The Road Not Taken
Chapter 1: World of Shadow and Ruin
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"All things begin, and then all things end. I have seen this cycle thousands of times before, and I will inevitably see it thousands of times more. If nothing else, Nightmare Moon was proof of this. It led me to conclude, tragically, that this is only fundamental constant of our world."
-- Princess Celestia, 1722 N.A.
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The once lush trees were now dead and barren. The sounds of life that enveloped Ponyville had been replaced with an uncaring whistling wind. The bright summer skies provided by Celestia’s sun had been replaced with a cold sunset that seemed permanently fixed in the sky. Ever since she had woken up, Twilight Sparkle tried to imagine what could have devastated her beloved town in the course of one night. Everything had been fine when she had gone to sleep, to be replaced with the desolate landscape around her.
Twilight replayed that last night in her mind. She had attended Pinkie Pie’s ‘First-Snow-Of-The-Year’ party with her friends, before leaving sometime after 10. She hadn’t felt very well as she climbed into bed, and she had hoped that she wasn’t coming down with something.
She had woken up deathly cold, and shivering. Certain she had come down with a fever, she had called out to Spike, but silence had been her only answer. Grumbling, Twilight had forced herself out of bed, and wrapped the blanket around her. She had the notion that something was amiss, but wrote it off to sickness.
The lavender unicorn ventured downstairs, and had found that the lights had been extinguished and a draft was blowing through the room. She had tried the switch on the wall to no avail, and called again for Spike, again getting no response. Making a mental note to admonish her assistant, Twilight cast a 'light' spell with some difficultly. A weak purplish haze illuminated the room. She had expected to find the dragon with his head in the gems jar, and her usual mess of books spread across the floor.
Instead, she found several of the bookcases face down, and one of the windows smashed inward. She screamed for Spike, and franticly searched for him. Finding nothing, Twilight panicked and charged out the door. Screaming for her assistant, she ran onto the road towards the central square. It was only after she saw the dilapidated town square did the purple unicorn realized that true extent of her nightmare.
In front of her stood the Mayor's residence. The once proud building had been left to rot and decay; parts of the balcony had fallen to the streets below, and the front door appeared to have been kicked in. Catching her breath, Twilight slowly turned around and suddenly saw what her mind had disregarded in her hysteria.
All of the buildings around her had fallen into the same state of disrepair. From Sugarcube Corner to the Carousel Boutique, the same scene played out again, and again. Some of the once proud buildings had broken windows, others still had their doors kicked in, but no matter where she looked, everything was the same. She begin screaming for her friends, naming them off in quick succession. Unable to cope with the devastation around her, Twilight bolted out of the square. Everywhere she looked, the once glorious town had decayed into necropolis. Her fears further realized, Twilight's mind descended into a crazed state. As she approached the edge of the town, the desecrated buildings gave way to a petrified forest.
The cold penetrated deep within the unicorn's spine, and the bitter wind caused her eyes to tear, but the terrified pony couldn't stop galloping. More than once, she thought she glimpsed something lurking in the shadows, but each time she turned, she saw nothing. She didn't know where she was going, but she was determined to get as far away from that nightmare as possible. She thought that this was some horrific dream that she would simply wake up from. The growing pain in her hooves suggested otherwise.
The once well familiar site of the Sweet Apple Acres farm loomed into view. Its once well kept orchids and mighty apple trees had withered and died. Their petrified remains now stood grimly reminding Twilight of the nightmare that she had found herself in. Horrified, she charged across the fields, and towards the lone farmhouse in the middle.
Even from a distance, Twilight could see the building had fared much better than the ones in Ponyville; It was a hopeful sign. Maybe, just maybe, she might even find Applejack inside, and then could work together to figure out this mess.
Twilight finally let up her frantic pace as she approached the farmhouse. Tired and out of breath, she creaked open the door, and let herself in.
"Applejack? ... Big Macintosh? ... Apple Bloom? ... Grammy Smith? ... Anypony?"
She slammed the door behind her, and her eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. The farmhouse had been home to the Apple family for generations, and pictures of various ponies adorned the wall. A putrid scent lingered in the still air, and Twilight cautiously made her way up the stairs in her search for Applejack.
