Chapter 1
“Twilight? Is it gone?”
Twilight looked up to the sky, her eyes wandering over it until they had reached the horizon, where the giant fire-spitting beast could still be seen. “Yes”, the mare answered with a weak voice. She teared her eyes away from the sky and looked down to her friend, who worked herself out of the charred remnants what was once her boutique. She wanted to help Rarity, but as she had finally managed it to get herself out of her paralyzed state, her friend had already succeeded in her task.
The former fashionista stepped at Twilight's side, her legs shaking. Twilight looked into her eyes. The expression in them was hard to tell for the young Alicorn. Sadness? Grief? Or just pure shock over the events of this day? She couldn't tell. Rarity's eyes looked like a mix of all of these things. Her mouth was expressionless, like a straight, thin line in the face of a hastily drawn cartoon character.
A cartoon character..... Twilight wished this was true. If they were all just characters in a cartoon, then perhaps someone could rewrite their fate. But everything was real and Twilight got it confirmed by the face of one of her dearest friends. Rarity's expression was still hard to read, but now, some tears joined the glance in her eyes, making it clear that her face showed umistakenly grief. At least partially.
The distraught unicorn mare suddenly wrapped her hooves in a tight grip around Twilight, burying her head into her neck, and began to cry without hesitation.
Twilight knew she had to say something, anything. But she couldn't.
Out of words, she leaned her head against Rarity, tears streaming out of her eyes too now. So much happened and she knew it was useless to say something anyway. No words of wisdom or comfort could change what happened or undo it. No matter what she would say, nothing would be enough to calm down her friend or herself or anypony she knew. Anypony that was still alive.
Twilight closed her eyes and thought on the beginning of the disastrous events.
The day began as usual. She woke up. Spike made breakfast. They sat on the table in the dining room of her castle and were busy with eating and making their plans for the day. It was a sunny day, without any problems in sight. And Twilight was happier than ever. She was the Princess of Friendship. The Tree of Harmony had assigned important tasks to her, she knew that, even though she still wasn't exactly sure what he wanted her to do and in what other way the map in the throne room would be important after they freed Starlight Glimmer's village. She was a princess now, a princess without a kingdom to rule, but she still had a task. Everything was normal and even better. Until Celestia's letter arrived.
As Twilight had opened the seal and began to read it, her eyes widened. A monster had attacked Canterlot. A fire-breathing monster, not unlike a dragon, but different. It had attacked during the night, when everypony was sleeping. It caught all the ponies living in the mountain city by surprise. According to the princess' words, she was with Luna in Fillydelphia as she wrote the letter. Both of them fought hard for the capital city of Equestria, but in the end, they had to give up. Twilight couldn't believe her eyes as she read the part of the letter that told her that Canterlot was nothing more than a smoldering crater now. She had to read the sentence twice before she was able to take it in.
Canterlot was destroyed. There were no survivors. Luna and Celestia were the only ponies who could flee.
Twilight had to set down the letter after she read the horrible news.
No survivors. Her parents were dead. Her brother was dead. Her whole family wiped out in the course of a few hours. Even Cadance, her foalsitter..... Her sister-in-law..... Dead. Twilight cursed it that they visited Canterlot on this weekend.
She began to feel dizzy. Everything was spinning and rotating around her. If she wouldn't had been sitting at that moment, she would have collapsed to the ground. It was Spike, who tried to keep a cool head despite having read in her face how much the situation was at stake, who threw her out of this state. “Twilight, you must continue to read! It's important!”, he said and shook her at her shoulders.
The rest of the letter told Twilight that neither Celestia nor Luna knew what this creature was. They had fought dozens of Equestria's enemies in ancient times, some of them bound to return, but this one was unknown to them. The only explanation they had was that it was far older than them and far older than Equestria. An enemy so old, that no living pony could remember it's existence. And they neither did know where it came from. They only knew what was obvious, that it had to be stopped. Stopped before it would do with the rest of Equestria what it did with Canterlot. And it was on the way to Ponyville to continue the work it began in Canterlot.
