Far to the north, in a land unnamed and untamed by ponykind, a weary stallion towed a cart of apple pies through the forbidding wilderness. His dull orange mane grew darker and sagged in front of his unfocused eyes as the rain beat down upon him. He had long since given up any attempts to keep his vision clear. Fatigue, along with his own locks, drove his eyes downward, obscuring his sight to the point where all he could do was watch the ground a couple paces ahead of his front hooves.
A cold wind pummeled the sheer rock face along which the stallion travelled. A thin outcropping of rock, barely wide enough for the apple cart, jutted out of the wall, forming the only known passage through this Celestia-forsaken landscape.
The stallion could not see what was at the bottom of the cliff. When he peered over the edge all he could see through the pelting rain was an endless sea of fog several hundred feet below him. The only thing he could be sure that was down there was certain death as the fall would undoubtedly kill anypony unfortunate enough to slip.
Above him, the stallion could make out nothing more than the cracked, ominous face of stone seeming to stretch to ceiling of dark rainclouds. When he looked up the wind attacked his ears from a new angle, flattening them against the top of his skull. Along with the unbelievable height of the wall it served to disorient him. In a state of confusion he halted and looked to the ground in front of him, struggling to keep his balance. He stepped to the left, bringing himself closer to the wall, but then the whole world tilted inside his head and he found himself stumbling towards the edge of the narrow path.
A fresh gust of wind cascaded down the rock wall and assaulted the pie cart from below, slowly lifting it and forcing it closer to the precipice. With a loud scraping sound, lost to the wind, the cart tumbled over the edge, dragging the stallion towards the same fate. In a last frantic struggle the stallion’s hind legs slipped over the edge and he raked his front hooves along the slick rocks, desperately seeking something the grab on to. Suddenly his descent halted as his right hoof found purchase in a wedge shaped hole in the ground. The weight of a full grown stallion, along with an entire cart loaded with apple pies, tore at his shoulder, threatening to separate his joints. With a roar of both effort and pain the stallion pulled himself once again onto the narrow pathway, throwing his hind legs onto the flat surface then hauling the cart back into position behind him.
Breathing heavily, the stallion allowed himself a moment’s rest. Before long the biting wind and stinging rain reminded him of his task and he braced himself against his harness then began once again pulling the cart. As he continued he kept his eyes down, reminding himself not to look up or else he might once again lose his balance. For many hours he battled the deafening wind and piercing rain, slowly making progress towards his destination, unseeable over the grey, undistinguished horizon.
At some point he came to a halt as more water than usual began to splash on his front hooves. Daring to raise his field of view, he found only inches in front of him a horizontal geyser, blasting a torrent of water from the rock wall out into the empty space over the cliff. If the water hadn’t been there the hole in the wall would be easily wide enough for the stallion to walk in to. It was positioned so that the water formed a barrier from the ground up to a couple feet over the stallion’s head. Looking carefully he could find no way around it. There was no way over, under, or around. The only way past was through.
Testing the force of the water, he stuck his right hoof into it. The water immediately forced his hoof to the right and sprayed off in every direction. He removed his hoof from the geyser and pulled out his rain-soaked map, smiling briefly at the hoof-written note his oldest sister had left for him. The path drawn upon took him far along this cliffside passage which was broken up by several rivers. None of the rivers appeared to be spouts such as this one, so he assumed the rainfall was causing the water pressure to increase. Tucking away his map he realized he had a decision to make. He could either wait for the rain to stop and hope this jet of water died down, or he could try to force his way through.
After a moment of consideration, he set his jaw and his eyes blazed with determination. The delivery couldn’t wait. Pies don’t last forever, and he had no idea how much longer his journey would take. He didn’t have a minute to spare.
Spreading his legs wide to assume the most stable stance he could manage, the stallion took a deep breath and plunged his head into the roaring water. The force it exerted was enormous and it immediately forced its way under the stallion’s eyelids and into his nose. With an incredible amount of effort the stallion kept his head straight as gallons of water collided with his skull. He took a step forward and submerged his front legs. The pressure of the water only increased as more of his body entered the deluge. He gritted his teeth and fought against the current, but the soaked stone did not offer him secure footing. As he took another step he felt his front hooves start to slide along the ground, carrying him slowly in the direction of the waterflow. Realizing he didn’t have much time, he abandoned his slow approach and attempted to charge the rest of the way through. The instant his hind legs left the ground, however, the current lifted him and his cart, carrying them over the edge of the cliff. There the stallion found himself engulfed by water and suspended in space as gravity began to take effect.
He fell, not knowing where the freefall would take him other than down. He gained too much speed as the steady stream of water dispersed around him forming individual droplets of water which he could see colliding with raindrops. The sea of fog below him grew closer and the wind grew even stronger as he accelerated.
Soon the fog swallowed him and he was unable to see more than a couple feet in any direction. He would not have even been able to tell which way was down if it weren’t for the wind tearing at every inch of his body. He knew it was over. He’d failed the delivery. He’d failed his family.
Knowing his death was moments away, he closed his eyes and tried to send his thoughts to his family. Just before his eyelids blocked his sight he thought he noticed the silhouette of a pegasus trailing him in the fog. But before he even had a chance to register the obscured vision, his flight came to an end.
The wind ceased. The rain evaporated. Everything was dark and silent and still. The world had come to an end and the stallion no longer drew breath. He felt nothing, he saw nothing, he heard nothing. The world was gone, and in its place was nothing.