer the grips of starvation or thirst, or the cruelty of another survivor desperate for supplies. Bodies of pegasi and unicorns alike still fresh and rotting, vultures picking at what was left of their starved bodies. Earth ponies perished under ruins of collapsed buildings. If anyone was left alive in the city, they were wise enough not to make themselves known. Mayday's hooves ached from his arduous travels. Every step he got closer to his destination of the ocean he worried it might not be the salvation he hoped it to be. He'd seen lakes and ponds reduced to puddles, fish and plant alike dying or already dead. Who was to say the seas hadn't suffered the same fate? Had they not dried up in the great flames, the endless night had surely killed the plants, and eventually the animals in their wake. He also knew, however, that hope was necessary for survival. Morale was much greater a threat than most ponies expected it to be. The mind was a fragile, feeble thing. Such could easily be observed from the bodies of families, of lovers clutching each other in death. Many had wanted to go in their own terms. So here he was, making his way through what once was one of the larger cities in Equestria. If he was fortunate, he might just reach the shore tomorrow. That was assuming nothing went wrong before then, of course. His ear twitched to the direction of a crack, like a stone being dropped. A small one, just a pebble. Likely a piece of one of the ruined buildings, and yet he stilled nonetheless. He'd made it this far. He could risk nothing. Another crack. Yet another, louder this time. Shit. Something was coming closer. His body moved before his mind had any chance to think, rushing ahead with what strength he still had in him. Shards of broken glass and jagged stone cut into his hooves as he dashed through the streets, eyes frantically scanning the ruins of buildings for any opening, anywhere to hide. But if it's a timberwolf or anything else with a sharp sense of smell, you're fucked. Not that you have any better options. The cracks seemed to come ever closer. Along with them, a new sound; breathing. Heavy, labored breathing. He made the mistake of looking back, just for a second. A chimera. He could smell its breath from where he was. An assault on the senses, a foul concoction of rotting fish and decaying flesh blended together, left to ferment in the creature's mouth. One inhale made Mayday want to stop to throw up, only there was nothing in his stomach left to purge. His mind raced, searching for an escape route, a passage, anything to grant him a moment's respite from the relentless chase of the creature. But it was as if the ruins of the city were conspiring against him, not allowing for a single crack or cavern to be seen amongst the rubble. No salvation. His hooves protested with each step as it became increasingly clear that he would not outrun the beast. The sickening odor came ever closer. He could hear the thing's raspy breath, thought he could feel the snake head reach out its tongue to smell just how divine a bite of fresh flesh would taste. Summoning every ounce of strength left in his body, Mayday forced his body to push harder, his lungs screaming for air. His vision blurred, his surroundings becoming distorted shapes and twists of color. The shadow of the chimera loomed over him, ever closer, stretching over him as if caught up in a chase of its own. Slam! The wind was knocked out of him all at once, with a single swipe of the chimera's tiger paw. His mouth gaped open as he tried to catch a breath, only to be met with that awful stench again, invading his nostrils and burning his neurons. He passed out.