A Fear Worse Than Most Feared

by Josh Crapo

Could it Be?

"Are you going to be alright?" Node asks.

"Yeah. I’ll be fine. *Cough* It’s getting a little 'dusty' in here, but I'll be fine."

"Why don’t we go check on the others. Surely some of them will be in paralysis over the jolt."

"Probably. I don’t know. I hope not." Mud Stick starts to get a little scared at the thought of Aura Draft, Oak Quilt, Dry Stone, Tingle Doo and Repise all in paralysis because of, as the changelings call it, the jolt until Lean and Cool Aid suddenly comes through the dust, Lean being the first to speak.

"Node! Mud Stick! You have to come with us! Now!"

"What is it Lean?" Node looks a little shocked by the sudden entrance.

"You’ll find out when we get there!" Lean shouts, ahead of the group.

---

Lean shows the split fence to Node and Mud Stick. "Earlier, before the jolt, we examined a fence that was split in half. We took a measure of it before and after."

Node closely looks at the distance between each end that matches. "Hm... it looks to be about 25 inches,"

"That’s what I measured just now. Before, it used to be about 18 inches," Lean says.

"Oh, goddesses! Does that mean...?!?" Node starts.

Cool Aid nods. "Yes. It means that there was already an earthshake here that caused this fence to split apart."

"But what does that have to do with the disappearance of Ponyville? Plus, it could’ve been multiple earthshakes that caused the fence to go quite the distance. I mean, the one that just happened is the biggest one that’s occurred since millions of moons," Mud Stick points out.

"Mud Stick, they looked brand new to me before the jolt. Look at some of the cracks next to the fence compared to the ones straight in between the ends." Lean points her hoof to the fence for everyone to see.

"I must admit, both parts look brand spankin’ new. I will say that the ones in between the fence halves look fresh compared to the ones on the ends of the halves. According to what I can detect from my horn, these cracks only date back to eight days ago."

Mud Stick looks confused. "So, does that mean the earthshake hit a week ago? But I didn’t feel any shaking when my house collapsed out of nowhere."

"But there was one. It was so strong, nopony felt it. The structure code in Ponyville used to be so poor, anything could hit a building hard enough and it would fall," Cool Aid says, helping Mud Stick out.

"Wow. So that means my house collapsed because of an earthshake that nopony felt."

Cool Aid nods. "Yup."

"And the worst part?" Node asks.

"There wasn’t anything you could’ve done to prepare. Nopony was as daring as to investigate the cause of an entire city getting wiped of the face of the earth, much less days after the dust has risen because of the jolt. Even after there were clearly remnants that could’ve been examined immediately after Ponyville got destroyed," Lean explains.

Mud Stick walks up to Lean. "So, do you want to tell Dry Stone about this?"

"Of course we do."

"Tell me what exactly?" Dry Stone unexpectedly appears behind the four.

Lean turns around facing Dry Stone. "Oh, hey Dry Stone. We pulled in Node and Mud Stick to help us with finding the ultimate cause of Ponyville’s mysterious destruction."

"Yes, and what was the cause?"

"Ponyville was destroyed by an earthshake that was so strong, it was undetectable by the average pony."

"Isn’t that paradoxical?" Dry Stone asks Cool Aid in response to her explanation.

"Actually, no it isn’t. It’s just like if something gets colder overtime, it’ll actually feel hotter and hotter. Same applies for earthshakes. If an earthshake’s magnitude continually increases, at a certain point, it’ll go unnoticed. Equestria had feared that “the big one” may hit someday. But what few know is that the big one already happened when Equestria didn’t know it."

"And now that we’ve learned what happened, let’s gather the group, right Node?" Lean nudges Node who nods.

"Of course. Let’s find everyone."