Chapter 1
No Tomorrow
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I felt the hot breath of the dry wind roll over my neck, lazily tossing my mane aside. I lifted my head and gazed over the now devastated place, letting the memories play in my mind. I felt the brown sand under my hooves from where I stood, overlooking the town of Appleloosa. I remembered everything as if it were yesterday. If only it were yesterday, I thought. Every inch of me was begging to leave, not wanting to understand what had happened here. This was a feeling I had grown all too familiar with, and knew all too well. Recalling another time, I remembered the days of my Friendship Reports to the Princess- an altogether happier time in my life. It was here with the unity of my friends we shared an unbreakable bond, and together learned a lesson of compromise and understanding. Now, the lives of so many of the ponies that had lived here had been torn and broken. Rotting bodies lay in defeat in the streets and in buildings. Defeat, or so one would only hope.
For now as I ventured through the small western town of Appaloosa, I kept a vigilant eye out for any sign of danger. Walking slowly, I kept my hoof beats quiet, strategically trying to keep from directing any attention to myself. My mission? Retrieve medical supplies and return to my group, maybe some food as well. Food wasn't really an issue; apple trees had been plenty and generous along our journey. But now, the orchards had grown wild without anypony to care for them. Apples lay all over the earth, bruised and decaying. I wondered if the same fate awaited us.
Heading through the streets of the ghost town, I directed myself toward one of the many of the old world homes. I found it strange how this town didn't have a building set aside specifically for medical purposes like Ponyville did, but I guessed that maybe there was at least one Doctor that had lived in this small town. Even if there wasn't, somepony had to have some kind of medical supplies somewhere in their homes that we needed. I stepped up on the porch of this one particular home, whose body was a nice caramel and had a hay colored roof. An old wooden rocking chair stood beside the front door, and an old carriage wheel was propped up beside it. How... country, I thought to myself upon the sight. Approaching the door, I lifted a hoof and pulled it open, revealing a ripped screen door. As I scanned the subject, I realized that somepony had fallen through. Fallen, or forced their way through, because the bottom corners were torn from their places. A chill ran up my spine as I imagined the possibilities of the scene. Pushing back the screen door and stepping through, I entered the house.
This place was silent, matching the haunting feeling with the rest of the town. An unrelenting force burned in my soul with the intensity of the heat of Celestia's sun outside. I watched and listened in silence as I observed the house's features around me. The room held a veil of shadow without any lighting besides the sunlight peering in from glass windows. It appeared that I was in the living room from an old television set and a dusty couch.
"Creepy." I commented, keeping my voice low as I began the task of checking the rooms.
I sorted through my saddlebags to find my trusty silver blade, levitating it in a field of my magic, preparing to clear the rooms from anything that moved. From the living room, to the kitchen, to the single bathroom, everything seemed to be... fairly average. Not necessarily all that strange, I thought to myself. Finding a set of stairs, I headed to the second floor. I creeped as quietly as I possible could up the stairs, finding a narrow hallway with four doors at the top. Each door was closed, so I assumed they would all be empty. Not wanting to risk it, I delayed myself over by each door, laying my body up against the wood, taking my time in gently twisting the nob, cautiously peaking in before actually opening into the room. The first room was fairly average, just another bedroom. A small bed, a nightstand, a dresser, a lamp... The next room was the one that surprised me. Opening the door, my eyes widened. I felt something caught in my throat, my lungs squeezing in my chest, making it harder to breathe.
It was a foal's room. A colt's to be precise, from the southern themed bedspread with sheriff stars and tumbleweeds, to the tiny tan cowboy hat lying secluded in the floor. A small body lie limply draped over the sheets, one that had obviously been there for quite some time. As the smell reached my nostrils, I wretched myself away from the door, dropping the blade on the wooden floor, coughing up the air in my lungs. Tears gathered in my eyes. I felt like falling to my knees at the sore, lifeless feeling in my heart, the overwhelming despair; all until I head a groan coming from behind that door. I froze in shock as the sound continued, listening as the hard drop of something shook the floor, a horrendous sensation filling my gut. I turned back, my body trembling in fright at the dreadful discovery that awaited me. But I already knew. As my eyes met the tragedy of this thing, this creature hungrily moaning out for my flesh, I released the liquid in my eyes, watching as it dragged itself to me. My eyes fell to the blade, my mind screaming in instinct to pick it up and end it's suffering there, but my body was numb. I couldn't. I just couldn't.
