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note: This is really bad. Seriously. I don’t know what I was smoking when I wrote this. My other short story (Desperate measures, kinda like a prequel to this) is somewhat better, but still not “good”. I’m just not very good at writing. pinkie_shrug.jpg

Diary of Lieutenant General Twilight Sparkle, the last entry.

It's over. After years of sickness, famine and wars, it's finally over. The four aspects of the apocalypse are dead. It all started 5 years ago, when a deadly plague emerged. Hundreds of ponies died, but that was only the beginning. During the time of utmost desperation, our food supplies began rotting. Ponyville still had enough fresh crops to keep itself running, but others weren't so lucky. Fillydelphians, running low on supplies, turned their sinister gaze on us. We had to kill our own kind while defending the crops. Many died, and some went missing. Sergeant Applejack formed a squad and went looking for ponies that got lost in the chaos, especially her little sister, but her efforts were fruitless. After a month, anypony still missing was proclaimed dead. Applejack never gave up hope though. She claimed that she can feel Applebloom is still alive. We kind of admired her determination, however futile it might have seemed. I myself lost many friends during this time. Fluttershy died in the first conflict. Then Rarity, who enlisted as a supportive magic specialist, went missing in action. And then Pinkie Pie who fell prey to the plague. Even our sun goddess Celestia suffered of the sickness. She was barely able to keep the day-night cycle going, and only with Lunas help. I blamed myself for not being able to stop this. During my studies of the supernatural, I found a mention of the apocalypse. It mentioned the four aspects of the apocalypse - War, Famine, Pestilence and Death - who would come to this world looking for bodies to take hold of and then spread suffering to the land, it's inhabitants and even their hosts alike. I never found a way to stop them though. The two most dangerous were Pestilence - a pegasus that brought the plague wherever he went, and War - an earth pony that made everyone around him go mad with bloodlust.

For years we tried just avoiding them. There was no one to turn to for help, so we did what we could. We defended our supplies, barricaded Ponyville and tried our best to survive. That changed 5 months ago, when War entered Canterlot, and his very presence drove everypony insane. When all seemed lost, Princess Luna entered the fray and managed to stop the bloodshed and vanquish War by sacrificing herself. With Luna dead and Celestia weakened, the day cycle slowed considerably. Even so, the news of Wars death sparked new hope everywhere. All conflicts ceased and everypony joined forces under the united flag of Ponyville Confederation. Pestilence was found and killed when Captain Rainbow Dash lead a lightning bolt trough his body while the rest of her team restrained him. No one survived the encounter. Famine, a unicorn who caused everything around her to wither and die, was avoided for a long time. No projectile could reach her, no magic could stop her and no pony dared approach her. She just wandered around Equestria aimlessly. She was finally killed when Colonel Macintosh managed to get into her melee range and strike her down. He died shortly after. The last apocalypse pony was located hiding in a cave in the mountains near Fillydelphia. I decided to deal with her personally. When I saw her, I remembered the sad look on Famines face. I always suspected that the apocalypse ponies were actually just young fillies who got possessed by the aspects of destruction. Never before has it been so obvious though. There she was, Death herself. Hearing the commotion outside, I ordered the guards to not let anypony, especially not Sergeant Applejack, to enter the cave. I prepared a spell that would evaporate everything inside. No one will ever know. It's better this way. Death looked at me with her sad, blank eyes.

"Im so sorry." she said.

No Applebloom, I'm the one who is sorry...

Desperate Measures

„Twilight?“ I heard someone call my name.

„Fluttershy!“ I said, relieved to see she is ok. She was hiding in the ruins of one of the houses in Ponyville. Everypony else already evacuated the city. I ran towards her. This part of the town was under heavy siege; we couldn't stay here.

„This way, quick!“ I dragged Fluttershy with me. She was silent, save for an occasional whimper. We had to get out of the city. There was no stopping those flying war machines. I looked up. The clouds were dark as ink. Rainbow Dash and her weather patrol were conjuring a massive storm. She was trying to cause as much damage as possible before giving up, apparently. But she too must have realized that the battle is lost. There was no destructive magic known to ponykind potent enough to bring those things down.

It was an all out war. Amongst all of the suffering, war was the last thing we needed. We heard about the terrible famine in Fillydelphia, but we couldn't spare any food for them. Damn it, I should have known. Ponyville was the only city with enough agriculture to sustain itself in this apocalypse, of course we were going to be attacked. We knew they were desperate, and we did expect problems. What we didn't expect were these... things. Fillydelphia is a big, industrial city, full of technology and advanced magic. Now there were three giant flying contraptions of war besieging Ponyville...

Fluttershy seemed to be on the brink of an emotional breakdown when we arrived at the Main Square. The safest route out of the city was on the other side, but one of the warships was hovering right above it. There was no time, we had to risk it. As expected, we were spotted the moment we entered the open space of the square. The ships arrow launchers were aimed directly at us. I quickly dragged Fluttershy under an upside-down cart laying in the middle of the street. A split second later there were arrows raining all around us. Fluttershy squeaked. I knew we couldn't leave this provisional cover, but we couldn't stay either. I wondered if I had enough strength left to teleport us both a short distance. Just as I was about to start casting the spell, I noticed Angel out in the street. I tried to grab Fluttershy, but she noticed him first.

„Angel!“ she screamed and ran out.

„Fluttershy, no! Fluttershy!“ I tried to stop her, but it was too late. Another salve of arrows hit the ground, and Fluttershy fell. She wasn't moving.

„Oh no! Fluttershy!“ I foolishly ran out after her.

„FLUTT-“ the rest of my scream was swallowed by a loud static noise coming from above. I felt every last hair on my body stand up. I turned around to see what was happening, but was blinded by a sharp surge of light, followed by a deafening cracking sound. Small pieces of rubble hit me in the face and I hit the ground.

My ears were ringing as I sat up slowly. There was a small stream of blood on my forehead. My vision was still blurred, but I could see again. I looked in the way of the explosion.

„Rainbow Dash?“ I couldn't believe my eyes. Rainbow was standing right there, in the middle of the square. Her mane was charred and her legs shaking.

„I did it.“ she mumbled with her eyes wide open. I looked up at the sky. The enemy warship was on fire, with a giant hole burnt trough its hull. I looked back down on Rainbow.

„I rode the lightning.“ she said with a big grin on her face. The enemy ship was going down, hard. We watched it crash into the Everfree forest in a big fireball. Rainbow laughed triumphantly.

„Hahaha! How do you like THAT?!“ she shouted, and took off immediately. I saw her give additional orders to her team and then she went directly for the second ship. I wasn't sure what just happened. Everypony knew about Rainbows amazing speed and weather control abilities, but this was beyond what we thought possible. Such precision. The destructive force. How could she even survive that?

I stood up. My whole body was shaking and it was hard to keep balance. Looking around, I saw Fluttershy laying in a pool of blood amongst a field of arrows. The whole city was on fire. I started to slowly walk towards Fluttershy, trying to stay conscious. After just a few steps, I felt the static again. I closed my eyes trying to protect them from the sharp light. Another loud crack. The noise itself was enough to knock me off my hooves. I saw the second ship go down in flames in the distance. The enemy was retreating.

I fainted.

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