//------------------------------//
// Chapter 22 | Calm Before the Storm 
// Story: A Different World: The Future and Fate of Equestria 
// by Riclo 
//------------------------------//

Klade's POV

Time felt nonexistent. Was I dead? My conscious drifted in and out, but never fully-gone, leaving me in a constant half-aware state. There were important things going on - this thought was the only thing that I kept thinking of over and over in my head. So much had happened... but yet I was totally relaxed without a care at all. My body was too exhausted to really do much else, leaving me only to feel wind and chills that I couldn't fully comprehend. This continued on until I suddenly found myself awakening, and I opened my eyes, realizing just how stiff my body was when I tried to move it - totally unlike when I woke up in my bed in a normal temperature. Not being half-dead would've helped too.

"Nnrgh..." I groaned quietly, opening my eyes and blinking them. The first thing I saw was a stone cold grey surface, and it took me a few seconds to remember bits and pieces of previous events. 'Discord... we were trapped. That bastard tried to freeze us to death on Mount Everhoof.' It took some effort, but I slowly sat up, hearing all of my jackets wrinkle as I took a look around. 'How did we get here? I know we were trying to go down the mountain... I'm pretty sure we found this place - this cave.' I noticed the collapsed ponies laying across the cave floor: Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Princess Celestia respectively. Looking at Celestia made me remember the deep concern around her well-being, and I leaned in closer to try and get a better look.

'Fuck. She's Celestia - she can't die, can she? Or is she a demi-god just like Discord?' I bent my body forward, crawling across the cold cave floor until I reached the laying white alicorn. I laid my hands on her to roll her over, feeling a chill down my spine and just how cold she was - surely a living pony wouldn't get that cold. My concerns were only confirmed when I rolled the princess over and saw her pale, lifeless face, fitted with dull, dreamy eyes that seemed to stare off into nothingness. She had to have been dead - there was no other explanation for her looking like that.

'Is she dead? Has Celestia actually died?'

"She's dead." An abrupt voice piped up, startling me with its suddenness. I looked to see that Applejack was seemingly already awake; she had been facing aware from me and therefore I hadn't been able to tell that she wasn't unconscious. "Ah already looked; ah checked her all over. She's gone. Goner than the Zap Apples when they're out of season."

I sat in silence as I turned to look at the alicorn - the now dead alicorn. Saying we fucked up going to Mount Everhoof would've been an absolutely massive understatement. "Well shit."

"Everyone else seems to be fine though, ah checked." Applejack continued. "Jus' asleep for now."

I looked towards the other sprawled out ponies, all suited with their own thick jackets. The cave was a good place to remain for now, but we couldn't stay here - not when the gates of Tartarus had apparently been opened. I specifically remembered that happening for sure. As if to further rush us out of the cave though, the sound of heavy footsteps from deeper inside the cave caught our attention. I peered into the darkness, only to see a large, towering white creature stepping forward. It looked like an over-sized polar bear, but with claws, fangs and a beastly look. It didn't seem happy that we were in what was presumably its cave.

"Think we should start waking the others up." I stated as I began to imagine an M4A1 Assault Rifle in my mind. Applejack went on to try and shake the others awake as I stood and gazed at the large beast, where I was only seconds away from fleshing out the gun and then creating it in the real world. There was a weird hesitation though - the gun wasn't being created - which is when I eventually realized that huge tower had been activated. I must've still been in its area of effect, and I stepped backwards, watching the monster quickly start to increase its pace as it got close. 'God fucking damnit.' I moved to run out of the way, but by then it had already approached me, grabbing me and picking me right up off the ground. "Fuck!"

"Look out Klade!!" Applejack yelled out, running over in some attempt to save me. Before she could do anything though, the monster simply chucked me out of the cave. I went flying through the air until eventually thrashing into the snow outside, which thankfully served as a good cushion as I skidded and then came to a stop.

"How the fuck did I forget about the tower?" Once again I felt like I wasn't as competent as I used to be. I slowly stood back up onto my feet, trying to focus on just the threat that was happening right now - I was still as armed as I usually was. I reached for the Model 1887 that was buried underneath all my jackets, pulling it out and then hurrying back towards the cave. Applejack seemed to have gotten a good distance away from the beast - she was near the exit with both Pinkie Pie and Rarity - but Fluttershy was still inside. She was curled up in a ball deeper inside the cave, and the creature's attention was directly on her.

"Fluttershy!!" Pinkie Pie yelled out. "He's gonna get you! Just get up and run - hurry! We're over here!"

She wasn't moving though, most likely paralyzed in fear, so I quickly took aim once I made it back inside the rocky structure. I fired the gun right at the creature's back, causing it to roar so loud that the entire cave rumbled. It turned to look at us, with pure rage in its eyes as blood poured out from its back - it didn't seem to be dead yet. I cocked the lever of the gun, expelling a shell as it began to run right for us. Each step it took was making me lightly bounce, constantly throwing off my aim as I tried to target its head. The intimidation factor wasn't helping either - if it made it to us, it definitely wouldn't be a pretty sight. Eventually I just substituted for its chest, not wanting to risk a miss as I shot once again. The gunfire went off with a loud bang, echoing deep inside the cave as it made contact with the huge animal's upper-chest. The impact was enough to stop its advance, and it stumbled backwards, stunned but still standing. I cocked a lever of the gun once more, aiming for its head while it stood as an easy target before firing.

The shotgun blast had made contact, as shown by the blood and brain matter splattering against a nearby wall. The beast soon dropped to the floor, limp and totally lifeless as remnants of blood pooled and spurted out of its blown-open open skull. I pulled the lever forward, the sound of clanking, sliding metal resonating inside the cave as I ejected the empty shell, but I made sure not to bring the lever back - I was going to have to reload it. The last time I had killed a beast face-to-face like that with a shotgun was when I had first arrived on Equestria - the very first day in-fact. Using Duston's shotgun, I had killed a brainwashed manticore that had threatened us at Fluttershy's cabin.