"I-...I-..." I began, as if I could reason with the infected pony.
In response, the creature stretched its head and let out a gurgled growl, the decomposed body of the foal steadily approaching me, its target by the second. It was using its front legs to lose the distance between us, because I had realized that its back legs had decayed much beyond further usage. This colt of blue and barely recognizable cream hair, only old enough to have just earned it's cutie mark of a sheriff's star.
I fell on my rump, watching as the suffering foal dragged itself over to me, reaching it's hooves out to attempt to touch me. My mind was spinning.
"...I'm so sorry."
The blade dropped sharply from the air, meeting it's place in the skull of the colt. His blood splattered and draped itself on the surrounding walls and on his bedroom door before recollecting on the floor with the increasing pool of blood spreading from his head. It soaked into his bedroom carpet, forever staining it red. I ripped the blade from his brain, levitating the dripping dagger in my direction. His lifeless, spiritless cloudy eyes still proceeded to look into mine, but the pony ceased it's advances and lie forever inanimate on the floor.
My cold eyes lingered on his body, playing the scene in my head. The infection was spreading rapidly through Appleloosa. He had gotten bitten, and had ran home to hide himself, maybe to find his parents. He had been so terrified that he had ripped through the screen door and closed himself in his bedroom, here to die alone. Never to grow up to become what he was meant to be. Never to experience what life had wanted for him. Here, to die alone.
"You're free now."
Chapter 2
Broken Clocks
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"Did you make sure you put our closed sign out Spike?" The purple unicorn asked, seemingly excited for the tasks set before her for the day.
"Yup!" The scaley dragon agreed.
"We can get started then!" She said with gleaming eyes.
The mare gazed around her home, her study, and her library, observing the usual scene around her. Book lined in orderly rows were shelved on wooden walls, some which had lost their natural place over the weeks. The pair had grown used to this tradition of sorting- it was just something they went through, a fashion that they couldn't imagine without. Like clockwork, the unicorn relived this dance beside her faithful companion, replaying the steps in an orderly manor. First, the unicorn's horn illuminated with a bright and pure magical aura. As this step was taken, each individual book on the shelving mimicked this illumination. Leisurely, the books glided out of rest and into the air. The books were levitated into multiple piles, leaving the shelves stripped and bare. This room wouldn't be the only one on the list to be organized, but it would be the first. Sure, it was quite some work to put the books back in their rightful places, but together as a team they would have the job done at most late afternoon.
"Twilight, where does 'The Complete Encyclopedia to Pegasus Tricks and Spins' go again?" Spike asked the unicorn mare.
"Over by the pegasus instruction section Spike. Remember?" The mare replied sternly.
"Oh yeah... I forgot." The dragon clumsily admitted.
So to work there was no haste, and little by little the task was done. Twilight read each title, recalling upon previous experiences with each book; which books were informal, which ones were helpful, and the ones she just found pleasurable to read. Of course, Twilight herself had made a habit of reading every page from as many books in her library as she possibly could. How could she not have? Reading was such an incredibly enjoyable hobby for her. She didn't know how she could live without books to read, and living in a library made made that so much more fluid to pass. Midway through the day when the shelves were more than halfway filled, Twilight had stumbled upon not more than a single book that brought her enormous joy to see again. When she had read the cover and shortly had realized exactly which book was in her possession, she told Spike of her great discovery.
"Spike! I found one of my favorite childhood books! I've been looking for this everywhere!" Twilight said, literally jumping with glee.
"Which one?" Spike asked, appearing from under one of the remaining piles of books.
"The Castle in the Sky. It's a story about... well, a castle in the sky. Not like Cloudsdale Spike, and not your typical fairy tale. This castle dwells on a floating piece of landmass, and is hidden in a thick layer of clouds so nopony even knows it's there! Unlike most children stories, this one circles on the realistic bases of could be fact." Twilight said, then proceeding to take the book in her arms, she let out a squee in excitement.
"So uh... it's not real?" The dragon asked, slightly confused by the unicorn's explanation.
"Well, uh... No Spike." Twilight said with evident disappointment in her voice.
"Sounds interesting." Spike commented, scratching his head with a claw.
