FoE: Snippet Story

by Windrunner

Tears of The Broken

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What is roaming these, the wastes, unbidden? So dark and terrible it holds no name. With it comes naught but ruin and pain. Sorrow, despair, loneliness. Empty wants and terror so unknown it defies any worldly description. It wanders some disturbing path from beginning to end, desiring only to end all. Can this be a true desire? Why would anything want that? It makes little sense. Perhaps none can fathom the real reason behind this conundrum of reality. A reality which almost seems to be slipping away bit by bit. Some slow decay of a nature most dire. Some things are unstoppable. The endless march of time, slow as it is does continue even in this. Almost two centuries since everything stopped, and yet life is here. Wanting.

A most desperate hour and the chase is on as wearied hooves traipse about the land. Terrified of their own quarry, but on they must go. He is somewhere out there, ahead in the dim and dull. Almost daring them to try stopping him. He cannot be left to his own devices. He has proven himself to carry sufficient power to make his threat more than mere fancy. Claiming true immortality is quite a statement. Not one to be made lightly in this miserable and bereft world close to extinction. Why in the whole of things does he exist? How? His very words hurt and ring in the ears of those who have heard them. His hoofsteps bring with them only damage and death in their wake. He must be stopped they tell themselves.

In the back of their minds however rings a haunting question; What if he is correct? If he has told the truth then he has suffered more than any other. A destroyer who wishes only to destroy himself by any means. Does this give him the right? It is a painful supposition. His quest to end himself may mean the end of everything else along with him. His pursuers wonder, can we do this? Can we rightfully make the decision to stop him? The wastes have never been fair or just, but what has befallen him is beyond the norm. He is out there somewhere. Perhaps lying in wait as some spider might. He is a pony, we have to try and get through to him some of them say. The others just want this to stop. It is unnerving and wildly wrong.

Does he not deserve a chance? He is a murderer, but is it truly his fault? This is not what any of them expected to face. Something is off about everything since encountering his son. A son who has been hurt equally badly if not worse. The wrong of it all is overwhelming. Painful to imagine or approach. Can he be redeemed? They wonder. He merely followed the only things he ever knew. It is all so hurtful, this misery that follows them. What can we do against such power? Coming to some understanding with the one they pursue may be the only shot there even is, but what if that proves impossible? Few among them, if any, have the strength to stand up to that sort of force. He is in his own league there.

Knowing the ancient weapons of war had such significant power does little for those who do not possess them or the knowledge of their manufacture. Barely able to maintain what few weapons they've obtained for themselves leaves very few options indeed. Something is incoherent in the world, incorrect, misplaced somehow. They call him a monster, but what are they for trying to stop him from ending his own suffering? None know what to make of this situation. For the now they only seek to stop him by whatever means. The world may already be doomed they find themselves thinking. Is it worth the effort to run after him like this? The choice was already made. Seek and destroy if able. That is the task before them.

This is contradictory. He appears to be indestructible so how may we destroy him? He himself has failed to do so despite apparently massive efforts to manage this very feat upon himself. At most they may hope to capture and hold him, but then what? Guarding him forever is not an option either. This momentously horrifying situation leaves all involved unable to formulate any real forward thinking plan regarding it. He exists, this is fact. What to do about it is a matter belonging to someone much more intelligent, but they can find none who know. Where to go, what to do? He is powerful as a legend, perhaps more so. Why is this so wrong? Living forever has proven itself to be more a curse than anything else.

Each of his pursuers considers this. Immortal? Why should this be so wrong? Instead of a grand boon it has resulted in nothing but pain for all involved in any capacity. He should have been allowed to die an honorable death, instead he has been punished more than everyone else for something he never had a choice in. This they think and wonder as to the why of it. He did not ask for such a thing. Each knows what it is like to be forced to do something against their will, but this. So much hurt stems from this malady upon existence it defies any effort to quantify it or why it has happened. Why did they do this to him of all others? Was it a choice gone wrong? A mistake?

Only the ancient zebra might know and there are none around to ask. To inflict this kind of damage on reality is an evil of a different sort. An unparalleled misery to invoke bad feelings and misgiven thoughts. He only wants to die. How unfair was this? To inflict that on another must have required some epically horrible will to enact and perform. Was this the end the ancients intended? It couldn't be. He is waiting, just ahead.

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Pain or perish? Everyone does what they must.