Part III: Twilight Sparkle
The young stallion was staring dumbfounded at the purple unicorn standing before him. He could see the power in her gaze, and knew that this was no mediocre magic trick unicorn. This purple monster meant business and if he didn’t cough up the answers she required soon, he would be minced meat.
Twilight Sparkle stood there and repeated again with a bit more intensity, “What happened here?”
As the stallion stood there dumbfounded, Twilight analyzed him. Her mind went racing as soon as he hesitated. To her, this was a simple mind trick game. She was able to analyze every single movement that this stallion made. From the way he nervously glanced at them, to the simple movement of his hooves.
‘Interesting. I am not even sure that this stallion knows a thing about what happened here. Considering the way he hesitates to answer one simple question, especially when I’m threatening him in such a manner.’ Twilight’s mind whirled and still there was no answer from the young stallion. ‘Or maybe he knows too much! Maybe he was the one that caused this and he doesn’t want to fess up to such heinous crimes!’
“That’s it! You better answer buddy! Or the Dash is going to force them out of you!” Rainbow Dash threatened and moved her hooves in a boxing manner, as if she was fighting her opponent.
Twilight sighed, “Rainbow! Give him a chance to think! This stallion could be suffering from some sort of post traumatic stress!”
“Yeah or he could be the one that caused this mess!” Rainbow Dash scoffed and crossed her hooves, angrily glowering at the young stallion.
Twilight Sparkle sighed; Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and even she wanted justice to be brought upon this stallion, but what if he wasn’t the killer? The explosion appeared to have come from the very center of Ponyville. That’s what Twilight had at least deduced from the way that the trees were smoldered to charcoal. In some areas there were still whole trees left.
The young stallion interrupted her thought processes when he answered, “I can’t remember much of anything! Just that there was an explosion and everypony seems to have gotten all caught up in it. Well at least that’s what I think, considering I haven’t seen any bodies yet.”
His answer chilled Twilight to the bone. There hadn’t been any bodies lying around on the ground. Except for dear old Granny Smith who was lying so carelessly amongst the piles of broken up barn parts and burnt out wood.
“He’s right,’ Twilight whispered and flicked her violet eyes over to her friends, “We haven’t seen any bodies…”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened, but what made Twilight suspicious was the way Pinkie Pie was reacting to this whole thing. Her normally hyper friend was keeping her mouth shut and kept looking at the stallion intensely, as if she was saying, ‘I know you…’
The young stallion rubbed his head and murmured, “I can’t even remember my own name.”
Pinkie Pie leapt up and pointed out his cutie mark, “Well it’s a Tombstone with arms! Ummm Army the Tombstone?!”
Twilight rolled her eyes, “A tombstone hmmm?”
The young stallion looked at his cutie mark and sighed deeply. A wave of frustration rolled over him as he tried to recall what his name was. It was on the edge of his memory, floating there, yet just out of reach so that he couldn’t catch it. The mention of the tombstone though jogged some of his thoughts into motion. It was as if the world blurred around him and he was falling into a large precipice as the name tumbled unwillingly out of his mouth, “I am the Living Tombstone.”
Twilight looked at him as if he had just grown a second head. The name sent chills up and down the mare’s spine. The thing that seemed to unnerve her was the name itself. ‘He is the only survivor that I have seen! Could he have gotten his cutie mark by surviving this massive explosion? That is simply ridiculous, but logical and possible all at once!’
Twilight didn’t dare say anything about the name, but her mind whirled at all the possibilities hanging in the air. Her good friend, Rainbow Dash, brought her out of her twisted thoughts with a sharp nudge. “We should take this weirdo with us Twilight! We don’t know what he’s capable of! He could try to kill somepony else if we don’t keep a good eye on him!”
Twilight was hesitant to agree. She didn’t like this young stallion at all, but knew that they should keep him with them or he might try something else. “Agreed we should make sure he doesn’t try anything else!”
Fluttershy, the most skittish of all the ponies, shook her head as if she disagreed, but didn’t dare argue. Applejack hung her head and trotted back over to where her dead grandmother lay, whispering some words to her. Rarity looked disgusted and shook her head but didn’t say anything more to add to the group’s opinion. Twilight figured she was just worried about keeping her white coat as pure as snow. Pinkie Pie looked as if she was ready to go and leap into action, and Rainbow Dash was glowering at the young stallion.
“Twilight we have to be careful…” Spike, her assistant murmured.
Twilight sighed and shook her head, “He didn’t necessarily do this horrible thing. We have to keep an eye on him.” Pushing the fact that all of her friends seemed to strongly dislike this pony to the back of her mind; she turned towards Ponyville, or rather, what was left of her beloved town.
“It’s getting pretty dark,” Spike commented looking around warily as if the darkness could swallow him whole.
Twilight sighed and forced her horn to glow, acting as a sort of flashlight to help illuminate their way forward. The ponies walked in silence taking in the seen of desolation. The burnt out trees, the blackness of the scorched building, and the eerie feeling as to why there were no bodies around. This didn’t creep Twilight out as much as it crept out her friends. She was simply trying to deduce what event could of have transpired and wiped out every single pony. The bodies, surely the ponies were either obliterated where they stood, or some could have even escaped.
Or was there something more sinister in the matter. When Twilight cast her violet gaze up to the clouds, she somewhat knew that Cloudsdale could not have been effected by such an incident as this one. Surely the explosion could not have reached such a height that it would have affected the very skies themselves.
Twilight’s thoughts buzzed so much that she accidentally collided with the rump of her friend, Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie was walking unusually slowly and wasn’t trotting as fast or as furious as she normally would have before. The pony almost seemed in a state of a lost train of thought. Twilight figured that the explosion had even affected her pink friend in a way that had subdued her wild behavior. She opened her mouth to ask what was wrong when the young stallion beside her let out a small gasp. He was staring at what looked to be a blackened device of sorts.
Rainbow Dash flew over to it, and examined it like it was nothing to her. Twilight was shocked for this rather large platform had to be the source of the explosion. It was centered in the very heart of Ponyville.
Pinkie Pie bounced over to it and looked at it carefully, an inspector’s hat and magnifying glass had mysteriously appeared on her being. Her blue eyes glided carefully around when she suddenly squawked, “There’s an entrance here Twilight!”
Twilight was too busy looking between the device and the young stallion. He was just sitting there with eyes that were as big as dish saucers. He was gasping for breath and finally came to a few seconds later.
“I remember something, perhaps we should go down that hole on the device!” he exclaimed.
Rainbow Dash sighed, “Alright braniac it’s up to you! Should we really believe this pony that was here with the explosion?”
Though all of her senses screamed no, Twilight knew she wanted to know the truth. She wanted to know so bad it was eating her alive inside. She took a deep breath and said, “Alright everypony. Don’t be alarmed but we must know the truth and in order to do that. We must enter whatever place has been below our hooves this whole time. If you are not brave enough to follow me down there then I understand, but I must know.”
With that Twilight entered the yawning darkness of the hole, ‘Whatever the cause is I must know… for the sake of Equestria!’