They walked longer than usual, and only stopped to sleep when the sun had completely gone from the desert. They drank a sip of water and settled down for a night’s rest, assuming that Solus would return in the morning.
He did not, however. He returned in the middle of the night. They were awoken into pitch darkness by the roar of the motor as the bike skidded into the campsite. Ben and Silver got to their feet, looking sleepily at the big white pony. He dismounted his bike hurriedly.
“We have to go now.” He said.
Silver straightened up. “What are you talking about? We can wait until morning.”
“No we can’t,’ Solus insisted, “not if we want to beat the sandstorm that’s rolling right towards us.’
Instinctively, Ben and Silver looked toward the horizon. They couldn’t see anything yet, but the wind was blowing into their faces.
“What do you mean?” Ben asked nervously.
“What did it sound like?” Solus said angrily, shrugging into his massive saddlebag, water skins and all. “There’s a big cloud of sand coming that’s gonna be the end of us if we stay here.”
“But where can we go?” Silver asked, “We can’t see anything, and even if we could, it’s just flat desert forever.”
“No,” Solus finally got the saddlebag just right, “There’s another village, like the one back there. It’s not too far, I think.”
“So we run.” Ben said.
“No,” Solus started off at a brisk walk, away from Ben and Silver. He turned back, “But we walk fast and we don’t stop.”
Ben realised that running would have been foolish considering the current surroundings. They set off after Solus.
They walked fast for a few minutes before the initial panic faded and became a pressing force at their backs.
“So your bike...”
“Empty.” Solus said mournfully. “Used the last bit of fuel racing back here.” He looked at the ground.
“How will you get it back?”
Solus looked at Ben incredulously, then shook his head and looked forward.
“I...” Ben flushed red, but no one could see through the darkness.
The desert night pressed upon them from all sides, three shadows moving quickly through the inky black field. Ben and Silver followed Solus, who was more visible in the dark because of his bright white coat.
They walked for an hour, or maybe it was four. Ben didn’t know, but the light never changed. Eventually Solus said, “There, see?”
They squinted into the night, and could vaguely discern the shapes of more buildings like the ones in the first town. Ben looked behind him, only to see an enormous swirling cloud of shadow hurtling toward them. He let out a yelp. Solus looked back, and said “Run!”
They ran toward the buildings. The wind whipped at their manes, and dust flew into their eyes. Ben spit sand out of his mouth and the wind blew it right back in. The loose powder under his feet gradually became packed dirt as they entered the village. Alleyways and windows passed by in a blur of shadows. Ben could see only the outlines of Solus and Silver in front of him because of the dust. He followed them around a corner into an alleyway, then he saw Silver disappear into an open doorway.
He stumbled on the doorstep, and collapsed into the shade of the empty house. He recollected himself and rubbed his eyes. They were burning and irritated by the sand. As his blurred vision began to clear he saw Silver standing at the top of a staircase at the other end of the room. The wind was blowing sand into the house hard. Silver shouted "This way!" and Ben barely heard him. He hoisted himself to his feet and charged down the stairs after his friend.
The wind howled above them viciously, but faintly. They were safe in the cool darkness of the cellar.
“Can’t see anything,” Solus mumbled.
They stood in pitch black silence for a moment, and then Ben remembered the orb he had taken from the first cellar. He dropped his saddlebag and opened it up. The orb’s light erupted forth, along with its pathetic dying drone. It flickered slightly, but still cast enough light to see by.
Ben gasped. Solus made a sound and Silver stiffened beside Ben. By the light of the orb, the three ponies could see that the far wall of the cellar was covered by small cages, stacked up to the ceiling. The insides of the cages were shrouded in darkness.
There were tables arranged on the floor, but other than that the basement was empty. Slowly, Ben took the light toward the wall of cages. Holding it in one hoof, he held it close to the iron door of one of the cages and peered inside.
“Oh, what...” He stifled a gasp.
“What is it?” Silver came up behind him. “I...”
In the cage was a tiny skeleton. It was about the size of a cat, but there was no denying the bone shapes and proportions. It was a pony skeleton.
Ben stumbled back, scared. “What is it?”
“It looks like a pony.” Said Silver, “But it’s so small...”
Solus walked up and looked into the cage. The sandstorm smashed against the building upstairs. “It looks like those fluffy things I saw.”
Ben and Silver looked at him.
“Yeah,” he continued, “When I passed through Fillydelphia on my way here, I stayed the night in this apartment building. I kept hearing these sounds from the next room over, it sounded like foals crying. I hadn’t seen another living pony in weeks, so I went over. The door was unlocked and these little balls of... fluff were all over the apartment. They looked like tiny ponies. They were rolling all over each other babbling like idiots. There were some dead ones, too, but the others didn’t even care. Just kept smiling and yelling about nonsense. I just left ‘em.”
Silver looked confused. “That’s bizarre.” He said.
“That’s an understatement.” Solus nodded. “Saw a few more in other villages, too. Always just talking gibberish and drooling and rolling around.”
“I’ve never heard of anything like that,” Ben said doubtfully.
