Tim snaps back into reality, "My parents, they... they were murdered?"
He puts down his saggy saddlebags revealing a cutie mark of a flask, with some sort of green bubbling liquid inside, on both of his flanks. “Think, think, where did I run when I tried to escape.” Sitting down he starts going over the horrible events again, trying to find out where he ran after his parents were killed.
After a few minutes of thinking he finally remembers that he ran west, since he was running towards the sun and it was afternoon. He brings up his journal and quill and starts writing again.
Journal entry 55, October 17th
I just made a shocking discovery, I found my own house in Fillydelphia. Not just the house I lived in before everypony disappeared, no, the house I lived in as a foal. I started exploring the house and found my own room. I started remembering all sorts of things about my foalhood.
I explored some more of the house hoping to remember some more, and that I did. As I entered the living room I had a flashback, I saw my dad getting killed, and my mom getting raped right in front of me. However, I found out that I ran west after that so I’m going to go west and hopefully find out some more about my past, perhaps even what happened to everypony.
Finishing the entry, Tim shuts the book and puts it into his saddlebags, which he puts over his flanks once again. He looks through the rest of house hoping to find some food or some more clues, anything that might be able to help him find out more about himself. The rest of the house is in just as bad condition, there are small holes in the roof all over the place, and the house has taken heavy water damage throughout time, various kinds of fungi has started to grow some places on the floor. The entire house smells rotten, pretty much where ever he goes and after a while he can’t take it anymore. He goes outside to his treehouse and thinks about the many times he slept here with his parents and friends. Going through the house brings lots of memories from his foalhood, how he used to play with his dad in the afternoons when he got home from the university where he taught math and English, how his mom who was a professional chef always cooked dinner for them, and how delicious it always was. After about half an hour of searching through his house he decides that he’d better move on before nightfall arrives. He puts some of his old toys in his saddlebags, closes them and goes outside. Turning around he says a small prayer for his parents before he moves on.
Following his memories Tim walks for days trying to figure out where he went as a foal, he passes through many small villages, they all look pretty much the same though, abandoned houses with an outrageous amount of garden growth, or no growth at all. There’s the same pure smell everywhere, it smells abandoned.
After a few days he reaches a small village. He goes through the same procedure as always, looking for ponies, scavenging whatever food he might be able to find. After a few minutes of walking his stomach rumbles again, he takes out some bread and picks some nearby daisies. He starts making a daisy sandwich when he hears a vague voice, ‘Help me, somepony please help me...’ it says, he hurries to see if he can find the pony in need. Following the voice which slowly gets louder and louder realization dawns upon him, what if he can find somepony? A companion, someone to help him in his search. The thought makes him smile, finally someone to talk to, someone to help him, he’s no longer alone!
As he runs around the next corner he finds the source of the voice, and is strongly disappointed, the only thing he can see is an old record player gone stuck, it keeps repeating the same thing over and over again “help, somepony please help me.” In his fury he bucks the player and it shatters into a thousand pieces.
“I guess I’d better move on,” he sighs and goes back to the sandwich he was making. He walks around for another 30 minutes, filling up his saddlebags with whatever food he can find and brings out his black journal and his quill.
Journal entry 61, October 20th
I heard a voice just before and hoped it was somepony else, somepony who could help me in my search and keep me company, but it turned out it was just an old recording of somepony calling out for help. I just filled up my bags with some supplies and I’m gonna head west now, hopefully it won’t be too long before I find another clue to what might’ve happened... then again, there’s no rush, I don’t have to be anywhere.
Shutting the journal the grey pony thinks about why he’s making a journal, so somepony can find it after him? To keep track of when he did things? He’s not sure, but it’s most likely to keep himself from going insane and to have somewhere to put down his thoughts, now that he doesn’t have anypony to talk to. He gives a sad sigh, packs down his journal and starts walking west once again, searching his mind for memories as he walks.
After days of walking Tim finally reaches a city, to be more specific, a ‘metropolis’. Looking around he spots a sign saying ‘Manehattan’. He walks into the city with a smile on his face thinking that in such a big city, there has to be somepony he can talk to. The city is huge, giant skyscrapers are reaching into the clouds everywhere, huge streets made to fit hundreds of ponies, and the biggest marketplace he’s ever seen! However his smile disappears as soon as he realizes this city is just as abandoned as everything else, it smells the same as where ever else he’s been, the same pure smell of being abandoned. Tim sighs and starts searching the city hoping that he will find more clues from his past. He starts going through skyscraping buildings, restaurants, shops and so on, scavenging and searching for memories. While searching a small house he finds another record player, this one stopped and ready to play the record on it. Thinking that there’s nothing to lose he starts playing the record.
‘Hello *tap* *tap* is this thing on? Alright I just received some magical reports from all around Equestria. Ponies everywhere are sending out magic distress signals, but after a while they get cut short, this is very bad. I can also sense the amounts of magic being sent out slowly dying out this is most likely a sign that unicorns all over Equestria ar- *bzzzzzzzzzz*’
The recording was cut off. The pony talking was a colt, he sounded kind of freaked out, like he was panicking. “It sounded like he was saying that the ponies were defeated, but then it’d have to be everypony, since I haven’t seen anypony. I must’ve been lucky then, since I’m the only survivor.” says Tim while he keeps searching, “Wait, if it destroyed all of the ponies...” his legs starts to shake as he imagines what kind of power it’d take to destroy everypony in Equestria. Pushing away that thought he continues his search, for more clues of what may have happened. Once done he brings out his journal again to write another entry.
Journal Entry 69, October 24th
While scavenging some houses I found another old record player. Since I thought it couldn’t harm I started the recording and found out that the ponies didn’t abandon me, they were defeated. The ponies were defeated, and not just some of them, ALL of them. Or at least so I assume, since I haven’t seen any other ponies since I lost my memory. If all the ponies were indeed defeated it’d have taken tremendous powers to do it, and a monster or whatever it was with such power seems out-of-place here, like it doesn’t belong in our world. To sum it up, I just discovered the ponies were defeated by something really strong, it seems very weird and wrong but I’ll keep on searching for more survivors.
Tim shuts his journal and puts it back in his saddlebag as he prepares to move on. On his way out of town he notices a small orphan home, he gets the same kind of familiar feeling as he did at his own house and thinks that this might be another clue, so he heads inside and starts searching the place.
“Of course, I ran here when my parents died. It seemed so obvious back then, since I was an orphan I needed somewhere to stay.” he says to himself as he’s trotting around inside. The place has a very unique architecture, there’s a big room for all the small fillies and foals to sleep in, and some smaller rooms for the bigger ponies. The entire place smells as abandoned as everywhere else, except it’s very dusty inside, not as dusty as the house him and his parents lived in, but almost.
“It’s all coming back to me now, how they adopted me here, I met lots of friends here... friends long gone...” thinking about his friends he allows a tear to roll down his cheek, he thinks that they’re all probably gone by now. Looking around he finds a door to the old yard, where they all used to play together. As he enters the yard even more memories are coming back to him...