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// A dead pony's hope. 
// Story: Futility 
// by FaelaArts 
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 Twilight log 50
Day 5 since last oasis.
There was once a time I firmly believed in the future. Surely everything would be ok in the future. Surely something would come, to save me from this bleak now. But nothing ever came, and as I grew older, I came to realise that such things never existed in this world.

Sometimes I like to imagine a world quite unlike my own. A world filled with many ponies of all different sizes and colour. Not only ponies without horns on their heads, but ones with wings. In addition, sometimes there would be rare cases of ponies with both wings and a horn.

In that world, I am a master of my element, magic. I would be a little antisocial, but in reality, I was secretly lonely. It wouldn’t be until I move to the town called Ponyville that the other elements would be introduced, and my loneliness would abate. We would have fun under the guise of certain lessons, all common sense to me. It was…fun for a time.

However, after I allowed myself to ascend to princesshood, and gain a set of wings I found myself fulfilled with this part of the story. Twilight Sparkle has finished her friendship lessons, and she will live a long and happy life. All this was finished today as I walked. And now, I must find a new fantasy, lest I fall into melancholy. 

I am almost out of water, if I do not find another oasis in the accursed land soon, I will likely have to resort to using that spell. I do not like using it because I always have strange dreams after, but it may be my only choice.

How I long for a companion. How I wish I had a Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, or Spike. But that’s just wishful thinking, I am forever alone.

I found a skeleton today that had been half-crushed under one of the spikes that had fallen on the promised day. It had some bags and a water bottle still in good enough condition to be of use. I also found a journal, which I plan to read. I’ve set camp beside the spike, it providing a good solid wall to construct a lean to against. I will read some of the journal, and maybe find out who this pony was. But the one thing that struck me as strange was that he didn’t have a horn, like I do. Which means my theory is correct, there are more than my type on this planet, or there had been.

I have had to create a brand new journal, my old one having been lost to the sands of time. In case I do not survive this journey, it is probably a good idea to explain my past, while I still have the chance.  If you are reading this, I have probably perished; then again it is so hard to survive in this world now. Water is fading; I have one bottle left. Once that is gone I will have at best one day to reach the oasis, and that’s risking heat exhaustion.

I guess it would be best to start with how this all came to be. However I don’t know much except for what my mother told me, passed down through the generations. There is one thing I know for certain, one fact that keeps me firmly planted in reality for when the promised day happens again. And that is this; life is dying.

Once, this world was not just a death trap. It was filled with trees, animals, water. However as my race grew stronger, they began to notice a shocking revelation: the planet was dying. Apparently they set up some temples with old information, histories; time capsules basically.  After that was done, they began to prepare to prevent it from continuing further, but failed.

Now every so often, we are forced to survive an event caused by their act, now called the promised day. I do not understand much apart from what my own magic has told me, but I will do my best to explain what it is. Every day, the spell they cast drains power from the very earth, accelerating the death of life. When that power reaches a certain amount, all around the world these spears begin to form wherever life still exists, and tries to eradicate it.

The last promised day took my mother.





“I must rest” she spoke to herself, closing the book she had been writing in. Gazing to the sky, she wondered what the night was. Closing her eyes and curling up, she closed her eyes and blotted out the sun. Hidden in the shadow of the spear, she was safe from its harsh rays. Beside her was a skeleton, and above her was a tattered piece of fabric.

Closing her eyes, she breathed a sigh and waited for sleep to come, where she could dream of the night, of friends, of her mother. Falling asleep, and then waking up later no time had seemed to pass if you trusted the sun to show such things. On her internal clock however, she had slept a full 12 hours.

Standing up, she shook herself and packed up her tarp. Giving one last look to the body, she bowed her head and silently gave respects before turning away. Footprints in the sand, for wind didn’t blow anymore, clearly showed the path this pony had been travelling in. Looking in the final page of his journal, it seemed he had been heading for something important. He also had a key, and she quickly searched around before finding it on the ground near his hoof. It was a small circular coin, with a faded symbol on it. 

Pocketing it, she then turned and began heading in the direction he had been heading, diverging from her path to nowhere. The landscape hadn’t changed in the time she had slept. Sometimes she would cross faded prints of hooves, sometimes places where the spikes had hit very long ago. The sand was everywhere, the sun was unrelenting, there wasn’t a single cloud, not a single blade of grass.

The world was dead, she believed it to be so. The last promised day had been so long ago, so faded she barely even remembered her mother’s face. One day she wouldn’t be able to fight fate any longer, and when that day came, she would die. As far as she knew, she was the only one alive anymore. All she found were skeletons. 

However, this diary spoke of a hope; she would need to read more. Lucky for her, she had a long day of walking ahead to read it, and she was well used to walking on sand by now.

Hope, she doubted it was true. But she couldn’t resist letting a flutter of emotion ignite in her heart. This book, she must read it and find out if this hope was just folly.

“Enough putting it off, just read the damn thing” she scolded herself.