With each passing step, Twilight's hopes of finding Applejack had dwindled. She knew that Applejack would have responded to her calls were she capable, but Twilight had to be sure she wasn't here. She simply couldn't bear this alone. As she approached the top the stairs, she found that the landing was cast in complete darkness. With some difficulty, she reached inside herself and cast another 'light' spell.
It only took her a few seconds to regret that decision.
* * *
Twilight lay in a tightly curled ball under a blanket in the safety of her basement. Her mind was still trying to process everything around it. She could barely remember how she had made her way back to the library after ....
The unicorn shook her head, she couldn't think about it. She had prayed that this was some sort of waking dream, or some horrible prank gone wrong. She hoped that she would simply wake up. She thought that she might find one of her friends. All she found was that personal hell around her refused to be dismissed.
She was tired, cold, lonely and terrified. All she wanted was her friends but they would never come, to wake up and Ponyville back to normal. She could see Spike would be there with a nice cup of hot tea, next to Pinkie Pie there waiting with a batch of cupcakes to cheer her up.
'Hear you go, Twilight, it's a beautiful morning'
'Don't you know silly, a cupcake a day keeps the nightmares at bay!'
Rarity would concern herself with Twilight's distraught appearance.
'Now, dear. It was only a dream, nothing to get your mane all frazzled up over. No, no, this won't do at all!'
Applejack would want to hear all about her dream, and reassure her.
'Ah, shucks. It was only a dream here now. Nothing for ya'll to getworked up about about.'
Fluttershy would meekly add her two bits.
'T-that sounds horrible, Twilight. H-how did you manage to handle that all on your own?'
Rainbow Dash would boast that as long as she was around, nothing would happen to Ponyville.
'Bah, it was just a crazy dream. Nothing will happen as long as Rainbow Dash is here!'
With these warming thoughts of her friends in her mind, Twilight fell into an uneasy sleep. As she slept, her mind began to dream.
* * *
I looked towards my sister, and saw that she had finally fallen asleep. Her coat was dirty and mangled, and small leaves and twigs had become nested in her mane. Many of the bruises that covered her body were now beginning to heal; with a little luck, some of the deeper lacerations would not scar. Even now, I barely recognize her for the filly I last saw her as. Had she not called out my name, it was in the realm of possibility that I may have watched her die without even realizing who she was.
I have given up everything I had once held as an unalienable truth, and as such, have been forced to truly see the atrocities I committed in the name of the Spirit of Law and Justice. I will not coat my actions in sugar: I have killed. The guilty, the innocent, the young, and the old, they all fell to my blade. I have torched homes as a warning to others and torn families apart in His Name. There had been no doubt that what I had done was righteous; all for the greater good. Now I can see that I had simply deluded myself.
I suspect there will come a time where she will ask the questions that I can't answer. I fear that she will learn the full depths of my depravity. There is no denying that it would be my 'just desserts', but I cannot bare the thought of being forsaken by my only family.
Yet, paradoxically, I find myself strangely calm. We have been on the run for at least four days, and seen neither hide nor tail of the Royal Guards nor of the Spirit of Law and Justice himself. I had always been taught that the Titans were all knowing, all seeing, and all-powerful; was this simply another lie? Maybe he knows that we will die in here, or should we survive, we will constantly be in fear of facing his judgement. I suspect that I shall never know.
I am but a simple pegasus. My sister is one of the few blessed to be born a unicorn, but her magic alone would not suffice. One could say that we are, at best, ill-equipped to face the wraith of a God. Servitude is life, defiance means death; this was always clear to me. Heretics would be exceedingly fortunate to have a quick death. For blasphemy such as my own, I dare not think of what fate awaits me.
Despite this, and the unclear path that lays ahead, I feel hopeful. For the first time in my life, I do not feel him constantly looking over my shoulder, or gazing down from his throne. I do not hear his voice anymore. My destiny is now my own. I am- no, sister is free.
Free ...
I now understand what might cause one to defy a God. My sins stay my feet; one such as myself has no right to bask in such gifts. But my sister is innocent ...
I quietly lay down, and wrapped one of my wings around my sisters frail form. There was a light grumble followed by a shift in the dirt as we huddled closer to each other.
For you sister, I will challenge the gods. I will do what is considered impossible. Absolution will be forever denied to me, but, in this forest, you will be ever free.
I shall see to it, even if my life becomes forfeit in the process ...
