//------------------------------//
// Fade (2nd Person, Sad, AU?) 
// Story: The Scenes Of FiMFiction 
// by Arreis Of Avalon 
//------------------------------//

The wind howls around you, hardly noticeable. Your bangs whip against your forehead softly. Above your head, you hear dogtags clink together softly. Those are the only sounds you can hear. The sun has risen far over the horizon, high in the sky. The crystals have been destroyed. It’s nearly silent on the forgotten battlefield.

You guess the war was won just in time.


How pathetic.


You allow a shuddering breath to escape your lips, tightening your hoof around your chest. Your ribs hurt like hell, but you suppose you’ll be alright soon enough. If the rumors coming in from Ponyville were true, that is. 

Looking at the barren landscape around you, you kinda doubted they were false.

Dust, as far as the eye could see. Grey dust, and a brown, uneven landscape. The cold of the north had caused bitter, seemingly endless snowstorms and blizzards, freezing the hooves and bodies of soldiers. But now, the snow had ceased. The fighting had too.

Everything, everyone, had just… stopped.

Everyone but you.

You groan as another wave of pain and nausea overtakes you. You curl up tighter, resisting the urge to throw up what remains in your stomach - not much, by a long shot, but you’d prefer it to stay inside you. You shiver as your spare hoof grips your staff. It’s helped you get this far, but it’ll never be far enough. Nothing can escape the Fade. No food, no water, nothing.

“Come on, Dash, pull yourself together,” you hear your own rough voice growl out - but you don’t even register that you say it. The only thing left after you utter the words is a vast emptiness and a scratchy feeling in your dry throat. How long has it been since you had a decent drink of water? A week? 2? You can’t keep track of the days anymore. The sun follows its own schedule since Celestia disappeared. She was one of the first to disappear.

You struggle to get to your hooves, only to collapse a second later. Pain shoots through your body and you cry out. The sound is swallowed up by the air. You shudder in pain, gripping the staff tightly. You hear the dogtags jingling together cheerfully. “H-Heh… Finally learned t’laugh, didn’t you?” You manage a rough grin, more of a snarl on your scarred face. She’d have loved it, though. She might've been serious, but she still appreciated smiles.

You manage to sit up again, panting from exertion. You glance at your chest - so much blood. It’s managed to seep through your bandages. You don’t bother checking your pack - you know you’re out of new ones to change into. “Heh.” You manage a bitter laugh, spitting on the ground to clear the taste of dust from your mouth. “Let’s hope the wounds kill me before the Fade, right?” You bark out another laugh, glancing at the staff. “Ain’t that right, Pinks?”

The dogtags just jingle in response.

You sigh, your breath shuddering out again. Your lungs hurt. “Yeah…” You close your eyes, coughing out more dust. It was everywhere. You lean against the staff tiredly, your grin sliding off your face. “Guess I don’t have long, eh?” You shut your eyes tightly. “Tsk… what a way t’go. I couldn’t even die honorably.”

The wind whistles around you. You feel tears start to rise to your eyes and you just can’t hold them back. You don’t have the energy to. They start to roll down your face softly, leaving your cyan fur shining through the dirt and blood that covered you entirely. You just let your tears fall.

It’s the end. You might as well cry. No one’s here to see it, anyways.

“Always thought I’d go out with a bang,” you say to the air. “Y’know - take out some crystal soldiers with me, maybe even land a blow on old Sombra himself. Instead, I’m just sitting here, waiting to… to end.” You shake your head. “The Fade’s no way to go.”

You can almost hear her talking as the tags click. “Yeah, yeah, I know you wouldn’t believe in the Fade. You were a bit whimsical, sure, but you had a serious head about you. We all needed to be serious. It was a war, after all.” You laugh before coughing more. “I think the rumors are true, though. What else would cause this?” You gesture to the dust around you, that… void. 

You take another deep breath. You’re starting to feel so exhausted. “But I think Flutters is right. She heard from her source in Manehattan that someone came to Ponyville spouting some nonsense about timelines. It just makes sense that if… if that’s all true, and they fixed everything… Well. There’s no point for us to exist anymore. Right?”

The tags have gone silent. “Heh.” You shut your eyes. “Yeah, you never said much.” You let the silence continue a bit longer before breaking it once more. “I wonder… what it’ll be like. Will I just… stop existing? Or will I move on to the right timeline? To… To the me that was supposed to be here?” You grin before laughing. This time, you don’t end up coughing. Small miracles, right? “Imagine it, Pinks! All of us, friends of some high up alicorn princess with magic strong enough to change our entire past…”

Clinkclink.

“I didn’t want to believe it either…” You glance at your hoof as it starts to tingle. The silence is getting louder. “But well…” You can see through your hoof. “Guess it’s not as fake as we all thought.”

You cough into your hoof. When you look back at it, you can see blood faintly staining your fur. You can see through that too. “Y’know, Pinks?... All I really want… is to see you again. Maybe… maybe we could’a been better friends.” You let your hoof drop. You’re… really tired at this point. You shut your eyes, leaning against the staff.

“I just hope… I see you there, Pinks.”

Clinkclink.

“Heh… S-see you… on the other side, right?”

The staff falls from your hoof, clattering to the ground silently. You collapse, your body feeling weak. Static seems to fill your entire body. You aren’t breathing anymore.

And then… nothing.

*~*~*~

“Dashie!”

You jump, the ball falling beside you. You glance at it, taking a minute to remember what you’d been doing. You glance behind you at Pinkie. “Aw, Pinks! Come on, I had almost beat my record!”

“Oopsie! Sorry, Dashie!” Pinkie giggled brightly, holding up a tray of cupcakes on her head. “Just wondering if you wanted to try my new flavor! I call them Crumbdiddlyumptious Cakes, cause they’re made with cookie crumbs!” She giggled, a big smile on her face.

You take a minute to memorize that smile. You’re not really sure why. Maybe it’s because you don’t want to forget it. After all, memories do things like that - they just fade away before you’re ready to say goodbye.

…

When did you get so deep?

“Heh. Sure thing, Pinkie Pie.” You grab one and munch on it happily with your friend before returning to your game.