• Published 1st Sep 2018
  • 459 Views, 6 Comments

The Day The World Exploded - TheMajorTechie



It was long rumored that Canterlot Mountain was an inactive volcano. For years, ponies would cast that rumor aside, call it a hoax. That all stopped when the earthquakes came. And then, the world exploded.

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1 | The Shockwave

The streets were flooded with other ponies like us as we fled from our crumbling homes. The earthquake that'd just hit, as well as the aftershocks, were noticeably stronger this time around, and I doubt that anyone else wanted to take chances at this point. The same carriage I repaired just minutes before rushed past, rumbling down the road in a crazed frenzy.

"Rusty, stop gawking and run!" Jewel yelled from up ahead. I shook myself from my daze and followed. Up above, pegasi hauled bulging clouds of rain into the city to combat the blazing fires that had already overtaken several buildings.

All around, Canterlot seemed to be crumbling. Buildings came tumbling down as the already-unstable land warped and buckled underneath. Higher up, the land itself appeared to shift-- slowly at first, but as seconds passed, it became clear what was happening.

Screams took to the air as the first stones from the landslide hit their targets. Jewel paused for a moment, her eyes wide as the entire mountainside began to crumble. Her horn lit up just as before, and another shield flickered to life above us. A pony-sized boulder smashed down on it immediately after, enacting a yelp from Jewel.

Coughing from the dust, we continued onward. A few other ponies around us had shields of their own. Some were magical constructs, like Jewels, but the majority of them were nothing more than flimsy bits of rubble that the others carried above their heads.

A burst of wind blew past as a Wonderbolt swooped down for the weaker ponies. In the distance, I could see entire families piling onto airships, and in some cases, even flat-out jumping off the edge.

The Wonderbolts had since refocused their efforts on the ponies taking a leap of faith. A net descended past the edge of the city to catch the jumpers as more airships arrived.

“Ack!”

Just ahead, Jewel’s shield shattered into nothingness as a fragment of a building clipped it. With a plaster-covered face, Jewel re-lit her horn, trembling as she attempted to re-cast the spell.

“Forget about the shield!” I shouted, grabbing her by the hoof. “We gotta catch an airship!”

Jewel nodded, bursting into a sprint as we rejoined the flow of ponies towards the dock.


We watched from the bustling deck of an airship as the city crumbled under us. Where much of the land used to be above the city, there was now only a smoldering caldera. Canterlot was specifically designed to avoid this kind of catastrophe, but in the end, I guess it’s pointless to fight a volcano anyways.

All around us, others bickered in a strange, half-dazed half-upbeat way, their conversation going one way before abruptly going in an entirely separate direction altogether. Though, one question seemed to rise above many of the rest: Where are the Princesses?

I watched as the pyroclastic flow rushed towards the city, only to be diverted by what remained of the cliffside above Canterlot and spilling over to the side in a flaming, orange-brown curtain of ash and rubble.

“Terrifyingly beautiful.” Jewel began, stepping up beside me at the railing. “It only took a couple days’ worth of quakes and a single eruption to level a city that was built with this exact event in mind.”

I nodded, my eyes still fixated on the burning city.

“It isn’t even the worst of it.” She continued, “I’ve heard that the volcano’s been overdue for millennia.”

“Meaning?”

Jewel didn’t answer. Similarly, most of the others on the airship fell into the same eerie silence. Then, it was my turn to feel it. A frightening shiver ran down my spine as my ears caught a low, rolling rumble from the direction of Canterlot Castle.

“Can we get this thing to move any faster?” A voice behind me asked, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

“Pilot’s working on it already.” Another voice replied. “Said that everypony here probably feels the same.”

The rumbling noise from earlier returned with a vengeance. It was relatively low-pitched at first, but slowly grew in intensity until it was a shrill screech of tearing metal and crumbling supports. I watched with wide eyes as Canterlot Castle began to tip. The ancient stone ledge that held the castle jerked downward as a rift began to form between it and the rest of the mountainside, sending the uppermost tower of the castle crashing down.

Everypony around us fell into an eerie silence as we watched the rest of the castle crumble. Tower by tower, the more Canterlot Castle tipped, the more it broke. Soon enough, all but the courtyard of the castle was gone-- vanished over the edge of the cliff it was built on.

“The Princesses.” Jewel whispered, still staring at the carnage, “The Princesses must’ve known that this would happen. There hasn’t been a word from them for weeks.”

I shrugged, taking my eyes off the ruins of the castle. “Yeah, but we don’t exactly know where they are, or if they’re even alive still. You do realize that, right?”

Jewel nodded.

Strangely, even after the fall of Canterlot Castle, the rumbling noise from before continued to permeate the air.

“Jewel?” I began slowly, “Do you think you should--”

Jewel lit her horn again, a glimmering shield forming around us just seconds before Canterlot Mountain exploded. The ensuing shockwave rippled through the air, sending chunks of rubble in all directions, including the airships.

A horrific tearing noise met our ears as a shred of the mountain pierced the airship’s hull. One of the crew members ran past, unfurling his wings and spiraling up towards the main balloon. Moments later, he came back into view, clearly panicked as he rushed into the captain’s quarters.

“The main balloon’s been pierced!” his voice echoed from behind the door, “We’re sinking quickly, and based on the extent of the damage, the entire balloon might continue to tear from the puncture.”

I frowned, looking to the balloon following us. Or at least, was following us. It had seemingly absorbed much of the shrapnel that was heading our way, and was quickly sinking as their rock-studded hull began to pull apart.

“Jewel--”

“Can’t help them.” Jewel deadpanned, cutting me off. “I’m best at defensive spells. You’ve seen my levitation skills, remember?” She turned away. “And besides, they’re too far from us.”

“We’re going down.” The Captain’s voice rung through the air, “Brace for impact. We’re in for a rough landing.”

Jewel nodded as her shield dissolved. In its place, she cast a slow-fall spell over the center of the hull. With a jolt, the ship’s descent slowed to a crawl.

“Alright,” she hollered, “the spell I just cast will slow the ship’s fall for the next few minutes. I don’t have the energy left to hold it for any longer, but I want all able-bodied pegasi to carry the others off the ship and onto the ground below. Got it?”

The Captain stumbled from his cabin, still partially dazed by the sudden decrease in speed. “Hey, I’m the one in charge here, ‘kay?” he barked, pointing an accusing hoof at Jewel, “Your orders would only confuse the crew even more, and we’ve still got enough working landing gear to avoid a crash. Now, if you mind, I’d recommend that you save your energy and call off the spell.”

Jewel sighed, lighting her horn once again to recall the spell. With that, the ship continued its descent.

“Deploy the parachutes!” The Captain ordered, turning away from us. “Let’s show these ponies what a real landing looks like, eh?”