//------------------------------//
// Duvidha 
// Story: Speak Not Of The End Of The World 
// by Shaslan 
//------------------------------//

A dilemma. 

That was the word that Strawberry decided best fit her current situation. Sitting on her bunk, she stared out the window as the vast planet of Equus sprawled out in front of her. It was grand and beautiful, in its own unique sort of way, but Strawberry had long since given up on appreciating anything that it had to offer.

There was nothing there for her. There was nothing up here, either. After the initial thrill of their launch, their arrival passed relatively uncelebrated. The next few weeks were spent getting acclimated to life on the station, and anxiously awaiting their next mission.

It would come soon enough, Strawberry knew that much. 

She stared at the photograph in her hooves. It was an old one, taken long before holoprojectors and cloud databases had been designed. It showed herself, Cherry, Cheerilee, Blossomforth and Redheart, doing a variety of poses around Blossomforth’s new-old car. 

The memories embedded were still rich. Teasing Blossomforth that she somehow ended up with an old model of a new technology. Of Redheart telling the story of how she nearly totaled her own. Of Cheerilee’s general fear about the whole idea of driving. 

And, of course, memories of Cherry.

She sighed wistfully, looking up out the window again. 

Sun sickness. An in-flight accident. The sun. All things that had taken far more than they had any right to. Strawberry wondered what her friends would think if they could see her now. A sad, broken mare, filled with a void that could never be closed.

“I’m not quite sure what went wrong,” she whispered to herself.

Saying so made her feel a little bit better. 

Outside, the sun flickered in and out of existence.

Strawberry frowned. The sun had bore many names over the years. The Great Goddess, The Harvester, The Traveller. But now? Now it was a reaper, a devastator, something that had claimed more pony lives than anything else in the history of Equestria. First it killed their rulers, then it came for everyone else. Safety was a myth, and fear grew to become the norm. 

It was also senseless. So useless. So tiring. Who was the sun to claim this many lives? Who saw it fit that the greatest benefactor to their world would decide to end it? 

Strawberry didn’t know. But there was one thing that she was absolutely certain of: it had taken everything from her. Perhaps it was time to take things back.

With that thought, Strawberry turned and picked up her helmet before heading for the door.