The Circle Park settlement is huge, far bigger than the Hope Hotel. Fiddle is impressed at how they’ve managed to survive. The park itself is in good shape since the survivors maintain it. Defensive fortifications have been set up in the buildings surrounding it,with armed sentries moving about on the rooftops and walls.
The sentries wave them through, and Bon Bon leads Coco over to the medical tent. The others disperse, inviting Lightning and Fiddle to stay awhile.
Lightning watches as a small group of foals run past them. She shakes her head and sighs. Some foals will grow up knowing nothing else. This world will be the only one they’ve ever known. This will be their normal.
Fiddle disagrees. Things will get better eventually. Maybe. Hopefully.
Somepony catches Lightning’s eye. A white unicorn with an eyepatch walks past. Lightning raises an eyebrow and calls out to him.
Senator Blueblood turns around, confused. Lightning remembers him from the quarantine. He was one of the ponies in charge until his abrupt resignation.
Blueblood blinks slowly and sighs. He nods. He doesn’t like talking about that time. Back then he was just another pompous politician. A veteran player in a twisted game, and a horrible pony all around.
That changed when he was put in charge of the quarantine. At first he led from the back, signing orders and moving pieces. But as the pressure rose, he moved to the frontlines. And what he saw horrified him.
Blueblood absently raises a hoof to his eye patch. Lightning must remember what happened. The supply shortages, the losses, the anger… the realization that there was nothing they could do.
His voice drops as he continues speaking. Then came the day when the civilians had enough. They rioted, demanding more supplies and care. The army swooped in and put a stop to it, but not before…
Blueblood trails off. He lost his eye when they stormed the command center. He left office the next day. The disgraced former senator lowers his head in disappointment. He’s lucky the settlement took him in. Most of the others turned him away out of spite.
Lightning hesitates before speaking. She never liked him that much, but he did all he could. Sure, he may have been a stuck-up politician before, but his leadership skills were still remarkable.
Blueblood gives an empty laugh. The world doesn’t need another politician. The world needs some heroes. Heroes like them. He jerks a head at the medical tent. They do good work. Better work than he could ever do.
Fiddle feels sorry for him now. In the past, Blueblood was rude, brash, arrogant, and ignorant. But now he was just broken. Just a shell of the pony he once was. A reminder of how far they’ve fallen.
It’s sad to think that even those who survived didn’t make it out in one piece. Every single pony out there lost a piece of themselves just to survive. There weren’t any heroes anymore. Just survivors.