The only advice the Princess of the Sun had to stop the monstrous beast was to retrieve the Elements of Harmony and to alert Discord for help.
Twilight did as her mentor told her. She did not have much hope that the Elements would do something to stop this monster, considering that it was so old that even Equestria's oldest princesses were not aware of it's existence, but she knew they had to try everything and if it shouldn't work, they had Discord as their trump card.
As he once told them, he already existed many thousand years before Celestia and Luna were born and though even he didn't know this creature, Twilight had high hopes that his ancient chaos magic would be enough to stop the monster.
She was wrong.
The Elements of Harmony failed to defeat the monster, as she had predicted, and Discord..... He fought hard and at the beginning, it looked like he would prevail, but then, while he was busy preparing another attack, his body suddenly disintegrated without a warning and he was gone. Twilight didn't even see how it happened. But it was the moment where she knew that their fight was lost. Even if she would have had any other ideas to continue, she knew it was useless when she saw the body of the draconequus disappearing in front of her. What could be able to stop a monster that was capable of letting one of the two most powerful beings of Equestria simply disappear and that probably just with a single thought? It was a force no one could stop. It was the end. Everything was over.
After Discord was defeated, everything went down quickly for Twilight's second home town.
The buildings were turned to ashes and burnt black remnants of the wood they were built out of.
Ponies got attacked and were burned alive or devoured by the cataclysmic beast.
And even the ones who survived the assault of the ancient creature died mysteriously after a few minutes had passed. Twilight could not explain this either. It was a kind of magic even she, as the studious Alicorn she was, had never heard of or read about in any of her books. Not even the ancient books in the old castle in the Everfree Forest described a magic of that sort. And they especially mentioned nothing about this creature. Otherwise, she could have done something. Maybe.
But now everything was lost. Almost all of her friends were probably dead or would be dead soon and Equestria and the rest of their world was doomed.
Twilight never believed in things like this. But she had to admit it now, after witnessing all these tragic and horrific events:
The apocalypse had come over the world.
Having gone through the events of the day in her mind, in futile hope to find a solution when recapping all that happened, Twilight opened her eyes again and looked to the direction the monster was flying in once more. It was, despite it's size, barely recognizeable on the horizon now.
Based on the direction, she knew the next destination of the apocalyptic threat. Fillydelphia. Knowing that Celestia and Luna were there, a small glimmer of hope rose in her heart, but it quickly died down when she realized that this was just her troubled mind that still searched for a solution to save the world.
She shook her head. Celestia and Luna already tried to stop the monster. They could do nothing. Soon, she knew, they would be among the next victims. New tears streamed down her face at this thought as she suddenly felt how Rarity's grip around her neck began to loosen.
Twilight lifted up the head of her friend and held it in front of her face, only to be greeted by cold, empty eyes. “N-No.....”, the Alicorn stammered. “Not you too.” Sobbing and crying, she gave the dead body of the last of her friends who was able to stay at her side another hug, her tears drenching the white coat of the dead mare.
“Twilight?” A voice behind her suddenly interrupted her sobs. Twilight released her friend and put her body carefully to the ground, legs trembling. Then she turned around to face the pony behind her. It was Scootaloo.
“Twilight, where is Rainbow Dash?” The filly's face adorned a worried, but somewhat hopeful expression. It was apparent that she had still hope. In her foalish innocence, she thought everything could still turn for the better.
“I don't know”, Twilight answered. Of course this was a lie. Twilight herself saw Rainbow Dash falling, directly in front of her. But this was something she couldn't tell Rainbow Dash's number one fan and appointed little sister.
The mare rubbed some tears out of her eyes and set up a confident smile, then she walked over to the filly. She knew that everything was hopeless, but at least she could take care of it that Scootaloo could leave this world with happy thoughts and hope in her heart.
As she had come closer, she saw it. The mark that was suddenly adorning Scootaloo's body. “No”, Twilight whispered, holding a hoof to her mouth, while new tears emerged from her eyes.
