1: Who am I?

The sun shone brightly on the ground below that is Equestria. Although, it was a much different place then it used to be so many years ago. The luscious green grass was now yellow and dreary, the beautiful trees were dead and toppling, and all the cute animals that once frolicked about were either gone or had evolved into something much more suitable for such an awful environment. If you were to ask anyone why things were this way, you wouldn't receive an answer. No one here in Equestria today was alive when it all happened, it's even been so long that the stories of what could've caused this have died out. However, that doesn't mean all stories are gone. In fact, we're going to be looking at one this very moment. This story is about you and your adventures in this godforsaken world. Take the next few moments to imprint yourself into this world, and we will begin.

Under the blazing sun lay you, an Earth Pony, unconscious and sprawled out in the dirt. Who knows how long you had been there, hours, days, or even weeks? Slowly, you began to open your eyes as your senses came back to you. First you could feel the heat from the sun on your back and the slight breeze passing by, then you could taste the awful, bitter air. Once your eyes were fully open and adjusted to the light, you had your sense of sight back as well. Before you lay the ruins of what appears to be a house. Scattered bricks and chunks of wood are strewn out amongst the wreckage. You rise up to your hooves and start surveying your other surroundings. To your sides are large fields of dead grass and a few dying trees, and behind you is a large mountain that seems insurmountable without any kind of equipment on hoof. After doing a couple more turns around, your legs give out from underneath you, obviously weak from not being used in a while. After cursing and getting back up, you think to yourself, Where am I? What is this place? You had come to realize that you had no recollection of any previous events leading up to this point. You don't even remember your own name or what you even look like at the moment. You quickly raise one of your hooves in front of your face and see that you have a light blue coat. As for your mane and tail, you can only see the tip of purple mane, and you could see that you had somewhat of a long flowing tail that followed suit in color. As you look at your tail you notice that you have some empty saddlebags strapped onto your back. You sat down and tried to assess the situation for a couple of minutes, but you kept drawing blanks as to what was happening.

After a lot of thinking, you looked back towards the ruins. You had the idea that it may actually be possible that maybe some answers lie underneath those bricks. You pick yourself up once again and make your way to the rubble. You first stop at a semi-large stone and you begin to shove it aside with all the strength you had. With a bit of effort, the slab gave way and you were able to flip it over. Underneath it lay a slightly cracked dagger. You pick it up, as you never know when it will come in handy, and place it inside your saddlebags. You continue to search around the wreckage to see what you could find. Sadly, you weren't able to find a whole lot, as your search only unveiled three Bits and a photo of a mare you didn't recognize. You pocket the money and then began to look more closely at the photo, seeing if it would spark some kind of memory. It was of a mare with a gray coat and an extremely long silvery mane and tail. You stared at it for quite some time hoping to remember, but to no avail. You just couldn't think of anything about the mare in the photo or remember anything about yourself. Perhaps this wasn't even a house you should recognize. Regardless, you place the photo in your saddlebags in case someone else may recognize it. "Somepony else..." you say aloud to yourself. It dons on you that there is absolutely no one around you, yet it seems like ponies used to live here at some point or another.

You hear your stomach begin to rumble in hunger. It feels like you haven't eaten in some time although you hadn't paid much attention to it beforehand. You decide that it's time to search for food and so you head out towards the field in the west. All you can see for a while is just dirt and dead trees, but you press on anyway hoping for some miracle. You told yourself that you were going to die anyway if you just sat there. As you continued walking down the gloomy field, the heat from the sun was getting to you. It must be summer time as it really doesn't get this hot any other season. You sat down under one of the few trees that had some leaves on it for a moment to catch your breath. As you were relaxing, you heard a low growl coming from the other side of the tree. You immediately jump up to your hooves and back away from the sound. You take your dagger from your saddlebag and place it in your mouth. "Who'sh dere?" You shout through clenched teeth. The only response you receive is another low growl. You slowly sidestep your way to look at the other side of the large tree to find a truly horrific sight. It appeared that the growling creature used to be some kind of pony. Only, this thing didn't have a mane or tail, it had fangs, and strange talon like things protruding from it's hooves. Once it caught a glimpse of you, it jumped towards you with it's mouth open and talons outstretched. You fall backwards only to just barely escape the creature's pounce towards you. You put the dagger in your hoof and you make a swing at the monster's leg and successfully make contact. It yelled out in pain and made a break for it, running from you as fast as it could on an injured leg. It seems like it's gone for now, but for how long?

