Dementia's Decay

by Pernix

Holocaust

She's dead. Applejack is dead. Not only her, but the rest of the Apple Family, as well as Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.

I ran as fast as I possibly could, hoping to find at least one of my friends still alive and sane. Even though there was a bit of hope, it drowned in the ever growing pool of doubt that had swallowed it up.

I didn't watch them die. They were gone by the time I had gotten to the farm. In fact, the farm itself was gone by the time I had gotten there. Burned to the ground.

I walked inside the once-familiar pastures, hoping to find a friendly face among the ash and smoldering wood. The house and rooms where everyone stayed were completely obliterated, but I couldn't find any signs of bodies present either. This sparked a small flicker of hope deep within me. It wasn't long before this spark was snuffed out.

I ran outside of the house over to the barn behind it. What I saw made my heart sink into my chest. Applejack, Granny Smith, Big Macintosh, Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle stood inside the once-roofed barn, nothing but skeletons standing upright among the ashes.

Their bones stood in perfect alignment, as they did when they were alive. It's as if the flames carefully incinerated their flesh and organs, and carved around the solid white framework. They stood side by side, in perfect alignment. This could only mean that they simply stood around as their home burned down around their heads. As the fire slowly consumed them.

The fire's still spreading amongst their once-blossoming forest of apple trees. Each tree is being consumed by the blaze as I write.

It's sickening, how ponies you once knew can change entirely without warning. All of my closest friends; dead. Each a suicide, or murder. The town I once knew and loved is now one large victim of genocide from a supernatural killer.

Why is this not happening to me? Why am I still alive? Why am I still sane?

There's only one thing I can do. Canterlot is further up the road. I'm going to see Celestia again. She's an omnipotent being. She has to be sane. She has to be.