"It's gone. You killed it!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

"Before it killed Fluttershy, yes." I replied. Reaching into one of my pockets, I pulled out some shotgun shells that I had put there before, loading three of them into the gun as Rarity went to console the trembling yellow pegasus. Once the gun was loaded, I closed the lever, strapping it to my back and then walking over with her.

"Fluttershy.. are you okay?" Rarity asked when she approached. The pegasus meekly nodded in response.

"I-I think so..." She answered. She slowly started to stand back onto her hooves, backing away from the dead creature. She was trembling - all of us were, really. Everything that had happened so far had no-doubt gotten us shaken up, and the next thing Fluttershy spoke made me remember why I still felt like shit. "Where is Celestia?"

"She's dead." I exclaimed. Fluttershy looked at me in disbelief, as did both Rarity and Pinkie Pie - they must not've known yet either.

"He's not lying. I've already checked on her." Applejack added. It was then that Fluttershy noticed the laying white alicorn corpse behind us, to which she gasped rather loudly afterwards. Pinkie and Rarity turned to look as well, both of which were in shock at what they were looking at. I didn't feel as traumatized, but then again, I wasn't from Equestria to begin with; from their perspective, it was probably like seeing a living god dead right before their eyes.

"She's allowed to die?" Pinkie asked. "But she's like, thousands of years old. She's Celestia - she's always been around!"

"Oh.. dear..." Rarity uttered quietly. I watched as they gazed at her, where in the silence I couldn't help but feel that I played a part in letting this happen. There was no reason why I couldn't prepare us more for this - I always had tons of backup plans to everything we did. I couldn't deny it anymore - I definitely wasn't as prepared as I always used to be. This didn't need to happen, but it was too late to do anything about it.

"She sacrificed herself for all of us..." Fluttershy spoke softly as tears welled up in her eyes. "For us..."

"Discord will pay for this." I reassured. It wasn't just Celestia either - I had come here with high hopes that I would find Duston somewhere on that damn mountain. That was another disappointment; he must've been dead, and the last bits of denial that I had over it were finally going away. He should've been there... but why wasn't he? It felt like everything was leading up to me finally seeing him again.

'He's really gone...' The world around me faded away as I focused only on that thought. When Luna had first told me that he was dead, it hurt alot, but there was still a feeling that she wasn't right - that he was still alive somewhere and everyone just thought he was dead. That feeling wasn't there anymore, and I could feel myself shaking as I stood in the cave - and I was pretty sure it wasn't because it was cold.

"We have to bury her." I heard Applejack speak up. The others had approached the dead princess by now. "We can't leave her like this. She deserves at least some dignity."

I didn't reply, simply standing there and watching as the four ponies picked her up and carried her out of the cave. It was almost surreal to see the dead princess being carried out like that, but apparently that's how things were now. I exhaled slowly, trying and failing to calm myself as I started to pace back and forth in the cave. The 'magical' feeling that Equestria had when I had first arrived didn't seem to be there anymore - in-fact, it felt as if it had been gone for awhile now. Despite that, there was no reason to leave - what was possibly left for me back on Earth? I hated that place - or at least, I thought I did. The idea of being back at my parent's house with Duston still alive, doing random bullshit - it didn't sound too bad at all right about now. It was sure alot better than nearly dying twice, having an already dead brother and now a dead princess. Was it really all partly my fault? Would this have happened if me and Duston had never arrived?

I stepped forward and watched as the ponies had seemingly finished digging past the snow - they were pretty far into the dirt by now. Something seemed to be missing though... alot of things were missing, but this one felt like it shouldn't be missing. I took another look around when it hit me - Rainbow Dash wasn't here. We had never found her during our brief search after everything went haywire.

'Fuckity fuck. Who else is dead now? Anyone else I'm going to remember about? There's no way she's still alive - not on that damn mountain.' This didn't feel real - were all of these bad things really happening? I paced faster and with more emphasis, eventually taking the time to look at the over-sized polar bear laying dead in the middle of the cave - it was hard not to notice. At least I succeeded in killing that thing before anything seriously bad happened; in the past though I had never had any extreme difficulty when it came to dealing with threats or Discord. Maybe I had just been lucky.

"Klade." The voice of Applejack caught my attention, and I turned to see her and the other three ponies looking at me - they had already finished burying the alicorn by now. "It's about time we headed out. There ain't nothin' more we can do here."

I really didn't want to be near anyone - I wanted some time to myself for awhile - but I wasn't about to just stay behind in the cave. Breathing in deeply, I walked over to them, to which I didn't look at them directly since I was sure there were tears in my eyes - I couldn't remember the last time that happened. "Yeah. Let's go."

"Where are we going exactly?" Pinkie Pie spoke up. "Do we even know where we are? I don't think we do."

"As long as it's the opposite direction of Mount Everhoof, then I don't think there'll be any issues." Rarity replied. "I do not believe there's anyplace bad we could end up."

There was a short silence for a few moments. Normally I would've said something then, but I wasn't in a thinking state of mind - it was hard enough just to keep my mental composure. "Twilight's still in Canterlot, and so are the others." Applejack exclaimed. "Ah think that's where we should go next."

Nobody seemed to disagree, so with that, we walked away from the cave and began our trek back. For the moment things seemed peaceful, which made me wonder: had the gates of Tartarus really been opened up? I wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean, but I figured I would find out eventually. From the look on Celestia's face, it seemed like it was serious.