The Night Lasts Forever

by MasterFrasca

The New Equestria

“I can’t believe she’s…” Twilight started before she burst into tears once again on my shoulder. Although I was sad for her, the fact that she chose me over the doctor to lean to in this time of need gave me some hope.

“We need to move on,” the Doctor regretfully mumbled to us, “I’m not sure how much longer we can stay.”

“Then follow me,” My future self said, heading back out the door we came in. I was glad to leave the room and its tortured messages. I couldn’t believe that Pinkie, out of all those I’ve known would take her life. “We’re going to take a visit to Fluttershy’s cottage. I just hope she’s well enough to see us.

Future me led us out from Sugarcube Corner and down Main Street Ponyville towards Fluttershy’s cottage. As we passed stores and houses, I noticed that the ponies around us were different from back in our time. Everypony was walking quickly to and fro, but the odd thing was the fact that nopony was talking to each other. The streets were silent, save the noise of hoof steps on the pavement. Usually everypony was talking amongst themselves whenever I walked down the street on a normal day. Everypony here was solemn and silent.

“Why is everypony so quiet?” Twilight asked the Future Luna, obviously noticing the silence around us.

“They’re afraid to talk,” future Luna told her. “Ever since you left Twilight, Queen Celestia has ruled with an iron fist, and slanderous speech against the queen is now punishable by law.”

“Queen Celestia?” Twilight asked, slowing down a little, caught in some sort of trance.

“She dubbed herself Queen of Equestria, and now, so many things can get you thrown in a dungeon or banished to the moon that everypony stays quiet on the streets. They don’t want somepony snitching them out.”

The other Luna walked over to a house and picked up a poster stuck to the wall. Levitating it over to us, she stopped us and explained, “This is one of her new campaign posters.” The flyer had a tyrannical and omnipotent Celestia looking down upon the viewer, with the simple word “obey” printed at the bottom. Even after thousands of years, the look of an angry Tia always sent chills down my spine.

Twilight, obviously shaken up a little at that sudden revelation, just simply said, “Please… Let’s just go see Fluttershy.”
“Hey!” a voice I recognized fairly well shouted from behind us. “Twilight!”

I turned around to see a familiar orange-brown pony stumble towards us. Applejack had seen better day than this. Her Stetson was on sideways, and she looked like she had been drinking heavily. She could barely walk straight, and her eyes were droopy. Twilight responded with a happy, “Applejack. Thank Celestia you’re alright!”

Before I knew what was going on, Applejack spun around and bucked Twilight square in the jaw. She looked like she wasn’t keeping fit with her bucking legs, but there was a definite crack as hoof met jawbone. Twilight fell backwards, letting out a yelp and clutching her jaw. Applejack immediately shouted, “That’s for abandoning us you downtrodden, worthless piece of—”

“Applejack, that’s quite enough!” the future me shouted as she immobilized Applejack’s mouth with her magic. “You’re under arrest for domestic violence, again. You know what happens now.” Without the ability to speak, Applejack just squinted her eyes at Twilight threateningly.

Luna teleported her out of there quickly before turning back to Twilight, “Are you alright, Twilight? Did she break anything?”

Twilight groaned as she held a hoof to her jaw before responding, “I think I’m fine.” She moved her jaw a little bit before proceeding on. “She didn’t break anything, but what happened to her? That isn’t the Applejack I know. She’s usually so sweet…”

“That’s what a life of drinking can do to a pony,” the future me said, starting towards Fluttershy’s cabin once again.

“She started drinking after you left us, Twilight. Right after your disappearance, Granny Smith broke a leg during the apple bucking season. I came to try and consolidate Applejack, but without Granny Smith’s guidance, the harvest was lower than usual. Granny Smith finally passed away due to natural causes a few weeks later. Applejack started drinking, and ever since she’s been addicted to the sauce. I’ve tried helping her, but she’s all but given up on life. Here’s Fluttershy’s cottage.”

I stopped to look back at Twilight, who now had a look of pure horror on her face. I felt sorry for putting her through all of this, but she needed to know what would have happened, and what will happen if she doesn’t change her ways. I went up to her and draped a wing delicately over her, trying to soothe her, saying, “You know you can say if you don’t want to do this. We don’t have to keep going if you don’t want us to.” When she didn’t respond, I just pulled her in tightly. “Just remember that I’m here for you, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Thank you, Princess,” Twilight sighed, wiping away a few tears and spitting out a bit of blood, “but I need to. I’m already head over hooves into this mess, so I may as well see what else has changed.”

I simply nodded at my future self and she walked up to the door, knocking on it a few times. It took a while, but eventually the door creaked open a bit. A very feeble voice asked, “Who’s there?” Fluttershy’s voice sounded even weaker and fainter than when I had met her during Nightmare Night last year. She sounded close to death by what I could tell.

“It’s Luna, sweetheart,” the future me kindly and quietly responded. “I’ve brought you a friend who would like to see you. May we please come in?”

After a few quiet seconds the weak voice replied, “Come in, but be careful to not tread on any of my animal friends.” The door opened further, and instantly the stench of rotting corpses met my nose. I involuntarily gagged before I could stop myself. Looking inside, I saw skeletons and dead animals littered around the room.

