All the King's Mares (Book 1/3)

by AdrianJNovelle

Chapter 2 - Reunion

Twilight was devastated. What could possibly have trashed Canterlot so drastically? There was more destruction and smoke than when Chrysalis ruled in her eight-minute reign. She searched desperately for a soul - a colt, a mare - someone to talk to. As she wandered the town, her heart began to race, terrible thoughts of loneliness entering her mind and whirling around like a tornado.

Am I all alone? Is this all that will become of me? Where are my friends? Where's anyone? Am I going to die?

Out in the open and exposed, a fellow mare rose from the shadows of Canterlot Castle.

"Twilight Sparkle," she called from afar.

Twilight stopped herself in her tracks. She gasped with delight, turning to the source of the sound: Princess Luna. Although ragged, singed, and covered in ash, her beautiful mane and somber voice were unmistakable.

"Princess Luna!" Twilight exclaimed, hurrying to the larger pony. "Oh my gosh! I thought everypony was gone! Oh, I'm so glad to-"

Luna did not part with Twilight's enthusiasm as she raised a hoof to silence the student. A timid grin grew on her face.

"It is a pleasure to see you again, Twilight Sparkle," she said calmly.

"Do you know what happened here? Where's Celestia? And-"

Luna raised another hoof.

"I am fortunate to have escaped from the attack plagued onto Canterlot known as The Disaster. My sister, however, was not so lucky. She's been marenapped, her magic restrained, and the town destroyed. I hid in the rubble until I heard your hoofsteps, assuring me that all was safe."

"A disaster," Twilight repeated, pondering the term. "That's accurate."

"Indeed. However, after I witnessed the capture of my sister, I was forced to retreat, and do not know much of what happened afterward. All I know is that Princess Celestia is gone, and The Disaster spread throughout Equestria. As far as I'm concerned, we're the only two ponies still around."

"Oh no!" Twilight gasped.

"Never fear, Twilight, for I'm sure there is a silver lining somewhere in this haze."

"What should I do, Princess Luna?"

Luna stepped closer to the Castle, deep in thought. She rotated her head back to Twilight.

"I suggest you return to your home in Ponyville. There is no safer place to be right now, Twilight."

"Alright," she affirmed, nodding once.

---

Ponyville was in just as much of a destroyed state as Canterlot was. Nearly every building was inhabitable. The Library itself was naked, all the leaves burned off its roof, the trunk signed and most of the bark in ash, but Twilight squeezed her little pony body through what was left of the doorway and found the book containing the Elements of Harmony. Most of the books survived the attack, and fortunately, the most important one of all was part of the lucky class. Twilight set it on the ground and promptly opened it, finding the gems of friendship right there in the middle pages, glistening from the sunny sky overhead.

She was then reminded about her loneliness, a tear forming in the corner of her eye. She picked up the big crown thingy of Magic, sat, and held it in her hooves, caressing her hoof across the golden surface of the jewelry. She accidentally applied too much pressure, and the star atop the crown broke right off like a twig off a tree branch. "Ah!" Suddenly consumed with sadness, she wept, a few tears trickling down her lavender cheeks. She stared into her six reflections from the diamonds engraved into the metallic surface of the crown. Now broken, it seems that all hope for restoring Equestria to prosperity is impossible. If only Discord could see Twilight now: he'd laugh himself into a coma and wreak havoc throughout the world.

Twilight lowered her head. She closed her eyes as one or two more teardrops landed at her hooves. Then, the sound of wings flapping in the windless sky was heard. She perked up, and saw a yellow pony with a pink mane hovering just overhead, failing to notice the miserable Twilight below.

"Fluttershy!" she called.

Fluttershy panicked, alarmed. "Twilight?" she stuttered, desperately looking around for her long-lost friend.

"Down here."

Fluttershy looked downward into the Library. "Oh, there you are!" she exclaimed gaily. "I'm not used to seeing your house without a roof." She lowered herself down to the treehouse and positioned herself in front of Twilight. "I'm so relieved to see you," she said in a frightened demeanor. "I thought everypony tragically died!"

"I thought the same thing," Twilight replied. "Until I met-"

"Oh, dear!" Fluttershy kneeled at the sight of the broken crown. "Your big crown thingy - it's broken! What happened to it?"

Twilight gave Fluttershy a disgusted expression. "I stroked it," she said.

"You've got to be more careful around fragile things, Twilight."

"Really? 'Cause as I recall, I threw this thing into a trashcan and it was fine," she tossed the rest of the crown aside.

"What does this mean then?" Fluttershy asked.

"It means that we're no longer able to summon the Elements of Harmony, as long as the crown remains shattered," Twilight replied. "But I don't know how to fix it."

"I don't know how we can fix it."

Twilight rested her head on her hoof. "Glue."

"Oh, I don't know about that."

Twilight rolled her eyes.

"So, what were you saying earlier? About meeting somepony?"

Twilight lifted her head off her hoof attentively. "I met up with Princess Luna back at Canterlot, where I woke up and found nothing but destruction. She told me to come here."

"Canterlot? Well, how'd you get back here if everypony's gone then?"

"Railroad cart," Twilight answered, the demeaning thought of all that pushing and physical exertion she had to commence to get herself home popping into her head.

"Oh," Fluttershy paused. "Well, now that we're both okay, why don't we stay together and see what we can do about this?"

"Fluttershy, you're insisting we take action?"

"Actually, my plan was to go to my cottage and curl up under the covers of my bed and hide forever."

"That sounds more like the Fluttershy I know," Twilight gave a slight grin. "But I disagree. I think some information-gathering is what is needed of this. I'm sure there's something we can do."

"What should we do?" Fluttershy asked.

Twilight hopped up to her hooves. "I'm gonna take a look around town," she started for the exit.

Fluttershy lifted herself up off the ground. "Okay-"

"And I expect you to come with me."

"O-oh d-dear, um, okay, right behind you."

Fluttershy lowered herself back down and proceeded to follow Twilight out of the destroyed treehouse and through Ponyville.

"So...did Princess Luna say anything about what happened to Ponyville?"

"That she did, Fluttershy. She said that somepony caused this destruction known as The Disaster, and whomever it was, they took Princess Celestia - and possibly the rest of the population of Equestria - with them."

"Sounds horrible," Fluttershy lowered her head in cowardice.

"It is horrible," Twilight said. "That's why we're on a mission to-"

"Woah-!"

Comments

[Claudia Books]

Woah!
What?

Grrr Cliffhanger