Patriarchal/Divine Intervention

by Teh dr3am3r

A Dying Land

The Moon held its unwavering position in the sky, eying the dying land below it with a cruel, merciless glare. The moon had lost all of its beauty and resplendence and now the pale beams of light gave an aura of evil and darkness rather than light. It hung motionless and refused to move for the rising of the sun wreaking havoc on both nature and pony kind. Temperatures plummeted all over Equestria as plants began to wilt under the layer of frost from the cold, ponies slept in and failed to attend work on time, society came to a halt. Even the nightlife had ceased, its denizens exhausted after such a long night, dawn never coming to announce closing time at the clubs and bars. The sky remained dark, despite the prayers of the religious, the complaints of the nobles, the riots of the impatient, all life styles failed and broke apart as the sun continued its absence, giving the ominous foretelling of an eternal night.

Cults sprang up, bowing to the moon, or kneeling before statues of Luna, or some even worshiping Nightmare Moon herself as a godess of vengeance, pleading for mercy in her deistic heart in chants and prayers. Ponies everywhere despaired after the thirty-seventh "day" of the endless night, farmers losing their entire crops, plants everywhere turning to icy decay causing an extreme food shortage. Natural predator populations quickly eliminated their prey species and began dying of starvation themselves. All the world was dying as a royal messenger flew down from the sky and found the six mares that he was looking for.

To each of them he gave a summons, first to a farmer handing out food, then to a weather pony comforting a friend, and finishing with a sulky and brooding librarian before flying off back to Canterlot. The violet librarian slowly opened the letter of summons and pored over the words therein. After she finished, she dropped the note in the trash bin and looked around at her numerous titles and scrolls that lined the walls. The romance shelf lay on the floor in tatters, but its former occupants sat neatly in a large chest on the floor, their keeper would never in all her life, for any reason whatsoever, damage a single page in them, but the shelf the tomes had rested upon lay on the floor in splinters.

Her eyes found the open chest and remained fixed on the open lid for a long time. The unicorn pulled a book from its depths and flipped to the last page.

"And they lived happily ever after." It finished with a happy tone. The reader closed the cover gently and replaced the book, drawing another at random from its gaping maw. Again she flipped to the back page and read the same line again, just in a different story. Replacing and drawing another with increased frustration, this time the librarian opened to the front page where it read: "I write this for my greatest love, Midnight Dew." With a sigh of defeat, she set the book back with its brethren and put her head in her hooves and cried for her love.

Pinkamena shivered from the icy wind as she slowly plodded up to Twilight's door and knocked. There was no response as she had expected, for her magical friend had not come out since she returned before the sun went down for good. She had refused to speak to Pinkie Pie, downright ignoring her party invite and Pinkie herself. She entered through the door at the base of the tree and locked the door after a bewildered purple dragon was sent from his home. Pinkie invited him to bunk with her until the real Twilight came back, but as she never did, the temporary stay turned to a more permanent residence.

The bakery had shut down within a couple of weeks after the moon sat still when its supply of flour had gone, leaving hungry ponies without any way to obtain food other than the public rations. After the bakery had closed and Pinkie and her roommate had to leave, The two carried their possessions to the Apple Farm, the only place in Ponyville that still had a supply of food. They accepted Pinkamena Diane Pie and Spike instead of Pinkie Pie and Spike as new guests. About the table they ate sparingly, an apple or two each day, trying in vain to make the stores last until the sun and warmth returned. The only fortunate thing was that the Apples' hadn't sent their last shipment of fruit on time due to a delay, leaving the storage house brimming with apples, but it wouldn't last long with the hordes of the hungry that came for their ration each day.

Pinkamena knocked one more time, not even bothering to hope for a response, merely trying to stay alive under their last hope. The door remained still and Pinkamena finally turned with sigh of contempt and shuffled off into the freezing night, alone.

The frozen dark soil fell onto the small lump in the ground, falling from the small shovel held by a buttercream pegasus with tear-filled eyes. She stuck a small wooden board into the cold ground with the word, "Angel" inscribed upon its rotted surface instigating further waterfalls from the already tear-soaked mare. A rainbow maned pegasus wrapped a hoof around her best friend and pulled her into a tight hug, the rivers flooding and soaking over into her multicolored mane.

The small rabbit was the last of Fluttershy's numerous animals and pets to die, finally giving out under the complete absence of food and warmth. His owner had begged and begged for an extra ration to keep him alive, even bringing his frail body wrapped in thin blankets to the food line, but was turned down. She gave her own ration to the failing life in her hooves, but he was too weak to do so much as chew. She spoon fed him mashed bits of the apple until it was spent, leaving only the dry stem and reedy leaf for her. He died soon after, for once making real his emote of death, holding a withered stick in his paw as his life sank into oblivion.

Rarity read the summons with widening eyes. She immediately rushed to her armoir and pulled a thick coat to turn away the chilly air of the sunless sky. Sprinting from her boutique, she ran across Ponyville to each of her friends and called them to meet in her office. She was forced to break into the library and abduct a weeping unicorn that somewhat resembled her friend Twilight and literally had to drag her screaming and kicking form to Rarity's home. She had to subdue Twilight with magic to prevent her from tearing off into the night and likely through a wall in the rush to escape.

"You will not mope and brood while Princess Celestia herself calls for us to save Equestria."

"I don't care anymore Rarity. I just don't care."

The fashion unicorn popped Twilight on the nose with a hoof, "Look beyond your own pain Twilight, ponies everywhere are dying. I had to request Dashie to carry Fluttershy all the way here because she is distraught with grief. Angel died today and Fluttershy is in tatters. I don't give a buck what happened in Canterlot so you better snap to!"