* * *
For a brief moment, Twilight had honestly believed it had been just a dream. A strange, horrible, twisted dream. But as she opened her eyes, she found herself huddled in the pitch dark blackness of her basement.
She was about to light the room again when she hesitated. What-what if she saw- ...
'No', her weary mind answered, 'there was nothing down here, you saw that when you came down, there was nothing to be scared of'. Shaking her head, Twilight cast the spell, and illuminated the basement before exhaling. She had become greatly concerned with the amount of effort to do something as simple as light a room. It was becoming evident that her magic had been severally weakened.
"No, Twilight, you just stressed. A-all of this is a lot to take in, you just need to focus your mind, and figure this out ...'
Somehow, her inner voice seemed far more confident that she was ...
She took in account of her surroundings. Various laboratory equipment lay on various tables across the room. It was obvious that whoever had ransacked her library had missed the trapdoor leading to the basement. Even if they had found it, there had been very little worth taking, some bottled water, and a few boxes of protein bars that had been left down here.
The unicorn strained her mind trying to remember when she had bought it, but found herself coming up blank. It was possible that she had simply forgot. She almost never came down to the basement, and the unassuming packages could have easily been overlooked in the far corner where she had left them.
Regardless of the reason, she greedily consumed one of the bars. It tasted horrible, but she forced herself to swallow. Despite the taste, her stomach finally felt more content. It after all been the first sustenance she had downed since yesterday.
Deciding to face reality, Twilight made her way up the stairs, and into the foyer above. The sky was still bathed in a sea of purple and blues, and Twilight wondered out loud how long she had slept; surely it couldn't have been for a full day, could it?
The strange sky and whistling wind only served to remind her how very much alone she was right now, and how everypony was depending on her to figure this out. It only took a moment's deliberation to decide her upon destination.
The Carousel Boutique was barely recognizable; Its once well kept decorations and windows were smashed and broken. Much of its baby blue paint had been stripped away by the wind, leaving rough patches of blue in a sea of brown. Many of the wooden horses that adorned the top of the building had fallen into the yard, and one of the large bay windows had been smashed in. Twilight hesitated in opening the door; she had already encountered a grim surprise at Applejack's, and was loathe to repeat the experience.
As if almost on cue, a sharp blast of wind shot past the lavender pony. Shivering, she knew that if she was going to figure this out, she first had to find a way to survive long enough to do so. She had shelter, and found enough food and water for at least a few more days, but without warm clothing she was going to freeze to death.
Steeling her resolve, Twilight made her way into Rarity's shop. The scene was worse than she had imagined: broken glass and mannequins lay strode upon the ground. As she carefully stepped around the glass, she looked for anything that might be useful, but whoever had been here before had been extremely through. Only a few small scraps of fabric remained.
Much to Twilight's dismay, Rarity's bedroom was in much the same state. The bed had been overturned, and the dresser had been nothing short of demolished. It wasn't until she searched the closet did Twilight finally have a stroke of good fortune. Hidden in the recess, and sitting on the floor lay one of Rarity’s old winter jackets. Whoever had ransacked the Boutique had overlooked it in their haste. After a moment of hesitation, Twilight wrapped herself in it, and found a much needed relief from the cold air. From where she was standing, Twilight eyed the mostly-set sun over the boutique's balcony. She couldn’t quite place a hoof around it, but something was out of place.
After a moment, Twilight shook her head. She had other things to worry about. For the moment, she had managed to find protection from the harsh winds, and could continue her search.
After what felt like several hours, Twilight slowly made her way towards the library. Her quest for answers had ended in what only could be described as 'dismal failure'. The few buildings she had dared to enter were in much the same state as the Boutique and her library. It had been during the search of the mayor's home that she had finally concluded that whatever happened, it could not have happened in the course of one night, nor could she have simply slept through it.
This realization however had led to more questions. 'Where am I?', and 'How did I get here?' echoed unanswered in her mind. Even plausible theories escaped her; it was simply impossible that she could have gone to sleep one night, and woken up in this dead world. If nothing else, wherever she was, it was clear it would not yield its answers easily.
It wasn't until she looked at the orange sky when she noticed she had missed the biggest clue of them all.
It had been twilight when she first woke. It had been twilight when she left the library today. Horror set in as the unicorn finally realized the sun had been frozen just over the horizon since she had arrived.