//------------------------------// // Dec. 19-May. 20 - When The End Came To Town - 8 // Story: RoMS' Extravaganza // by RoMS //------------------------------// Dear Celi, Today was Sugarcube Corner’s last day.  The Cake and I partied in the kitchen one last time. It was awesome and amazing, and with many chocolate cakes and cookies! Mrs. Cake’s salted all-chocolates are totally the best. They use a lot of eggs from AJ’s farm, much more than the recipe calls for. But, you know, sometimes the fun’s in those little things, right? What would Rarity say…? “We must indulge sometimes.” I’m sure it’s a word like that. And let’s throw a Darling! in for good measure! Well, we locked the door behind us, I planted a warning sign, then we went to the train station.  The Cake family and I gave each other tons of hugs! The twins even waved at me as the train left. I even managed to keep smiling the whole time! Mr. and Mrs. Cake needed that more than the twins did. I pinkie swear I didn’t cry.  The two sweeties are going to make looooads of friends in their new home. I helped Mr. Cake fill out some boring forms to the local daycare. There is a long waiting list and Mrs. Cake was biting hooves over it but I’m sure they’re going to fit in right away.  There isn’t much business left for them in Ponyville anyways. Leaving was the right thing to do, Celi — Does Luna call you Celi? Can I call you Celi? —, I mean… Tomorrow, I won't be able to go to Sugarcube Corner safely. And when I say I, I mean everypony. The wall’s going to gobble a chunk of Sugarcube Corner’s door frame tomorrow and the whole door, the day after. The Wall is a very, very hungry hippo, and a very mean one too. I don’t like it. It never stops eating, and it already did with Quills, half of the town hall, and the pond and the river and so many houses.  I tried putting on a smile when I laid the warning sign too, Celi. For the twins. But… the Wall ate ponies, and that’s very scary. I’ve seen it with my own two very blue eyes. You brush a single hair against the Wall and Wooosh!, you get sucked like, uhm, well like a vacuum cleaner!  I’ve put warnings everywhere for ponies not to go near! It’s dangerous but not dangerous like a rollercoaster ride. It’s really real this time. I’ve seen Blossomforth go hug the Wall today. She totally ignored me and the warning sign. I don’t know why. But you already know that, of course. You came to Ponyville eleven times since Twilight’s been gone inside the wall. I counted! I just need to tell somepony because I’m repeating myself around town a lot. Everypony has really been bummed about the Wall and it just keep eating and getting bigger.  My job is to get ponies to smile, and it’s a lot harder now. Jokes get boring after a while and I’ve used much of what I know — Pinkie Pie is having a joke shortage!!! Comedy comes in threes and surely doesn’t grow on trees! It’s not like farming apples, you can’t wait for a joke to get ripe when so many ponies need them. Wait, don’t tell AJ I said that!  Ponyville is in the middle of a fun and joke famine! And that’s very sad. It’s like a cake in the middle of a kind of meh party. It’s a quarter gone, half the ponies already left, and most of them are hanging in the corners. And you can see one or two leave every minute.  Do you know when you’ll find a solution, Celi? I mean, Starlight was with Twilight inside the castle when the Wall appeared. I figure it’s hard to figure things out without them. Princess, don’t be too harsh when you find a way to break them out and pop that black balloon thingy. I’ll make every cake in the world when Twilight and Starlight return, and plenty of extras for everypony else who got sucked in. Every single flavour… to celebrate. Everything’s going to be rainbows. And smiles. And parties. Dear Princess Celi... I can’t get a curl in my mane anymore, and I’m scared. Your littlest, partiest, sugariest pony, Pinkie Pie~ Your Highness, I like walks… What a weird way to start a letter, but I swear I tried my hardest thinking about this first sentence for too long. So, here I go. I hope you will excuse my cavalier approach, Princess.  