Twilight crossed her legs and pouted like a filly, not saying anything more to her captor.

The Elements of Harmony trickled in slowly, looking very much like their counterparts under Discord, besides Fluttershy who wouldn't stop bawling and curled into the fetal position on the floor the moment she was set down. Pinkamena glared sourly at Rarity as Rainbow Dash sat on the floor next to her pegasus friend, placing a comforting hoof over the hysteric. Applejack arrived last, her ribs poking out and looking much skinnier than anypony else.

When Rarity saw her she exclaimed, "AJ! You look so awfully thin! Are you not eating your ration?"

The element of Honesty failed her repute, giving an awfully hidden lie, "Yes'm. It just be all 'ta hard work o' keeping ev'rpony fed an' 'ta cold. Ah use a lot o' mah energy."

Rarity ignored the obvious lie and confronted them about not doing anything about the letter.

"Ah got family ta' take care of, includin' yer sister."

"Does Fluttershy really look like she can even walk to the station? Besides the trains are out of operation."

"Yeah and I'm the element of Laughter. Do I look like I am laughing right now?"

Twilight remained silent as Rarity turned to her, "Well, whats your excuse?"

The unicorn glanced upwards morosely at Rarity's looming face but said nothing, only shuffled about and turned to face the walls with her free hoof.

"Everything will get much, much worse if we don't help Celestia." the fashionist prodded.

"And what has Celestia ever done for me?" came the librarian's quiet voice.

"Mah family come first, even 'fore the princess."

"And I will remain loyal to Fluttershy when she needs me, and that time is now."

And with that, the earth pony and the pegasus carried the crying mare out the door as Twilight sank back into her depression.

"Hey you know what Rarity?" asked Pinkamena in a drab manner.

"What?"

"We should throw a doomsday party." the pink pony spat as she left the two unicorns in the boutique.

Comments

[khatre]

and this is how Equestria dies

[-Key-]

Wow I expected twilight to refuse but honestly I didn't expect everypony to be this bad off I sir am impressed with your storyline and writing poor Fluttershy I feel so sorry for her and twilight as well as pinky. I really need a new chapter now I must know what becomes of equestria.

[DthWaker]

You are taking the death of plant life for lack of sunlight too far for such a short time while ignoring completely the consequences eternal night would have on temperature, it would have made a lot more sense if the temperature had lowered enough on spring/summer to further damage the crops and the health of the ponies and animals, but as currently depicted on the story the plants and animals must have been starving already to take such a tool so soon. I understand the need to show how bad things are, and that they are likely to get worse before they might get any better, but it would make more sense if the crops had been killed by a combination of unexpected frost brought by the cold and lack of sunlight, and if Angel had been killed by a bad cold in addition to malnutrition.

[Teh dr3am3r]

1473371
I mentioned the cold with rarity putting her coat on, but the heat does not just vanish in a real world scenario, it would take time considering the other side of Earth (completely unknown by Equestria) is having a permanent day. The heat would take a few months to completely dissipate, and even then the Equestrian "hemisphere" would not drop much below single digit temperatures. Yes that would elicit frost, but the temperatures have not dropped quite that far yet.

[DthWaker]

1474450 You really underestimate the temperature drop and overestimate the sunlight effect on plant-life. Considering the amount of Deciduous plants, those that lose their foliage during winter months, plants aren't dependent enough on sunlight to start withering within a week, and most fruit and vegetables doesn't spoil within the week they are picked. Now let's talk temperature, the temperature variation from day to night can range from 5-10 ºC on humid coastal cities to more that 30º inland, and on a desert that variation can reach more than 45 ºC, and we haven't seen the sea, nor sea products or critters on the show. That difference comes because during the day the sunlight heats the earth, and a thin layer of air near the ground is heated by conduction, during the night there is no sunlight, and the heat comes from the earth slowly releasing the absorbed sun radiation, and the coldest moment of the day is just before the sunrise when the amount of radiation conserved is at the lowest, on eternal night this amount will decrease faster and faster the longer they go without sunlight. Also the heat exchange between layers of air is very inefficient, that is the reason you get colder the further you get from sea level, on a summer’s day, for example, air temperatures may vary by more than 15 °C from just above the ground to waist height. Considering Eternal Night is centered on Equestria the sun is on the other side of the planet, and the distance from the poles to the equator is less than half the planet, and that isn't enough to heat them... It doesn't matter how hot the other end of the planet is, the hemisphere where Equestria is located will probably expect at most temperatures of a maximum of 20 ºC on the first dark day and that temperature will continue to drop without getting any hotter, within 3 days, even if it was originally the middle of summer it could drop to a single digit, and below zero within the week. If that would not elicit frost it certainly would not elicit famine because the lack of sunlight... The winter is colder than the summer because it has less sunlight hours, the poles are colder because the angle the sun-rays take on that area makes heating the ground more inefficient that the angle of the sun-rays at the equator. If a few hours or a few degrees(angle) make that much of a difference you can be sure no sunlight is going to make even more...

[Teh dr3am3r]

Well the point is Equestria is dying because of the eternal night

[DthWaker]

1475439 Yeah... It isn't really that big of a deal, we are talking about fiction based on a kids show after all, Equestria breaks the laws of physics on a daily basics, even without Pinkie... But the fact that the plants started dying immediately but the cold is a small discomfort at best was really bugging me, I just had to point it out.

[Teh dr3am3r]

Honestly it bothered me once you pointed it out so I edited it and put the temperature drop in and edited the timeline.