Numb.
The lavender filly was so cold most of her extremities had gone numb.
She pressed onward nevertheless, unable to muster up any sort of real concern over her current condition. It actually wasn't all that cold out compared to the rest of Equestria this time of year.
There wasn't even any snow to be seen -- just a biting wind the blew across this sandy, rocky wasteland. The filly shivered involuntarily from both the chill and the memories she was replaying in her mind as she wandered aimlessly.
Those two...
She tried not to think about them -- about what they had done to her parents and her brother.
It couldn't be helped.
She had nothing else to think about with the loneliness pushing in from all sides. She had cried, she had yelled and screamed and wailed and did just about every other thing a filly who had experienced what she had could do beside...
No.
Even in as much pain as she was, and even if she wanted to, she could never do that.
But all that had been at least a few hours ago.
Now she moved along the wasteland on complete autopilot -- her hooves taking her on a dark path to nowhere in particular. Somewhere deep down beneath her horrible memories she wondered how she had even ended up here.
She knew she had wanted to get away -- be literally anywhere but there in that awful moment. Then something happened with her magic and her head started to hurt really bad.
She thought she was going to die from the pain, but before it became too much to handle, the pain suddenly stopped, she felt herself falling backwards, and then everything went black. When she finally opened her eyes, she was lying in the shadow of a large boulder in this... rocky desert.
Canterlot -- and the great mountain it sat on -- was nowhere to be seen. She didn't even know if she was still in Equestria anymore, but she didn't care. It didn't matter how far away Canterlot was... not anymore.
She no longer had a family to return to after all.
And so she wandered -- cold, lost, hungry, and alone.
Then she saw it.
Her dull gaze fell upon what looked like a rather large dilapidated old shack in the distance. For the first time in what felt like ages, the filly's eyes gained a bit of life and she quickened her sluggish pace.
She wasn't sure how she had missed something so out of place in this empty field, but she suddenly found herself grateful that she had stumbled upon it. As she got closer to the shack, she could see that was actually in much worse condition than she had originally believed.
Even from a distance she could see all sorts of holes in the walls and the roof was slightly tilted at an odd angle. The front door was partway off the hinges and she could hear the wooden structure creaking and groaning pathetically as the bitter cold wind whipped through its weak frame.
Still, it was better than nothing at all.
She carefully made her way over to the broken door and, after a moments hesitation, she pushed it open. The instant the door made a sound, she heard a startled cry from within. The sound was so unexpected, the lavender filly cried out herself and stumbled back away from the door.
The door itself was left to swing open and the filly, who had fallen over in her haste to get away, couldn't help but stare at what lie within. She couldn't make anything out in the gloom of the shack, but then she heard whimpering from somewhere inside.
Her curiosity momentarily overrode her fear and picked herself up off the ground.
"H-Hello?"
The whimpering stopped abruptly and the lavender filly swallowed as she took a step forward.
"W-Whoever's in there, I... I-I'm not gonna hurt you," she said, trying to convey a calm she herself didn't feel, "I don't even know... where I am right now, or how I got here."
There was still no response.
"Please!" the filly pleaded, "if you can hear me, say something! I don't..." she fell to her haunches, "I don't know what to do and--"
"Go away!" a filly's voice cried out desperately from inside, "don't... don't come in here!"
The lavender filly's eyes widened in surprise.
Another filly like her? All the way out here?
"I m-mean it!" the increasingly distraught voice continued, "if... if y-you don't leave... I might... I might do something horrible!" there was a pause and then, "please just... just leave me alone..."
There was something about this voice -- this filly that drew the lavender filly's intrigue. She wasn't sure what it was, but there was something in the mysterious filly's voice that felt... familiar.
After a second the lavender filly realized what it was.
The mysterious filly sounded just like she had earlier when she had woken up out here.
"...I don't know who you are, and I don't know what happened to you," the lavender filly said just loud enough to be heard over the wind, "but... but I..." she faltered and clenched her eyes shut as tears rolled down her face, "my mom and dad and brother are gone... and -- and I don't have anywhere to go anymore."
She took another step forward.
"Can I please come in?" she pressed, "I've been wandering around out here for hours and it's really cold and I'm hungry and... and..."
There was no response.
She took a few more steps towards the door and when she heard no objections from the voice, she trotted the rest of the way inside the shack. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, but once they did, she cried out in panic and backpedaled back to the doorway.
The inside of the shack was a mess.
Overturned furniture littered the area, and all sorts of odds and ends were thrown about and smashed on the floor. There were a few things that especially caught the lavender filly's attention and caused her to shake uncontrollably.
A large circular scorch mark had imprinted itself in the middle of the room. To the left and far right the filly could just make out the mutilated bodies of two ponies -- the floor around them soaked with blood. She turned and saw a third body near an upturned table -- this one the size of a foal.
Upon closer inspection the horrified filly could see it was a colt who looked as though he could've been sleeping if it weren't for the large dark red pool beneath him.
And then there was the mysterious filly herself.
She sat huddled up in a far corner, her light pink coat spattered in more blood. Her dark violet, lighter violet, and aquamarine mane was set up in two short pigtails that were coming apart. Her wide, fearful blue eyes locked on the lavender filly in the doorway and she whimpered again.
For several moments, neither filly said anything -- both of them too shocked to speak.
Then the lavender filly fell to her haunches once more and just stared at the other filly -- her mouth slightly open and her expression blank. The light pink filly slowly looked away from the other filly and turned to stared at the far wall.
"I... I told you," she muttered, her eyes still glued to the wall across from her, "I told you... not to come in..." she shivered as silent tears streamed down her face, "I said don't... d-don't come in."
The lavender filly blinked and slowly stood up.
"I... did this..." the mysterious filly continued in a choked voice.
WIth agonizingly slow steps, the lavender filly made her way over to the light pink filly.
"I'm a monster... I'm sorry mommy... daddy... S-Sunburst. I d-didn't mean it..."
The lavender filly idly noticed the ominous looking magic circle printed on the other filly's flank that almost seemed to glow with a bright blue light.
"I just want... all I wanted... to do w-was show... show them the new spell I made..."
The lavender filly reached the light pink filly and lowered herself on the floor next to her.
"They're gone," the light pink filly sniffed, "t-they're all gone. I... I killed--"
Her watery eyes widened in shock as she felt a pair of lavender hooves pull her into a hug.
"I'm sorry."
With those simple words, the floodgates opened.
The light pink filly leaned against the lavender filly and sobbed.