The Package

by Mechanischer Mann

1 - The Aftermath

I have already lost my tracking of time ever since I hid in this dark basement when it all began. I, Lucky Swirl, was repairing the damages Ponyville had sustained from the bombings above the sky. There were ponies that stayed behind here whilst the others had ran off to somewhere far away for safety. When I heard the shouts of the soldiers and royal guards that alerted everypony that they were coming, I stopped working and ran straight for the basement at my home, where I use it as a shelter now from these things. I had already packed the supplies that I need to survive before, just in case that I will be staying inside for a long time.

Minutes after I went inside my basement, there I could hear the loud bangs, terrifying noises, screaming of both soldiers and other ponies before they were cut off and the voices that I barely understand what they're saying. The noises that came from the outside, which sounded metallic and unnatural, had all left me shaken to the very bone inside of me along with the mix of fear and dread within me. My basement already has steel doors that can be locked from the inside, so I was assured that they won't be able to get inside to come for me. But nevertheless, I would sit on the floor and stare intensely at the doors for the sake of my own safety. I don't want to die, I don't want to die to some nightmares that no pony has seen before. Goodness, this smell. I feel sick just by breathing that burning smell.

The sounds from the outside had persisted for hours upon hours until recently where everything had seemed to go quiet all of a sudden. I had already grown tired from stuck inside this basement, but the noises from before and dreading about anything from the outside finding this basement and myself didn’t even allow me to sleep. The basement has grown colder than before, so I put on a scarf, which was really the only thing I had in there to keep me warm. I can see smoke slowly filling up the room, whatever happened must have ended by now. By that time, I had already grown hungry. So I went to the crate that holds apples that came from the Sweet Apple Acres, which holds the most tastiest apples in all of Equestria. I reached for an apple in the crate and took a bite from it, it sort of still has that same taste even after all that went through Equestria.

It has been hours already and everything is still dead silent. Was there anypony left out there? I need to know. I looked at the locked steel doors of the basement, my mind is telling me not to go outside but at the same time it's telling me to go out to look. I have a bag of mixed feelings and uncertainty within me, maybe there is anypony left in Ponyville or maybe not. As I got closer to the doors, I had a tense feeling in my body. It's telling me that something is really bad down there, but the urge to go out is fuelling inside me. Of course I could have just backed away from the doors and stay inside the basement, but I can’t help myself anymore. I don’t want to just stay inside this dark room for the rest of my life, I want to see if there is any pony left outside, I need to know. I held the key that was under a rug in front of the doors with my mouth and inserted it into the padlock before turning it with my hooves.

I got the padlock away from the handles and slowly started to push the door open to avoid making a noise, only to be greeted by a grey fog. I started to cough for a bit after breathing the dirty air that was present outside before putting my scarf over my nose and mouth. As I fully exited the basement, I could now clearly see the grey world around me. The houses and buildings on all of Ponyville have been flattened and reduced to only pieces of wood that is left standing while also being covered entirely in ash. The thick fog is engulfing the entirety of the town, making it hard to see if anypony is there. I was in a state of shock, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing here. If this really is a nightmare, please let me wake up. I don’t want to stay in a world like this! After I let out a sigh, I proceeded to walk through the remains of what was left of Ponyville, seeing that there isn’t a single pony that is either inside or outside the houses. I was able to see a couple of destroyed places that I could recognise a bit, such as the Sugarcube Corner and the Carousel Boutique. Ponyville really feels like miserable place in such a state like this.

I was able to reach to the place where the town square should be, with the town hall’s top half being being completely gone and the statue of a pony that was there before toppled and crumbled to pieces, save for the head. Suddenly, I heard what appears to be a deep metallic horn that which it had jolted me. I recognise that sound, I had heard it before when I was at that basement. I ran straight to a house that didn't manage to fully collapse to find a good spot to hide there. I stood in a corner where there is a darker spot in the house, just under the staircase. I stayed in that spot for minutes before hearing a scream that sounded like a pony’s voice. I took curiosity by that as I walked slowly to a window whilst avoiding the light coming from the holes on the roof. I looked to see that a white and brown stallion pony was running before stopping to look around. This is it, a pony! I finally found a pony that's still in Ponyville! I was both excited and happy to see one that is still here, but there’s something wrong with him. His face has the look of fear on it, he was running away from something and is crying for help. Moments later, the stallion was suddenly snatched away from above into the fog, to which he screamed before it was abruptly cut off. I could not believe what I have just seen, that bit of hope within me all suddenly died off. There is something big and tall that is literally hunting the ponies that are still in Ponyville, snatching anypony that it sees. This must be a bad dream, this has to be a nightmare! Please let me out of this!

I slowly backed away from the window back to the dark spot to not attract any attention to whatever there is out there, but not until I started hearing what sounded like metallic footsteps. I sat into the dark spot with my hoofs to my mouth so that wouldn’t hear me breathing. As the footsteps grew louder, my sense of dread started to fuel even more as I pray to Celestia that they wouldn’t find me and end up like that stallion. I closed my eyes as the footsteps come to a halt, with tears starting to leak from my eyes and my body shaking with fear. After a couple of indistinguishable sounds and voices were heard, the footsteps then started to fade away, indicating that the thing is moving away from where I am. I opened my eyes and let my hoof from my mouth before letting out a sigh of relief as the footsteps went quiet. I wiped the tears on my eyes and stood up before leaving the house.

I checked for the last time to see if any of those things are around, to which there seems to be none. I darted out to left to get away from the town square, not before accidentally tripping on a piece of stone. As I tried to get back up, I suddenly hear a voice of a another pony, a mare, calling for help in the distance. I quickly got up and went towards the source of the voice. After running towards the place where I heard the cry, there was nopony there. Still just emptiness and devoid of life. Then suddenly, a huge slab of metal crashed near me, causing me to fall to the ground. When I looked at the metal slab, I noticed that there is bars metal that is protruding from the slab and when I followed it, I was greeted with the sight of a large spotlight coming from a metal structure along with three more of those bars and slabs to which they looked like legs. The structure then emitted a metallic groan to which I realised that I have been caught by one of those things, a machine.

I quickly tried to get up to run away from the thing, but I was grabbed by the neck by a long thick wire coming from the machine. The wire held me tightly as if its strangling me. The machine then pulled me to the air with the wire to have me facing towards it and close to its eyes. I held me for a minute before I felt the wire growing tighter around my neck and then feeling my head being jerked along with the sound of a bone breaking, which would be the last thing I will see and hear in my life.