“Well you don’t have to doubt my story,” Solus nodded toward the cages.
“Let’s get some rest.” Silver said, “There’s no use trying to figure out what these things are in the dark. And I’m exhausted.
“Oh,” Ben remembered, “Did you fill those water skins?”
Solus smiled, “Oh yeah! Wasn’t gonna come back to you guys empty handed.” He kicked the water skins, sitting on the floor. They moved slightly and the sound of sloshing liquid could be heard.
“Fantastic.” Silver said sleepily. “Now if only we could find some food.” He opened his water skin and took a small sip, then eyed the canteen amusedly.
“Oh,” Solus said. “I might be able to help you there.”
Ben stood up. His stomach rumbled loudly. Solus laughed.
The big white stallion nosed open his saddle bag. Ben’s mouth immediately began to water when he saw what was inside: two large pieces of corn cake, half a dozen big red apples and a sealed canteen. Silver let out a whoop and Ben couldn’t get the grin off his face.
“Dig in,” said Solus.
The corn cake was dense and heavy, and filled them up before they had eaten half of their allotted pieces. The apples were sweet and juicy and healthy.
“Where did you find these?” Silver asked, juice dribbling down his chin. “I haven’t had apples this good in years.”
Solus smiled at him. “Apples are still fine, farther east,” he said. “I picked these at an orchard outside Fillydelphia.”
Ben looked up. “How much did they charge you for apples this good?”
“They didn’t charge me.”
“What? They just gave them to you?”
“No. There was nopony there.”
Ben looked confused, “What do you mean nopony there? Were they out? Did you steal these?”
“No, Ben.” Solus said. “There’s no nopony left east of the desert. Everypony is dead or gone somewhere, I don’t know. Everything’s abandoned.”
“W-What?” Ben stammered. Silver looked on in silence.
“I don’t know where you’re from, or who’s left there, but that’s what I was hoping to find out by going west. I wanted to find my brother, if he was still there.” Solus looked down.
“We came from a village... it was too small for a name. No trading posts or anything, pretty much off the map.” Silver explained. “When we left it was full of Earth Ponies.”
“What in Equestria would convince you to leave your home town to come to a place like this?”
Silver stammered. “We didn’t exactly... have a choice.”
Solus sensed he was hitting a sensitive topic and decided to back off for now. They sat quietly for a while, until Solus said, “My brother went to fight the Alicorns in the far west. You... do know about the takeover, yes?”
They nodded, of course. Every foal in Equestria had been woken from their sleep early, that morning when Princess Luna of Old descended into the fields of Celestia with her army of shadow ponies. It had been a frightful day, but the fighting had never reached Ben’s town, and the war soon became background noise in the everyday lives of ponies.
“I was going there,” said Solus, “to the fields of Celestia.”
“But you’re with us.” Ben said. “We’re going the wrong direction.”
Solus sighed. “Yeah. I realised I wasn’t going to have the gas to make it all the way there when you said the desert would go on for weeks after than tiny town. I considered just going for it, hoping I’d find something else.”
“But you saw the sandstorm.”
“Essentially, yes.”
Silver laughed. “Well good thing you did. Thank you to the sandstorm I suppose."
They put their leftover cake into the bag and sat in the weak glow of the orb for a few minutes, listening to the storm overhead. Eventually they all slept.
*
Ben woke up first. Immediately he knew something was not right. The light coming in from the staircase was the wrong colour. Instead of the gray-brown he had grown used to over the last months, it was a soft green. He smelled something unlike what he was used to as well. A soft, watery smell, like dew on... grass.
He opened his eyes, and found himself looking at a green ceiling. Brown roots were growing out of it, stretching toward the ground. He felt softness under his back that he didn’t remember. He rolled over and saw that the earth floor was carpeted with soft green grass.
Solus was awake, across from Ben. He was looking around the room with wide eyes.
“...what...” he tried to say.
Ben just shook his head.
The cages lining the far wall were broken down and rusted, covered with thick green moss. Some of the doors had fallen off. None of the skeletons remained from the night before. Ben became aware of the high humming of insects.
Silver stirred beside him. Ben watched as the same stunned fascination overtook Silver’s face that was currently on Ben’s.
“...roots?” was all Silver said.
They went up the stairs, which were rotting and broken.
The building was all but gone. The roof had caved in and broken down to dust. The walls were varying heights around the building’s edges, but never higher than Solus’ height.
The whole village was broken the same way; half-houses with no roofs, no doors, overtaken by moss and grass. Ben realised that they were standing in shade, despite the building having no roof. He looked up to discover they were standing under a canopy of thick green leaves. There were thin, slender trees growing out of the sand, which contrasted the green of the grass in bright white drifts, presumably pushed in by the sandstorm.
They stood in stupefied silence. None of them could comprehend anything they were seeing.
“Ben?” Silver said quietly. “I don’t think the world is dying. Maybe we’re not being left behind, but something is happening.”
Ben nodded. In the distance, a bird screeched a lonesome call across the forest that now expanded as far as Ben could see in any direction.