//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6 
// Story: September 
// by YoshiStar21 
//------------------------------//

The scientist awoke once more, back on the flattened, black plains that had once been his world.

He waited for a while, waiting to find out if there were any more visions.

But, after what seemed like forever, it became clear that there was nothing more to see.

He slowly got up, his legs quivering with the effort.

He knew that there were going to be no more visions, other than the hallucinations that even still plagued his reality.

Because he, Synd Ridgell, had remembered what had happened that fateful month.

He didn’t want to know.

He didn’t want to find what was now in his head.

But he had to.

Closing his eyes, he recalled each moment from where his final vision ended.

Celestia was leaning over the remains of her most faithful student, and all of her friends.

“Synd, you know not what you do.”

The scientist turned, unfazed by the carnage before him, with a small grin of defiance on his face.

“Oh, but I do, teacher.”

“I am not your mentor.”

“Hmm, you weren't? But I remember every moment of my stay at the castle.”

Celestia glared at him with pure hatred, tears for her lost student flowing freely down her cheeks.

“Every moment; from when you took me under your care, until a certain unicorn stole your affections.”

“I had long since given up hope in training you for becoming a prince. You always put your own desires before the needs and wellbeing of others, and I could not allow somepony who acted in that way to continue in my teachings.”

“And you ABANDONED me, just like everyone else has!” the scientist screamed.

Celestia could only lay sobbing in the place where Twilight once stood.

“YOU HAVE ALL ABANDONED AND REJECTED ME! ALL OF YOU!” the scientist screamed.

What was left of his sanity snapped like a twig.

He stopped, panting for breath.

Slowly, and with great vigour, he cried;

"This is your redemption day everypony! Go away from me! Stay away from me! Go away! You can't touch me now!”

He staggered towards a single podium, with a small, orange button perched on the top, the protective glass dome around it shattered.

He raised his hoof.

“You see this button here? I'm going to press it!"

“No...” Celestia whispered.

“I’m going to press it!” he shouted.

The last of the crowd was running, trying to escape the imminent doom.

As his hoof descended, the scientist yelled “I’M PRESSING IT!!”

The button was pressed, and machine started. 

The scientist opened a concealed hatch.

“Now, please excuse me. There’s some business I must attend to in this bunker.”

He descended down the flight of stairs, leading down to the reinforced basement he had built beneath the lab.

As he disappeared into the depths, he shouted over his shoulder with a maniacal glee.

“Have fun!”

The hatch closed behind him, and the alarms went off.

He stopped.

“B-but... The systems... They couldn’t...” the scientist’s voice trailed off.

He looked at the monitors in the bunker, all relaying the error messages that spelled doom for all of Equestria.

In that moment, he knew he was the only one who could prevent the machine from killing everypony.

“Wait! NO!”

He galloped up the stairs, and tried to open the hatch.

“I CAN FIX THIS! I CAN SAVE YOU!”

But he was too late.

The machine’s contained energy burst forth, slamming the hatch into the scientist’s head, knocking him unconscious and sending him tumbling down the stairs.





Four days later, he awoke, with no memory of the month.

Where was he?

How did he get here?

Why was the hatch melted shut?

But he had food.

He had water.

He stayed down in the basement for so long, he couldn't keep count of the days.

As he was sleeping, a small monitor started flashing.

Then the consoles started emitting a high-pitched beeping noise, waking the scientist up.

The screens read ‘RADIATION LEVELS SAFE. NOW OPENING HATCH.’

And the hatch opened.

And the scientist stepped outside.

The land was flat.

The sun hung motionlessly, because there was no Princess to guide it.

And the clouds didn’t move, because there were no pegasi to command them.

I just remembered
What happened in September.
I'm the one who killed them all
I survived after the fall