I wish to report on the state of my beloved town and I couldn’t find a better way to start. I like walks, by day, by night, whether in the summer or winter. It’s one of the ways I’ve found effective at refreshing my mind, brainstorming new ideas, and maybe escaping the grind of city hall affairs. I sometimes wonder if it gets better. For you, I mean. As the scale of what one pony works on increases, are there less pony faces to meet and greet? Are the names listed on each and every paper pages better to handle? It’d be less personal, for sure. So I love walks, yes. At the drawing of dusk when the streets of Ponyville aren’t yet lit by streetlight, when only the orange glow of nightstand lamps and a few candles pour out from the houses and chases away the evening darkness. That’s the time when that faint orange hue reflects upon the steady waters of the river that cuts Ponyville from north to south, albeit in twists and turns. Ducks and boats and barges share the waterway then and, in the coming of the night, all head out to their home or hurry to their mooring. It's a time of peace, really. Everypony has gone home to eat; nopony has yet walked out to enjoy a party, a bar patio, or the warmth of a porch torchlight. The ponyville I know, grew up in, and love. Nowadays, it is pretty much all gone. Everyday is that peacetime in the early evening. And I hate it. Applejack, her family, and I finished shipping the last of her trees to her cousins at the south border. We got most families resettled—it took a long time, but it ought to be done. The last train yesterday and only the old bones remain. Like mine. In a sense, we're dismantling Ponyville, piece by piece, bit by bit, chipped away and sent to other places where they will find usefulness. There’s nothing left to do here but wait. And there’s nothing left to enjoy either. Most houses are now empty husks. Rotting has never gone so fast. There used to be pontoons on the river. I never really walked down them but I’ve seen them so many times I only remarked them once they were gone. The owners pried the wooden planks off the pontoon’s metal and concrete stilts, and went away with them. Sometimes old bones really are made of steel and emptiness and rust. Now the river is empty and cold. The late winter still lay its ice on the embankment where water once flowed. It has dried now. The Wall has recently swallowed a stretch of the river, Princess. Did you know? Now the water only flows in the northern part of the town. It ends its course in the darkness and whatever lies beyond. The rest of the riverbed is just dead ice, snow, and dust. This summer, it will evaporate and only shingles will remain. And off course, the black. It's been a long time since your last visit, Princess. We miss you. Some even resent you. I know I do sometimes. But when anger passes, I don't blame you. There isn't much to see here anymore. Your time is better spent elsewhere, searching or making a solution, I’m sure. I hope… Three fourths of the town is gone. Only the north end, the eastern edge, and the south end remain—the parts furthest from Twilight's castle. I really wonder where all the water from the river is going, where all the birds, and leaves, and plants and animals I’ve seen going in... where do they end up? i really don't want to know, but I am still curious. A sort of call of the void, you could say.  I’m really getting in over myself. Anyway. I've recommended everypony to leave, but they're stubborn, like everypony's supposed to be, I guess. When life throws stones at you, yielding shouldn't be the first thing to do—and yet it feels more and more like an accomplishment. There is a time when stubbornness becomes obstination, then a tragic resignation. If I am writing, it's to ask you, Your Majesty, to intercede with the remaining five Elements of Harmony. Not even Discord managed to convince them to leave, and go to Canterlot. They’re better by your side than here, waiting by the wall, everyday that you make. There is no solution here, but maybe in Canterlot. It is a lot to ask of you, but you are a voice ponies will listen to. And Ponyville longs for yours. My own words can’t reach that far. Please, Princess, I humbly request you to intercede. Have them see reality. Staying here won’t help. I know you must be working with Luna on finding a solution, but in the meantime, the only solution here is to retreat and bite our time. Ponyville is no more and they need to come to your help or go search for it.  That’s how I see it, what I am telling myself. A rant. Trying to convince myself on repeat.  Though I want to leave, I can’t. It’s my town, my responsibility. Please have the Elements come to you, and may they take my beloved with them too. I think I need to end this letter here and send it right away, otherwise I will be throwing it. Like the other drafts. When you finish reading this letter, please ask Ditzy not to come back. There is nothing in Ponyville to find. She's better off going off to where Mrs Doo she can be a great mailpony once again. She will serve her new town well. Yours Faithfully, Mayor Mare Your Majesty, I do not know what Mayor wrote. But whatever she ended up writing, discard it. Please take no offense to it. I tried my damn hard to stop Ditzy from delivering the letter but she’s a pegasus and I’m an earth pony. No matter what I do, she was still going to be faster than I. Everypony