//------------------------------// // Flash // Story: 255: The Aegis Collection // by AegisExemplar //------------------------------// It had been a day like any other, as far as the average citizen was concerned; Get up, go to work, go home, relax, go back to sleep. It repeated itself, an hour offset all around the globe. The sun was shining at high noon above a certain spot in the Pacific Ocean when a small, bright sphere simply *popped* into existence. In some universes, it grew slowly, in some it would grow then stop. In others, it consumed and destroyed all it came into contact with, converting it into new lands on its inside. In this one, it raced faster than perception allowed. In desperation, a single long, white horn broke the surface of the bubble, A single yellow-white flash arced across the barrier, a single spell cast in the hopes of saving those doomed on the other side. It flew, a world’s length, barely faster than the barrier itself. Where the spell struck, human flesh became pony flesh. There was no choice. There would be no HLF, no PER, no IHSA, no HEA. Not in this world. You were human, doing human things, then you were pony, staring at a set of hooves while wondering why you could no longer “human.” There was massive loss of life as vehicles failed and crashed, be it air transport or ground car. Trains rolled to stops in the middle of nowhere. Electronics simply fizzled out, more than a few igniting terrible fires. Somewhere, sitting on a throne while an indigo mare she called sister tried to comfort her, an alicorn of white sobbed, a broken thing. The Earth had ended in a flash.