Remnants, Forgotten.

by AnkhOmega

9-E: Perditio

Perditio

She was getting tired. She had to do it now, if she didn't release the spell soon her shield would break. She knew the spell didn't have enough power, it couldn't have and she didn't have enough left in her to make up the difference. She was going to fail.

But she had to try. There was nothing else she could do. She had taken all she could safely take and she was using up all the magic she had stored within herself rapidly. She had no choice. She had to unleash the spell now or they would be surely die.

“Hold on Applejack! Just a moment longer!” she yelled out over the roaring flames and explosions. She poured all she had, all the energy she had within herself and all the stored energy into the spell, her horn flared brightly as she pushed as much magic as she could through it.

She unleashed the spell, a wave of crimson energy rolling out from her and wrapping it's way over the salt units. It bathed the area in deep red light, spreading out in a circular wave from Twilight, converting all metal it touched into stone.

The spell sparkled and popped as it impacted the Salt Units their shields. The Salt Units managed to start moving back before their own shields failed, the metal covering them turning to stone slowly. Within moments they were stuck, standing still in the middle of the forest.

Twilight's horn smoked at the tip as she panted. She felt exhausted but it looked like it had worked. The Salt Units were stuck and they had won. They had actually won. She had been doubting for no good reason, over compensating in her mind evidently. She chastised herself for her overzealousness as she stumbled over to Applejack.

She tripped over a small boulder that wasn't there a moment ago, impacting the floor with a grunt. She shakily rose to her hooves, ready to try and lash out with an angry kick at the stone which had the audacity to trip her.

It was then she noticed that the stone that had tripped her was perfectly round, and very finely engraved.

Looks like I hit the Core Unit too... She thought to herself as she clambered over to the prone form of Applejack. She was about to reach out and touch the orange mare, but she stopped mid way when she heard something terrifying.

A set of long, creaking groans.

She slowly turned her gaze back to the five statues, hoping against all hope that she was just imagining things.

The Salt Unit's were moving, vibrating softly and crunching loudly. The Stone covering them was coming apart, falling away in clumps and smashing itself into dust as each piece of the large machines began to move once more.

She pulled as much magic as she had left stored in her, every moment threatening to burn her out as she put her shield up once more. She was panicking, her brain going a mile a minute as she searched for anything in her memory to help, any situation she had experienced which she could use, any spells she could cast, anything.

The Salt Units didn't slow down to let her think, shaking off what little stone remained on their now marred forms, large chunks of metal missing from some and all of them no longer shining, their engravings left dusting the floor they once tread.

They stomped their way over agonisingly slowly, limping with their huge and heavy forms as Twilight desperately tried to come up with a plan.

Their first attack missed, evidently the spell had done something to their targeting, the shots impacting and destroying a set of near by trees.

Their second shots hit home, bursting her shield apart and causing her to scream in pain, the stress on her horn finally shifting into burnout.

Their third shots left naught but an oddly shaped crater behind.

..//..

The grey unicorn coughed.

It hadn't been a good trip. The descent from the mountain into the toxic smog was not worth it for the meagre scraps of supplies he'd recovered.

He coughed again as he entered the dark cave near the summit.

It was the only save place he could find since the air turned bad, heavy with poisons and rot. He had tried to keep people up with him, safe from the smog's harful effects. But food ran out quickly with how many he'd brought, and sure enough. One by one they left. Some to try and find somewhere clean. Some to try and scavenge something to eat or drink.

None of them came back. He was the only one left.

He unwraped the cloths he had covered himself in, letting his bright orange mane fly free in the wind.

How did this all happen? He wondered, one minute he was mending some poor young pegasi's wings...the next all the plants and all the food was rotting in the streets, the sky was turning dark and the world was dying.

He lay himself down on the cold stone ground, looking out over what used to be Ponyville.

The smog had come in so quickly, only the quick managed to survive it, by either running, hiding, or covering their mouths and noses. The slow had choked in the streets, coughing up bits that were definitely meant to stay inside the body.

He had heard about the things which had caused this. A rumour of huge metal golems dealing nothing but death and destruction. But he hadn't seen them. Only heard the rumours. That the Elements of Harmony themselves were going to save them.

He idly wondered when they were going to get around to that.

Her coughed painfully, coating his forehoof with a thin splatter of blood.
He was starving, the only thing keeping him from dying so far had been his special talent. Healing magic was ever so useful against the poisonous atmosphere, but it only worked so many times. And It did nothing for the stomach.

He opened the can he had found, and almost immediately retched and kicked it away. He had no idea how the food inside the cans had rotted liked everything else. They were supposed to last a lifetime, weren't they?

The ground began rumbling softly, rhythmically. Like soldiers on the march.

He sighed, Looking out once more at the smog covered remains of Ponyville. His home. The place he used to work.

The rumbling was so loud now. So very very close.

He laid his head down and closed his eyes, letting himself remember a time when there was still green in the world. A time when the most of his worries were that the Rainbow Mane'd terror would injure herself again.

A world that still had food. A world that still held flowers.

He smiled softly as the thumping came to an end. In his mind he was remembering all that he would never get to do. He'd been so busy with other things at the time and only now really had the time to do them, strange how the apocalypse can free up your schedule.

The grey unicorn dreamt of large open fields. Blue skies. Mosaics of petals.

The grey unicorn didn't even feel the shot which killed him.

..//..

Primus statement: Induction complete. Lifesigns read <10% of required ecology for life supporting planet. Salt protocol success.

Acknowledged. Initiating shut-
…
…
…
New orders received.

All XK-Systems online. Activating XK-Singularity Generator. Total planetary annihilation in one hour.

..//..

For one final moment there was a light on Equus. A bright flash of magical discharge peicing through the dense fog covering it's surface.

And then there was only darkness.

The planet was quickly torn apart, swathes of the land being pulled into and compressed deep into a tiny little speck just above the planet's surface. No life would ever grow there again. The planet would never be taken once more.

Elseria's vengeance was complete. The planet disappeared. There was no bang. No large field of debris. Just a pull into a mass. A mass which never stopped pulling inwards.

There was a new black hole in the galaxy, one that was rapidly consuming a stationary sun.

Elseria was no more. Equestria was gone.

There was only the consuming force.

And the faintest trace of a victory signal.

Comments

[Screw]

Unless you are saying that there is another ending, it is must to have a tragedy tag for this fiction. I don't like being lured into something where I can enjoy a good ending but end up getting all depressed with bad endings. Even if the alternate ending is just a spin-off, there should be a tragedy tag.

I thoroughly enjoyed the fiction so far.

[AnkhOmega]

3446667
There be three endings, each word at the end of 9 was a hyperlink. (Or you could use the 9-E ones from the main story area).

And thanks! Glad ya enjoyed my demented ramblings.

[negima twilight]

So no matter the ending they are all to die, Not much of a choice then. Was a good read just the ending seemed a bit meh

[AnkhOmega]

3447261

I wouldn't say that. Two of the endings definitely but, one of them has at the very least the possibility of fighting back.

After all, Twilight still has the bunker, which has been fixing itself.

But then again, I am terrible. Thanks for reading!