//------------------------------//
// The Meltdown 
// Story: One Shot per Page 
// by Apocalyptic Fries 
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	Could one expect a day in Ponyville to be any less than perfect? One could go through the motions of mentioning Celestia’s sun shining high in the sky and the birds singing and the townsponies going about their business, but to do so would be redundant. Such details would only be worth mentioning if they did not follow this strict protocol of perfection.
Today, they did – at least initially. But it was not to last.
A frantic Lily raced into the town square amid the stares of her fellow citizens as she screamed, “The horror! The HORROR!” repeatedly and ran aimlessly around. To see Lily so upset was nothing new, but it had been awhile since her last episode. Her therapist had even given her a prescription and that seemed to work just fine, but today the pills were hardly enough.
So a perceptive Bon-bon, who was just then passing through the town square, knew there was trouble, and Lily’s reaction to whatever terror was coming to pass might have been justified.
“Slow down, Lily,” said a concerned Bon-bon, catching her as she made another lap around the square. “Slow down, take a deep breath, and tell me exactly what’s going on.”
“Oh, it’s terrible!” Lily wept. “The end is here!”
Bon-bon tried to ignore the feeling that she was wasting her time by asking what would drive Lily to make doomsday proclamations, but she didn’t have time – a massive explosion sounded across the town, and the ponies (as they often had before by this point) made their usual flight to safety in hiding. Even as panicked as an observer might describe them to be, in reality they knew these kinds of things were commonplace and even routine since Twilight Sparkle moved to town. Trouble seemed to follow that mare everywhere she went. By now, they had shelters set-up and procedures in place – there were even drills done occasionally, as a schoolhouse might in anticipation of tornadoes.
Incidentally, the explosion seemed to come from the library where she lived. Another explosion followed, as trees were uprooted and landed perfectly upside down as though their leaves merely migrated to the roots, leaving the naked branches behind. Entire houses were also flipped-over in like manner, as the unseen though obvious cause moved through town.
Twilight couldn’t stop herself. She had been going about her day when she noticed something out of place. Her brief investigation led her to conclude that reality was starting to unravel; nothing made sense to her anymore.
Naturally, the other Elements of Harmony wasted no time in trying to corral the rampaging princess, and despite the blood, sweat and tears involved, the procedure was soon complete. From her previous experiences with inadequacy and failure, her friends had been able to find ways to calm her down or at least restrain her.
That done, the quintet headed for the library where the chaos had started. There, they saw Spike standing dejectedly with a broom in one claw as he stared at the gaping wall his surrogate sister had left. He spoke before they could.
“Know how she tends to sweat the small stuff?” he deadpanned.
The girls nodded.
“Well, today, she tried to make ramen noodles and found they didn’t come with the flavor packet.”