always underestimates Ditzy. Mayor wasn’t herself when she wrote that letter. That damn mule head…  Well, now I’m tabled and writing. I guess I better have to continue? I don’t expect you to know me. I’m just the only teacher inPonyville. Yeah, that Ponyville. Today, I’ve sent the last kid on their way somewhere. No more “Fillies and Gentlecolts” for me anymore. At least for now. I don’t know yet where I’m going. Being a unionized teacher kind of gives me the privilege to not have to care about paperwork. Even if I wanted to. It does take away some of your freedom as a teacher, but I enjoyed the status for so long I guess it’s the other side of the coin rearing its face. I don’t know where the Rectorate will send me. Won’t till they announce it to me. I can enjoy some more days with Mayor before being sent away. I’ve thought about resigning and staying here but… wouldn’t that be a bit selfish? Sacrificing some children’s education for my own romantic ventures. Ah! That’s even more selfish when you think about it. I’m not irreplaceable, just a normal teacher, in a normal town, maybe in extraordinary times. I just wish extraordinary meant something different. Positive, you know. Alas. We’ve not heard from the big-shots in a long while, Your Highness. Sometimes, when I can’t sleep and look out through the window at Ponyville, what remains of it really, I can only wonder if we’ve been forgotten, or forsaken. I would get it, let’s be honest. The drama, the rushing, the mess of trying to save a small town at all cost. It costs labour, money, and publicity. Especially when the looming monster threatens far more than just a few houses and ponies. When the nation is at stake, what’s a small town but an acceptable sacrifice? I get it. Just... Could you tell Mayor? It shouldn’t come from me, or the Elements. Nopony but you can console her. Not even I can pry her hooves off the proverbial floorboard of this place. And trust me, I’ve tried. She’s served this town for so long that she can’t let go. Ponyville can be gone tomorrow, and let’s be honest it will, and she will stay within its border. She fancy herself the captain of a ship. She means well, but… I care. I want us to enjoy our time, not anguish here. Can you just wave your hoof? Tell her you’re at least considering the situation? We were used to Twilight handling everything around here. But now that she’s been gone for months, eyes have turned back to you. At least Luna comes to us in our dreams. There’s a lot of nightmares to spare among the Ponyvillians, despite that so few remain.  Just a touch of a Deus ex Machina would go a long way, you know. I can only go so far for Mayor and I don’t want her to have to make her choose between the town and me. Your presence would be welcomed. I wish you the best in finding a cure to the monster eating our lands. I hope Ponyville will have been worth it. If I get sent somewhere and you manage to remedy this whole mess. Just save a spot for me in the line to talk to Twilight. I have some flanks to spank. Reconsidering, I have a resignation letter to write. Yours truly, Cheerilee My Little Mayor, It is with great pain that I read your words. I can only empathize, worry, and hurry. Being a ruler isn’t an idle task and, though Ponyville is dear to my heart, my eyes cannot always be turned inland towards the grave danger that lies and eats at our counties. A grim realization I never wished to contend with, and yet have had many times. But rest assured, your plight is not unheeded. We are arduously working on it. Everypony is. Ponies better at the task than I am. I am not omnipotent, or omniscient. Everything would be so dull otherwise. And so I have tasked the best of the land to the task. And the best in this situation is definitely not me. Twilight’s friends and allies have been working so, so hard, Miss Mare. Sunburst has been leading the charge, and though he doesn’t often pop by Ponyville, and I do actually mean ‘pop by,’ he still is scouring Equestria and further beyond for any information that could be of help. Twilight and Starlight may have unleashed something they were not expecting and I am certain there are still in there, lost. It is now Equestria’s turn to save them. But help, sometimes, comes late. Were you to choose and come to Canterlot, I would gladly welcome you to stay as long as needed, and if you want to witness the research undertaken by the giants gathered by Starlight’s dear friend, a door will always be warmly opened for you. I am sorry I do not have more to offer now than my words, but a promise would be of ill abode, if not a lie. And I would hurt giving you false hope. I love you, my little pony. Be strong. Though the night may be dark, you are not alone. Also you can call me Celestia! Cel~