“What's wrong, Twilight?”, the energetic little pegasus asked her. She followed her eyes. “It's just my cutie mark! I have no idea what it means. And it's at a weird spot. I always thought cutie marks were supposed to appear at your flank. But I'm happy that I finally got it!” The worried expression left the filly's eyes for a moment and she presented Twilight with a huge grin.
Twilight gritted her teeth and slowly brought herself to regain stability. She knew she would have to be strong now. Strong for the filly in front of her. Her last deed had to be a good one. She couldn't let Scootaloo die in despair. She would have never forgiven herself if she would.
Once more, she rubbed the tears out of her eyes. Another confident smile appeared on her face. Twilight brought the last distance between her and Scootaloo behind her and wrapped the filly in a tight hug. “Congratulations!”, she said in a cheerful tone. “I'm sure you're happy that our lessons finally paid off.” Twilight could feel at her neck how the filly eagerly nodded. Scootaloo tightened the grip around Twilight's neck, out of sheer joy.
But of course the mare knew what happened. She had seen this mark on the bodies of so many ponies that escaped the creature's attack and even though she did not know what it was and what kind of magic was responsible for it's creation, she knew what it meant for a pony that was cursed with it's presence. But Twilight shoved away the thought that the unholy mark of the creature did not even stop for little fillies. She would be strong for Scootaloo. Strong in her last moments.
“I'm sure Rainbow Dash will be so happy to see your cutie mark! Once we've found her and defeated the monster with the new spell I discovered, we will ask Pinkie Pie to give a big party!”
Scootaloo released the hug and looked into Twilight's face. “Really? You found a spell to defeat the monster?”
“Mhm”, Twilight answered with a happy nod.
Scootaloo's eyes glistened from joy and she proceeded to hug Twilight again.
Twilight wrapped her hooves around the body of the young filly and embraced her gently. “Soon it will be over, Scootaloo, and then we can rebuild Ponyville and make it even better than it was before!” The filly answered with a thankful nuzzle against Twilight's neck.
Minutes passed and Twilight and Scootaloo stood still in the middle of the place once called Ponyville, enjoying each other's company.
Twilight felt the warm body of the young pegasus filly against her's and felt happiness for it that she was able to make it easier for her, to give her a death in peace, rather than one in despair.
As Twilight felt the heart of the little filly stopping and Scootaloo's body becoming limb in her hooves, a fresh stream of tears shot out of her eyes and soaked her coat and the orange coat she had pressed her face against.
Twilight opened her eyes and looked at the sky again.
“I believed what we had would last forever, after all the moments we spent together..... Were they meaningless in the end?”
A sob escaped her mouth.
“If friendship is supposed to be magic, then why didn't it help us?”
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why didn't it help.
cause plot convenience mostly. cause obviousyl the power of a tree god cannot possibly stop an entity of raw destruction, even though it could overpower the netirety of equestria's might in one entity.
not even the tree of harmony's might can stand against contrived writing.
........ know you had a reason to write it, but it honestly is too contrived. there is no reason at all for it not to be stopped, other than for grimdark and plot.
5964441
That's sad that you think that way, however, I want to remind you on two things I had in mind when writing this story:
1. The Tree of Harmony's only two known powers are keeping the Everfree Forest from expanding, which is a passive use of magic rather than an active one, and the magical energy that was in the box (called by me "The Essence of Harmony"), which was used up by Twilight and her friends and the rest of it probably went into the creation of the castle, so they couldn't use the Essence of Harmony against the monster.
2. As mentioned in the story, the attacker is an ancient monster from the past, so old that neither Luna or Celestia nor even Discord know about it's existence. This also implies that it's powers, as well as how it got those powers and how it could become so strong, are beyond their knowledge.
I also hinted on it that the Tree of Harmony, if he could actively attack the monster, wouldn't be able to defeat it, with Discord who got killed so easily, despite that he is an ancient being even more powerful than Celestia and Luna and similar powerful to the Tree of Harmony itself, as well as by the fact that the Elements of Harmony, who use the same magic the Tree uses, have proven to be useless against the monster.
I assume what you're aiming for with your comment is that I basically explained nothing about this monster.
Not where it came from, not why it's so powerful, not how it's exactly possible that it could defeat Celestia, Luna and Discord with such ease.
