Authors note:
This is my first fan fic that I have published so any con-crit given will be much appreciated. This fic has been in the workings for some time since I lost my drive to write for a little while due to personal issues. Hopefully this will get completed in a timely fashion if people do sincerely enjoy reading it. Thank you all for being who you are.
. . . . . . .
We all knew Hope was our last chance, our final hurrah in a flood of tears. Most ponies called it our “Bastion of Hope”. Well, once they called it that. It didn’t surprise me to have no one else to talk to other than the few notebooks I kept. They all left me here when things started to go amiss on the ground below, but then she came. She was our light in the darkness, our beacon of hope.
It wasn’t always this way, many years ago the days were long and bright, warm breezes swept through the trees, and everypony was content. A summer evening just like any other bore forth the rage of clashing nations. Causing widespread chaos and destruction the armies of the south marched forth to the citadel of Equestria. Celestia didn't know what her spell would do to the land if it even worked, but then again, she didn’t have much choice.
Twilight stood on the edge of a cliff overlooking the great sea. Waves and foam washed over the gray, craggy rocks far below in a steady calming rhythm. Wind rushed around her, rippling her fur and mane as she peered into the distance. Clouds danced over her head in never ending wispy swirls, making the sky seem like it was being currently painted by some great deity above. She could see a mass of cumulonimbus clouds far to the north, the wind carrying them her way. She squinted her eyes until were nearly closed, and looked for any solid form in the white expanse. She could see none.
Heaving a sigh she turned her back to the precipice and descended to her camp in the gray fields below.
Everything changed in the downfall. Gone were the days of peace and harmony, red thoughts and intentions blotted the land in the haphazard way only anarchy could achive.
To say the sky stayed blue would be a comfort, but the land took such a turn for the worse no blue sky would brighten anypony’s day anymore. It was slow at first, but after a while we all started to notice the color start to seep away. When the trees no longer bloomed their normal colorful buds and the grass never grew to colorful green blades again we knew. Color wasn’t everything, not completely needed in the grand scheme of things, but it wasn’t the last thing to go. It just got worse from there.
Reaching the bottom of the hill Twilight levitated her saddlebags onto a rock near the small fire she had started earlier. Her camp was nuzzled in between two large boulders, sheltered by the wind and any praying eyes that might be searching for her. Tall grass rimmed the small circle she had made, so she was fairly safe for now.
Her fire was small, and she only burned dry sticks and twigs so as to not make too much smoke. Orange flames licked greedily from the hot coals to the small twigs and branches she had managed to find in the nearby forest. She looked at her stash of twigs next to the fire. Dismayed, she realized that there wasn’t enough to last the cold night. Since it was too late to fetch more from the now dark forest, she laid down and tucked in her legs for warmth.
The glow from the little fire grew more and more visible as the sun set behind the nearby forest. She sat and watched it set from her spot, taking in the way it made the gray leaves look like burning newspaper. Pulling her eyes away Twilight looked to her bags. Reaching out with her magic they floated toward her.
I remember the fire clearly. Oh the fire had color. Yes, everyone found that out quick enough.
The glow around her bags dissipated as she set them before her huddled form. Out of the left one floated an apple and a small wheat cake. She ate them slowly, making sure to chew thoroughly to prevent stomach pains if she needed to run for any reason. She sat beside the fire letting it warm her face and neck, trying to forget the day of meaningless cloud watching she had just endured. Her eyes reflecting the dancing flames in almost perfect clarity followed a small spider as it tried to make its way up to the circle of rocks she had placed. Feeling the heat, it quickly scampered away back into the tall ring of grey wheatgrass. Smiling wryly she thought sickly of all the ponies who had done just that, scampered away while the world burned. She suddenly felt queasy; all of those scampering ponies.
She quickly floated out her canteen and shook it by her ear; small sloshes could be heard from deep within. She untwisted the cap and poured the last of the water into her mouth to settle her stomach. Nothing was left to drink now, she would have to find more soon.
The magic was next. It was still there, but only a shell of what it once was. Its proud and majestic quality obliterated. Everything was tarnished by the downfalls touch; even the food. There was no reason to relish any of the food anymore. Nothing was left to make an apple, an apple.
Putting the saddlebag back on its rock, Twilight laid her head down on the grey earth and closed her eyes to the world. She immediately fell into a restless sleep, dreams of past ghosts and events stalking and haunting her. On the plain the wheatgrass swayed in the gentle breeze of evening as the moon rose to bath the land in two-toned silver. Wolves howled from deep within the forest, crying for all that was lost and gone to them.
She never knew how much the world had been irreversibly changed until the earth opened up and swallowed her home, her friends, all that she had held dear. She was saved by the simple pleasure of walking in the forest, to listen to the warbles and tweets of the summer birds. She must have known how hard it was to run away from such terrible things and to live with the consequences. Maybe she could have saved them, saved them all, but that was so long ago. Instead her pain had bred a burning desire; to find Hope. Hope was all that she, and anyone else alive, had left.