Discovering Tragedy
The date was March 16th, 2014 at 2:45 PM. I had just arrived home from classes at the local university and was quite frankly exhausted. I set the bag containing my laptop and some important papers down on the couch and head into the bedroom to see the sight that's been the same for a few days now; Twilight Sparkle with her face in an ever changing volume of the Encyclopedia of World History. As of two weeks ago this mare inexplicably appeared in my kitchen as I was cooking supper, causing a large pot of spaghetti noodles to fall onto the floor as I came quite close to pissing myself right then and there. It took us both several minutes to gather our bearings, but eventually she managed to explain how she got here through a series of events so complex that I don't want to think about again. She's a fucking purple unicorn, I don't think I could have done anything other than just accept it. Luckily for her a random letter popped out of nowhere explaining how she would be able to get back to her own universe in about a week, once again I don't even want to try and fathom how it works.
"Do you ever plan to stop reading those books? You've almost finished that entire series of encyclopedias over the past four days."
Twilight looks up, somewhat surprised. She was probably so caught up in that book that she didn't even notice me walk in.
"Well I only have a few more days to learn everything I can about your world and its various cultures. I'll be able to write some amazing reports once I get back to Equestria. In fact I've just about finished up that entire set of encyclopedias."
I look at her in shock; this pony had read 10 multi-thousand page books in 5 days.
"I'm just going to go into the other room and catch up on the news." I say with a sigh as I turn my back on Twilight.
"Oh! Now that I've finished those encyclopedias it would be a good idea to catch up on the current events of this world."
"Alright, fine, come on then."
Twilight gets up off my bed and begins walking with me into the living room, using her magic to carry the book with her. We sit next to each other on the couch and I turn the tv to CNN, there's currently a commercial break airing so she starts up conversation with me.
"So as I was reading through those books I found myself particularly interested with the wars various regions have been in, it's unlike anything I've ever seen."
"Well don't you have wars where you come from?"
"Sort of, the Changelings have attacked Canterlot on multiple occasions but even they would never kill other ponies. On your planet there appear to have been several atrocities in which hundreds of thousands and even millions of your own species killed one another."
"There are several things that contribute to things like that such as the ideals of leaders of certain countries, inter-nation relations, racial and religious differences, and profitability."
"I've also read up on several unprovoked attacks in which the goal was simply to create fear, terrorist attacks I believe they were called."
"Those are mostly to do with the reasons I just mentioned, it's a difficult and touchy subject to talk about though."
"I'll have to do much more research on the topic; I may even ask Princess Celestia if it would be possible to easily travel between our two worlds so that I can come back and continue studies."
Just as I was about to say something about not being sure if I could handle frequent visits from the purple unicorn I was interrupted by the flashing "Breaking News!" sequence that showed up on screen as the news channel came out of its commercial break. The image cut to a female news anchor standing in the middle of downtown Los Angeles, California; the background behind her was smoke filled, hundreds of people walked by with devastated look on their faces and emergency vehicles of every sort rushed in the direction everyone was walking away from with sirens wailing, some kind of large explosion had clearly occurred.
“Well I’ll be damned…” I say in a soft tone, looking at the television screen with shock.
I can’t help but see the irony of the situation as Twilight and I were just discussing the topic not ten seconds ago. Twilight was stunned; she didn't say a word on the subject though as she watches the reporter go on. She didn’t seem to be interested in what the reporter was saying though, she seems to focus on the people walking by her in the background instead; some of them dragging their feet along, others running away with haste, but they all had the same looks of distress and fear on their faces as another dozen ambulances rushed towards the scene of the disaster.
Finally coming out of the initial daze that couldn't have lasted more than fifteen seconds, I start paying close attention to what the reporter was actually saying. The tone of her voice was one filled with anxiety.
We’re here live in Los Angeles California where a large explosive device, possibly a truck bomb, has just gone off at an intersection, damaging all surrounding buildings and killing dozens and injuring dozens more as they walked from their workplaces to their lunch destinations; the entire area, which contains an estimated five thousand people, is being evacuated as a precaution. Stay tuned as we bring you live updates.
The news feed then cut to the anchor back in the studio as he brought in several callers that had witnessed the event, in the top left corner of the screen aerial footage of the scene was being showed.
Twilight finally decided to say something. “I… I never expected it to be like that when I was reading the books… The looks on those people’s faces…”
Twilight and I continue to watch the news, after ten minutes or so the footage cuts back to the reporter live on the ground.
As you can see emergency vehicles are still rushing towards the scene as this horrible tragedy continues to unfold here in Los Angeles, dozens of emergency vehicles still rush by to help the injured. Evacuations of the some five thousand people in the area are still underway. We have yet to receive any hints on who could have done this, only that-.
Suddenly a massive explosion occurs off screen from the area everyone was being evacuated to, showing a blindingly bright flash and a thunderous boom that is so loud the camera cannot record it properly. The reporter has ducked and put her hands behind her head, covering her from scattering debris. She is quickly back on her feet once the initial blast has passed and is motioning for the cameraman to point towards the new explosion. By the time the camera had focused on the source, a large pillar of smoke was rising from the area which was about two blocks away from the broadcasting location and six blocks from the original explosion. The people being evacuated panicked, and ran in the opposite direction back towards the site of the original explosion with looks of fear on their faces. At the far edge of the cameras sight people can be seen running with the masses, only these people have caught fire, they soon fall to the ground; the camera catches everything uncensored and that footage is then broadcasted to the millions of people tuned in at home.
This is… This is truly unprecedented, another explosion has just occurred over there! This is now an obviously coordinated attack of some sort, not only that but the blast has occurred from the direction that the evacuees were walking in. Words cannot describe the scene here right now as it is truly-
The camera then displays a “connection lost” message and the people in charge of what is shown quickly switch back to the main anchor, who is lost for words. There is a long silence before I finally turn the TV off. In the future I can see someone asking me “why would you turn the TV off during one of the worst terrorist attacks in modern American history?” Well the answer is a short one; I could feel a small face pushing into my side, getting my shirt wet with what I could only assume to be tears. I hear a small muffled voice rise from Twilight as the tries to hide the fact that she is crying from me.
“I... don’t think it’s such a good idea to run more research on that topic anymore…”
I sigh as I feel tears start to flow from her again; I pick her up and hug her tightly, knowing that comforting her is probably the only thing I can do right now.