"Just one paragraph..." The unicorn promised herself, eagerly trotting off from Spike to the other side of the room to read her treasure. With her magic, she levitated the book onto her desk by its spine, causing it to flip open. Gingerly and with suppressed bookworm thrill, Twilight sat herself down in her chair. She browsed through the book's contents until she at last found herself at its first stage. Silently, the mare began her adventure into the black and white print, beginning with the introductory poem:
Looking into the looking glass
She saw all there was to see
Not daring to see beyond what there was to be seen
To gaze into eyes that were not of her own
Instead into eyes as cold as the stone
The purple unicorn stopped herself, pondering over what she had just read. Ever since she was a child, she could never figure out what that poem was meant to signify. From the text ahead, it completely stood out from the entire story. Ignoring the strange poem, she read on.
Once upon a time under the shelter of the Moon and the Sun, there existed a kingdom of sky. Instead of cloud and weather, this Kingdom had been built on nothing but earth, stone, and the hard work of ponies. This Kingdom was known as Valissa, the capital of Equestria. Its ruler was known well and by all as the great King Saturn. He was a handsome King with...
"Twilight!"
...a mane of gold and a coat the color of Celestia's orange sunrise. King Saturn could see...
"Twilight!"
...glimpses into the future, giving him the title Guardian of Time by his loyal subjects. King Saturn...
"Twilight! Somepony's at the door!"
"Just get it Spike. Tell them we're closed..." The mare softly replied, drawn in by the intriguing tale of the Kingdom of Valissa, without any knowledge of her surroundings.
...a prospering future for his Kingdom, but something troubled him greatly.
Betraying herself, Twilight read on without any realization of the crime, absolutely absorbed in the rapture of her childhood memory. The recollection of her foalhood, the feeling of innocence and delight when the world was still fairly new, the old sensations returned to her as she returned to another time. Once more, the mare tread onward into her wonderland:
A rival Kingdom hidden in the royally decreed Forbidden lands threatened his Kingdom's safety. Hidden far, far away, beyond the whipping winds of the Arctic North, there existed a land where Celestia's sun refused to shine. A place of eternal darkness, a cold, desert-like place where the only creatures that lived were the dead themselves. It was known as the Kingdom of Vitrol, and with iron hooves Nightwish reined as King. Nightwish...
"TWILIGHHHT!"
...was determined to destroy all of Equestria, or at least make it miserable. Saturn...
"TWILIGHHT! PLEASE!"
...may have been Guardian of Time, but Nightwish had become an immortal and would never give in his quest to shatter the great Kingdom of Valissa. Even the Princesses themselves could not stand to face him, they had no power over the King of...
"TWILIGHT!" Small claws made their way to wrap around one of the mare's legs, quaking with fright as if it were the Running of the Leaves.
"Uggghhh! Spike! Just tell them we're closed and to come back tomorrow!"
"N-n-no T-Twi, Lyra's sick!" Spike tried to say, diving under Twilight's desk for cover.
"Sick? Spike, don't be ridiculous..." The purple unicorn scoffed.
"I'm sure it's just a prank like last time. Here Spike, I'll go talk to he-" A peculiar, gurgling, tortured groan was steadily growing louder from behind the unicorn, raising slight suspicion in her mind. Still, with a playful outlook Twilight turned to meet their visitor.
"I'm sorry Lyra. We're reorganizing the libra-"
The image before her took the very words out of her grasp. For a moment or two, the purple mare was unable to understand what she was seeing. Her eyes grew grave and disturbed as she scanned Lyra, and her heart and seemingly stopped itself from walking. Lyra was filthy, like she had been rolling around in mud puddles all morning. Her coat had faded remarkably from its original color, along with her mane, and most importantly, her eyes. Colorless, purposeless, dull, and dead- It was as if all life had faded from them. Teeth marks littered Lyra's body everywhere, and where there was a bite dense streams of crimson blood had clung and dried itself there. There weren't only bites, but segments of her body that had been torn, revealing the thick layers of muscle, flesh, and bone underneath. Twilight could see where fat blood veins had been pulled ripped, hanging limply like cords from Lyra's body. Chills shot up Twilight's spine. Along with the petrifying sight, a horrendous, unpleasant smell reached her nostrils, causing Twilight to gag. Had something been eating on Lyra?! It was clear that this was no joke- Lyra was in serious need of medical attention!