You dust yourself off and begin walking at a faster pace down the field. You peer behind you for a moment and you see that the ruins of that house are no longer visible, so it's obvious that you've been walking for quite some time. You can feel your stomach begin to gurgle again, but this time it was painful. It appeared that you have eaten in a very long time as you were starting to feel some pretty bad hunger pains. You didn't have time to stop and wait for the pain to subside though, you had to go and find something to eat otherwise you might possibly die out here in this wasteland. You squinted your eyes and tried to look as far ahead as you possibly could. Up ahead you saw something green, upon further focus it appeared to be an apple tree. "Apples!" You said out loud as you began to sprint full force towards the now unmistakable tree sent by the heavens above. As you continued to move, something flashed inside your mind, it was images of a large apple orchard, and the taste of a delicious apple from one of the trees in that orchard. Perhaps it was memory, or maybe it was your mind just imagining the apples from that tree. That didn't matter to you at this point, the only thing that really had importance was getting one of those apples to satisfy your gurgling stomach.

At long last you had finally reached the wondrous tree. You raised your hoof to grab a hold of one the delicious red apples that hung from the branches. The moment you made contact, your whole body shivered with excitement. "I can't wait!" You said to yourself, unable to hold back your happiness in finding something to get rid of the awful pains in your entire body from hunger. You took the apple up to your lips and you smelled it's wonderful freshness. You opened your mouth and began to slowly bite down on the apple. You were expected it to peel away and give you the amazing taste of apple, but instead you were met with firm resistance. The object you had just bitten into was a solid as steel, and was nowhere close to being edible. You set the apple down then blinked and rubbed your eyes several times. After rubbing your eyes one final time, you saw that the apple you had just grabbed was not actually an apple, but was instead a pony skull. As you looked up at the once apple tree, you see that it was just another dead tree, but it was adorned with the skulls of ponies who had probably died the same way you were probably going to.

Suddenly, your legs had given away again and sent you crashing down onto your back. You look up at the unforgiving sky just as your stomach begins to rumble again. It sent horrible waves of pain throughout your body and you began to curl up into a ball, clutching your stomach. You had exerted too much energy sprinting your way here and now you were paying for it. You knew you were going to faint soon as you could see the world slowly blackening out. Just before losing all consciousness, you cursed whatever deity that watched over you for playing such a cruel trick on you. You lifted your head and then let it hit the ground as the darkness completely consumed your vision.

*---*

"Do yah think he's shtill alive?" One mare with a peculiar accent asked.

"I don't know, maybe." Replied a stallion, he paused his sentence and you felt a hoof on your neck. "He's still alive, but just barely. We have to take him back to the district, he can't stay out here in The Wastelands."

*---*

You let out a small moan and shifted yourself around trying to find a more comfortable position at the spot you lie in. As you were rolling over, you noticed that you were surrounded by the warmth of a blanket, and had the comfort of laying in an at least sort of soft bed. You quickly remembered where you were, and how you had passed out in the dirt. This felt entirely different from dirt and it almost made you a little scared to open up your eyes and see what was going on. Against this fear though, you use what little strength you can muster to open your eyes and get yourself out of this bed and situated. It appeared that you were in some sort of tent, and the only thing other than the bed behind you was a small stack of books. You don't even look at the books as you begin to make your way out of the tent to see who, or what, had rescued you from certain death.

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