I can see your point and usually I would agree with you there, but including all these infos was also not intended for this kind of story.
I left all these questions intentionally open and my goal with this story was simply to portray the downfall of Equestria from the view of one pony in particular, Twilight, in the last moments of her life, as well as depicting the last moments in the lives of Rarity and Scootaloo.
And, since this story is written from Twilight's perspective, I also recommend you to put yourself in Twilight's perspective when reading it:
Twilight does practically know nothing about this monster and therefore, everything is very vague.
All the details in regards to the monster and the threat it poses were intentionally left open for interpretation by me and you are invited to interpret the exact events that happened before the monster destroyed Ponyville in every way you wish or you can come up with.
Rather a bleak story, old boy. A few plot holes here and their, but generally enjoyable.
This... was an amazing chapter... I've never read anything like this before, but I can say that I liked this chapter, and I am sure I will enjoy the rest of the story just as much when it comes out.
But it's so sad...
PINKIE!!!
5964520
While I don't have any problem with making a monster too strong for the elements or rainbow power (and thus no problem with this story), there's no evidence that the rainbow power can be depleted any more than the elements could. In fact, the mane six showed that they still had rainbow power after Tirek, both when they created a rainbow in the final season four song, and when the EG mane six managed to manifest rainbow powers with Twilight's help in Rainbow Rocks.
5964520 .......... the elements are an extension of its might. and the mane six channeled its very power through them to defeat tirek, who wielded the power of much of equestria, all four alicorns, AND discord at the time.
discord is nothing compared to the tree, so there is no comparison there. and i am pretty fucking sure the tree would be as old, if not older, than some random dark dragon. and as its kinda obvious that the tree either has a will of its own or something similar, it could be rather easily compelled to abandon its hold of the forest to kill such an abomination.
seriously, your reasoning is half way to deceptive. you have no reason for them to fial other than to fail, no logical conclusion.
5964659
In hindsight, I'm surprised I could write this too. Especially the part with Scootaloo.
Would you tell me what you consider as plotholes? I'm interested to hear your thoughts on that.
And thanks for the follow, it's appreciated!
5964932
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it!
Though, it is not a chapter. It's just a one-shot I was inspired to by the PMV and song, there will be no continuation or prequel to this.
I have not planned to expand on it further, sorry.
But thanks for the favourite! Even though this story won't be expanded, you can expect more stories by me.
5964987
You make a good point here. To be honest, I forgot this little moment from the Season 4 Finale. The hiatus was very stressful for me and now I'm all in Season 5 hype, so, this completely slipped my mind due to that.
However, for this story's scenario, the magic of the Tree, and thus the magic in the Elements and the Essence of Harmony, are useless against the monster, because it is far older and has an unknown immunity to the specific magic that the Tree wields.
As I said, a lot here is intentionally open for interpretation and own theories, as I just wanted to depict the aftermath and the last moments in the lives of Rarity, Scootaloo and Twilight.
a few past & present tense issues . good read for a dark piece
Dear Princess Celestia
The Ponyclyepse is coming.
DUCK
Twilight Sparkle
5965152
oh! ok, I'm fine with that. But I am looking forward to more stories!
5965238
Thanks for reading and liking it, I'm glad you could enjoy it.
I had that feeling too when writing, though, I could not pin down where they are. I think it's somewhere in the flashback when Twilight thinks back on the events that led to the destruction of Ponyville. Or somewhere in the transitions between the flashback and the present.
It probably just happened because I wrote that story late at night while I was already tired, though, it would be interesting to see what I did wrong to learn from it. Can you name me a few examples of those issues?
5965300
And you're going to get them! Thanks for the follow!
The flashbacks were the main plot holes.
But still, I really enjoyed this.
I've never thought that i could enjoy something that make me sad
You got an entire story from a single song that I probably listened to a billion times. Damn.
7676318
The song and the PMV based on it. And it's actually just the end of a bigger story. But thanks for reading and following me!^^
Wow that was hard on the feels..
7709218
I know.