"Lyra...! Are you... Are you okay?! Did you get attacked out in the Everfree forest? I-I-I'll get help! I-"
"Gnnhaaaaaaa... Gnnnhhaahhaaaaaa..." Lyra reply in wet gurgles, causing Twilight's heart to beat faster.
Out of shock and fraught with enormous dread from the pony, the purple unicorn slowly backed away from the desk and the approaching Lyra, heading back toward the door to another room. Her mind circled through solutions like a carousel, not sure on what she should do or how to react. More importantly, she had to help Lyra, but her mental state was withering by the second.
"J-just stay right there Lyra. I-I'm sure I have a book, or-or a spell, or something! Just stay right there, and I-I'll help you!" Twilight offered, her thoughts cascading by the fright building in her chest and her rapidly increasing need to help Lyra. But the pony did not yield in its advances and continued to follow the purple unicorn mare. Now quite some distance behind the pair and underneath the sturdy wooden desk, Spike trembled and watched in hushed words, too afraid to help the librarian.
"L-Lyra, it's okay. I-I'll fix you." Twilight tried to say, turning to face a nearby bookcase, flipping and tossing through books with her magic like rapid fire, trying to find a cure. Unable to think straight, she hadn't realized that she was in the agriculture section of the library.
"N-No, no, n-no, not that either!" Twilight yelled in anguish, giving in her pursuit at the recognized shortening distance between Lyra and her. The purple unicorn turned to face the pony, wasted out of her options. The librarian staggered back into the bookshelf, causing it in return to rock, its weight unable to support itself any longer from the push. The lose shelf had unlike the others, not been installed alongside with its brethren in the treehouse. Instead, it had been installed to contain the overflowing amounts of books the Librarian had added to her home. For very reason, the bookcase had been known to fall over, causing the librarian and her dragon companion to always be consideritive of this danger when handling its shelves. Becoming quickly aware of this fact, she came upon the perception it was about to fall. Without seconds to spare, and only inches away from meeting Lyra's crimson stained chompers, Twilight jumped out of the way.
Sliding onto her ribcage and perhaps bruising in the process, the bookcase fell behind her, and heavily slamming into the floor and with it, a crunching sound reflected itself through the halls of her home. She felt wet drips sprayed over her back and cutie, but Twilight was too naive to have guessed its origin. With that last finalizing sound, calmness and quiet once again fell over her library. Twilight's eyes widened severely, realizing the sin she had just committed. She turned her body in the receding belief that she was wrong, that Lyra was okay, that maybe even this had all been some nightmare. But she was so very, very wrong. The unicorn observed as the red puddle of liquid grew and grew around her shelf and on her clean wooden floors forevermore, the paper in her books absorbing the liquid into its pages, soaking up the bloody mess. Lyra was no more.
"L-Lyra...?" Twilight said, seemingly begging, but to her voice was no replied. The quiet baked in her bones.
"I-I'm so sorry... I m-m-murdered you." Twilight sobbed, the feeling of immense guilt washing over her body like a tidlewave for the accident that she had caused to happen. Her head fell into her arms, and the unicorn held herself. For many moments at a time Twilight just laid in the floor and cried and cried, wishing she could take it all back. That she could have warned Lyra, that she could have saved her. Spike just watched Twilight, his mind in too much of a feeble state to take any of it in. Twilight even began to deny the very event that had taken place, that Lyra had perished in her library, that the pony had died in her eyes. The more she thought about, the more false it seemed to make itself within the walls of her mind. Finally, after much time had passed, a sound had pierced its way through the library of mourning and despair, its hollow hoofbeats steadily approaching Twilight's location. The librarian was too emotionally drained to react.
"Twilight! Twilight! Are you here?!" A familiar voice called. Twilight refused to move. She just bawled into her hooves.
The librarian could hear the hoofsteps as it traveled from room to room until she had found the one Twilight herself occupied. Then, there was silence. Twilight could only guess that the pony had discovered what she had done. What awful, horrible, monster-like thing she had done- but the pony didn't leave the librarian to lie there. Instead, she approached Twilight with a friendly, affectionate tone.
"Twilight... I'm so sorry... I should've headed this way a lot sooner."