“Oh dear Celestia,” Twilight mumbled, scrunching up her nose at the stench.

“You caught us in the middle of lunch,” The yellow pony said from behind the door. “Come in. I just finished getting Angel her food, so I’m done getting all their foods.”

I reluctantly stepped inside followed by my future self, the Doctor, and finally Twilight. As soon as Twilight entered, Fluttershy shouted as best as her feeble self could, “Oh Twilight! It’s nice to see you again after all these years.” Fluttershy had changed quite a bit since she gave me those first lessons on speaking quietly. Her hair wasn’t perfectly curled as it usually was, but instead was sticking up all over the place. Her body looked so bony, as if she hadn’t eaten in weeks. It was almost as if she was starving herself. “Ever since you left, I’ve had more time to take care of all my little woodland creatures. See?”

Fluttershy pointed to the various rotting corpses lying around the room. Every single one had a bowl of food sitting in front of it. There were various stages of decaying corpses around the room, with some looking like they had just recently passed away and were still bloated and others already piles of bones sitting in front of a food bowl.
Twilight looked around with a very confused face before starting to respond,“Um, Fluttershy, no offense but, your animals are—”

“Very well fed!” Future Luna interrupted. “Did you remember to feed your birds today?”

“Oh my goodness, no!” Fluttershy gasped as she turned around, headed for the door. “Thank you Luna,” she said before she disappeared in the kitchen.

“Doesn’t she realize that all these animals are dead?” Twilight asked as soon as Fluttershy was out of earshot. “And that they smell terrible?

“No, I don’t think she does,” Future Luna said, levitating the feed in all of the bowls back into the sacks they came from.

“One day I came to see how she was dealing with your disappearance, and she was feeding a dead squirrel. When I tried to convince her that the squirrel passed away, she broke down and started mumbling about how she was never going to lose a friend ever again. She always is feeding these dead animals before feeding herself. If I didn’t check up on her every day as I usually do, I think she may starve herself to death.”

Fluttershy returned just as the future Luna was finishing putting the feed bags back. “I see feeding time is over,” Fluttershy said, her twitching ever so slightly. “It was nice seeing you again Luna, Twilight. Oh, hello, Doctor Whooves, I didn’t notice you there.” She made no mention that she noticed that there were two Luna’s standing in her house. Instead, she feebly said, “It’s been nice see you all again, but I need to go feed the bears and such. Bye!”

“Goodbye, Fluttershy,” Future Luna said in unison with us before adding herself, “I’ll see you tomorrow sweetheart.”
We left her cottage, and as soon as the door shut behind us, we all inhaled deeply, getting fresh air into our lungs. Even Future Luna looked like she was glad to be out of there. “Poor thing,” the future version of me said. “She hasn’t got long, judging by her current state. I hate to say this, but she probably won’t be missed much. I think I’m about the only one that knows she still exists. She never leaves her house, except to go buy more food.”

That was when Twilight finally couldn’t take it anymore. She broke down in the middle of the street, bawling her eyes out. “Stop!” she yelped. “That’s it; I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to see anymore heartbreak.”

“Just take me home…”

Comments

[Anquietas]

Again I can see this happening if Twilight vanished.

[Chloronium]

[Dark0592]

...there you go again with another epic cliffhanger...awesome you got this chapter out so fast, now do it again pweeze!

[MasterFrasca]

426423One letter... It's an improvement over my previous slip-ups, but that's no excuse. Fixing

[Antor]

that's all whooves fault! dead to the misfortune harbinger!!
was all this really necessary for Twi to understand that Luna is the right pony for her?

[Mister Morden]

Oh wow... talk about a grimdark future.

What happened to Rainbow and Rarity? Or is Twilight too depressed to find out?

Good updates for all three chapters! Looking forward to more.

[BarrenBaron]

426455

Maybe i'm thinking too much into this but it's possile that Twilight isn't meant for Luna. In fact in real life statistics people whom are "soul mates" quickly fall out of love for various reasons. And it's also possible that Hooves *is* meant for her, but due to him time hopping they arn't able to be together.

Maybe i'm just a downer, i really would like to see them be together, but there is no one way to determine if two people, or ponies, are made for eachother. Sure we can kind of guess but whose to say Twilight and Luna will even work out in the end? Luna is pretty much ruining Twilight's chances with somebody just to be with her. Hell who knows the future Twilight is being shown is only one of a infinite possible futures, for all we know somebody else will be there to console all the greiving Ponies. Maybe Luna would get the Element of Magic, maybe she'd protect the future equestria. Maybe Celestia *would* raze the world. I don't know, this is all pure speculation. But i think it's something to think about.

[aquilerafroot]

Yes, lots of updates

[MasterFrasca]

426455 Yes. Yes it was. Don't fret though, as the future isn't a complete horrible failure. Rarity's still hanging in there, as you'll see in the next update!

[Antor]

430397
ok, now you tricked me into spasmodically waiting for it

[Commander Darklight]

your logic is flawed twi could come and go with the tardis as the doctor does just not in the right order