Still hate myself for writing this..... Thanks for the read, though.
7709242 You know I have to save them. Thank Luna for an Eva and a time machine and a really big mirror!!!
7710553
I can cope with it that I wrote about Equestria dying. It IS just a fic, after all, the real Equestria is just fine.
But letting Scootaloo die at the end was when I went too far, I realized that only in hindsight. She means the most to me, yet I wrote her being the filly who dies in Twilight's arms, because she was the first one who jumped into my mind when typing that fic down.
It's cruelly ironic, the fact that I love her the most was the reason why I chose her for that role, I guess that love for her led to it that my mind thought of it as sort of a compliment to give her that important role, yet at the same time, doing so was contradicting my love for her. And that's what I feel guilty for.
But who knows..... Maybe it's all just a dark dream.
I also recommend to watch the PMV that largely inspired this fic which I linked in the description. You will have to ignore the one scene with Chrysalis, but other than that, the PMV gets a whole new meaning when watched after reading my fic.
You know, since the fic got the second reading yesterday, I'm thinking strongly about picking it up again and adding another (optional) chapter.
Something that puts all of that in a more lighthearted direction, because I feel even more bad for it now after the fic got two readings.
It's set in stone, actually, I just can't tell when I will write it, but hopefully not too late from now.
7711199 If I caused you any undo sadness I am sorry.
7711208
You didn't. Nothing regarding this fic can cause me more than there already is.
I like.
What was the creature?
Second or third read now.
9160633
Second or third?
Wow..... Even though I'm not happy with the end of the story and still feel bad for writing this about Scootaloo of all ponies, I feel humbled by this.^^
The creature, it is mysterious..... I imagine it to be an old, ancient evil, that only wakes up every few thousand years or maybe even only every few ten thousand years, to feed on the planet's population before it goes back to sleep under the ground, where it waits for the next time it has to eat.
Every time it wakes up, it consumes everyone on the planet, leaving it devoid of life..... But somehow, every time after the feeding is over, new life starts to form, building populations, that then grow and develop for a very long time, until the creature returns and undo's everything once again. It's an endless cycle that always continues like that for all of eternity.
And because the creature is so old and the new life that gets created after the feeding doesn't know about it or what happened to the population that was there before them, there is no historic record of it, so nopony ever heard of it. And because it is much older than them, Celestia, Luna and Discord don't know anything about it or how to stop it either. Which they also couldn't, even if they would know what it is, because due to its existence that spans across many million years, it has developed powers far beyond anyone's imagination.
There are a few kinks that would have to be worked out if that would be a longer story and I would probably write it a bit different today, but as it stands, it's supposed to be a mysterious short story that is open for interpretation.
Lately, the thought to rewrite it has crossed my mind a few times, to see how it would turn out today now that I am a better writer than three years ago and to give it a different end that doesn't weigh on me like the current one, but I'm not sure yet as I have a lot of other, more important projects planned right now.
9161065
The ending is perfect...
Everything is gone and destroyed, it thinks it's passed over and left death in its wake, every sapient creature will die, except twilight.
Who has to wait, let's say ten thousand years, to aid the next creatures that arise... humans.
Multi chapter story and feature box.
Maybe tv tropes when fans love it enough.
9161084
It is an interesting idea. I don't like the end, because I let Scootaloo die even though I love her so much. I wanted to focus on a filly dying in Twilight's hooves at the end to make it more tragic, and my mind instantly jumped to Scootaloo because I know her so well and love her so much, so I chose her without thinking. But I regretted it then, because that decision also contradicts how much I love her at the same time.
That idea with Twilight is interesting, though. Maybe this time, the creature ensured that there will be a population it can feed on the next time it wakes up by sparing Twilight and letting her live.
Though, that idea would mean that the creature created a weakpoint for itself, as with Twilight surviving, she could figure out a way to kill the creature the next time and help the planet's next population to survive the feeding, which would break the endless cycle of my idea. So if I would have written this as a longer story, that's not the way how I would have gone about it.
And if I make the re-write one day, I have a more positive end in mind, something that the PMV that partially inspired this story implied, too.