This did nothing but make Twilight even more ashamed. Why was she apologizing to her? She was the one who had killed Lyra! If anything she needed to be thrown in prison!
"Twilight. Look at me."
The purple unicorn weakly resisted, tired from overwhelming despair, tired from the overflowing burden she had taken in from the pony whose life she had stolen. The pony who spoke for her forcefully lifted her up, giving the unicorn no choice but to look the pony in the eyes. It was none other then the Element of Loyalty, Rainbow Dash at her side.
"Did it bite you?" Rainbow Dash asked, her tone frighteningly serious toward the purple mare. Twilight didn't understand. Rainbow Dash asked again.
"Did. It. Bite. You?" She asked, her voice much louder and demanding than before. Twilight could say nothing, but quickly shook her head for an answer.
"...Okay..." Rainbow Dash returned, seemingly relieved by the Librarian's answer. She took in a small moment before she returned to the traumatized Twilight Sparkle.
"Don't let them bite you. Promise me Twilight. Promise me." Once again, Twilight could only nod at the pegasus's strange behavior.
"Okay, okay... Listen to me, and listen to me carefully. Ponyville has been infected by some strange... disease thing. Buck, I don't know. Everyone outside is panicking, and dying, and everything is just absolute chaos. I don't know what to do, but I know we need to find our friends. They're in really bad danger right now. Understand?"
"We should send a letter to Princess Cele-"
"NO Twilight. We need to go NOW." Dash yelled, trying to get it clear to the unicorn. Twilight was startled, but agreed without any reluctance. Dash was unmistakably torn up from some outside event going on.
"We should all meet up back here. No- I can't leave you. Spike can stay here while we gather the others. It'll be safer. We can lock the doors and the windows, and I'll fly us through the roof. Wait- there's a window up there. Yeah, that'll do. That's too high for anything to unlock very easily, and nothing would want to as long as he can keep it quiet. Okay Spike?" Dash then turned to the small dragon, who gave a simple nod.
"Besides, he can keep his head down."
Turning to the now evermore calm and serious unicorn, the cyan pony continued.
"Okay Twilight?" Dash ask, trying to get a reaction from her friend.
"Right! Our friends need us."
"Right. That's the egghead we all know." Rainbow Dash commented, a soft smile illuminating itself on her lips in attempt to encourage the unicorn.
So to work there was much haste, and little by little the task was done. Rainbow Dash, conducting a symphony of locks and clicks, steadily resulting in an altogether safer environment. Soon, each door and bolt was locked tightly, keeping the library from any pony's entry. Once they had accomplished this task, Twilight's eyes traveled over her beloved library one more time, observing the piles of books, the some nearly completed rows stacked on many full shelves in their rightful places, and the one fallen bookshelf. Twilight, still unable to take grip of what was happening. No dream she had ever lived was so real, and had been so unbelievably violent. Twilight had never seen so much blood. Sure, cuts, scrapes and bruises, were one thing, but this... how could she ever accept this? Perhaps this was some kind of illusion forced on her by Discord or some new unseen foe, weakening her friends and her up so that it might take over all of Equestria. If that was the case, Twilight knew that she and her friends had to be strong. Inside, Twilight knew that she could not fail this test. The fate of all of Equestria might very well depend on them.
Above, a clicking sound could be heard coming from a round, circular window. Rainbow Dash came back down, landing next to Spike.
"Okay. That's it. Our exit is open. Is everything ready Spike?" The pegasus ask with intent in her voice.
"Uh-huh." The baby dragon answered right away.
"Okay Twilight. Time to go."
Twilight nodded, not wanting to waste anymore time here when her friends could be in trouble.
"Um, Twilight..." Spike began, catching the unicorn's attention. Dash lifted an eyebrow.
"Please be safe..."
"I will Spike." The purple pony promised.
"Alright! Here we go!"
Spreading her wings, Dash lifted herself from the floor and into flight. Without any time to spare, she took hold of Twilight in her hooves, her enormous feather strength able to hold much more than the body weight of another pony. The cyan pony lifted her friend through the window, barely fitting them both it's space. Departing the comfort and safety of her treehouse's sturdy wooden walls, a hellish world reincarnated by death himself erupted from the streets below.
"Oh Celestia..." Twilight gasped.
"Celestia save us all." Rainbow Dash gravely returned.
