A Hooffull Of Dust
Chapter 1: I Shot An Arrow Into The Air
There's always something bigger, behind the veil…
Night had fallen again.
A loaded word, that. Fallen. Dawn rose, night fell. You could apply negative connotations to each, but it seemed far easier with her tasks, her duties.
She'd wanted so much that it would never come back to this. Not after the last time. Not after being given the hope.
"But some things never change."
The pony looked down onto Equestria, her pale blue mane drifting in the wind, gazing at the peaceful night that blanketed its length. Her night. Her duties, resumed after so long.
And…on this night, here she was again. Back to how it all started. And its inevitable end.
"Celestia is kind. Celestia is good. Celestia is loved. And Luna…is Luna." Luna said, before swallowing hard.
It was time. No sense putting it off. The other options, living like this…was unbearable.
Her heart went cold, and her head became clear.
Everything must be answered for.
Everything.
"Juice, juice, glorious juice!" Pinkie Pie sang, opening her fridge and rummaging around inside. Various fruits began to be tossed into the bag she was carrying, Pinkie not really paying attention beyond making sure they were all fruits. "It's like nature's soda! It's sweet and it's grand, but if it gets out of hand, it just becomes wet…and sticky!"
That was the theme of the day's party: how wonderful juice was. It beat her last theme: the abstract concept of partying. That was what she got after joining Twilight for a book-reading sleepover. Not that it wasn't fun (all parties were fun!), but sometimes simpler was better!
Today, it would be about juice! Grape juice! Orange juice! And…of course, APPLE juice! Applejack would probably love doing a little experimenting with her namesake crop! Wouldn't she? Of course she would! Pinkie couldn't wait to get over to her ranch!
Literally, and so she did her Pinkie thing. She blinked there.
I am Pinkie, I love fun, so little time to get it done, so when I'm needed in a flash, I get there faster then Rainbow Dash!
So Pinkie did, in her special Pinkie way. One moment she was in her home, and the next she was next to an ever familiar cart.
"HI APPLEJACK!" Pinkie Pie said, springing around the cart. Her next hop abruptly ended as she was confronted with an unexpected sight.
The cart was 'unoccupied', in that Applejack was not pulling it. The wooden carriage was filled with apples, but Applejack herself was not there. Pinkie arched an eyebrow. Her Pinkie-Blink didn't usually bring her to a empty space. It brought her to her friends, wherever they were, whatever they were doing. It was useful when they were tempted to reveal secrets, or when she needed to really put the surprise in surprise party, or just when Pinkie felt the need to go see one of her friends right that second.
Well, everything had an off day. She was on Sweet Apple Acres after all…
…Which was quieter than a tomb.
The quiet struck Pinkie, just before she fully looked around. There wasn't a pony in sight.
But that was absurd. Applejack's giant family always had SOMEPONY in sight during the day (didn't they?). The farm was so big that it was practically necessary (Wasn't it?)…
Unless…
"THEY'RE ALREADY HAVING A PARTY!" Pinkie said to herself excitedly, hopping away from the apple cart, alongside the fence that lead to the ranch. Well, she was never one to not join in already existing festivities! A party was a party was a…
Silence. Complete and utter silence. As that fact re-sank into Pinkie, she began to wonder if a party could be so quiet. If the world, so full of life and its joys, could be so quiet…
Then she arrived at Sweet Apple Acres' main ranch proper. The door was not locked.
The building was also not occupied.
Pinkie stared, her surprise slowly turning into something duller and more potent. How could there be NO PONY HERE? Even if Applejack wasn't, there would be Big Mac, or Granny Smith, or Apple Bloom, or SOMEPONY! Applejack wouldn't leave her home and livelihood completely abandoned: she'd probably suffer apoplexy at the very concept.
"Applejack?" Pinkie called, running around the house, opening the doors, finding nothing but more empty rooms. "Applejack! Granny Smith! ANYPONY! HELLO? WHERE ARE YOU?"
A few minutes later turned up no more ponies. Pinkie Pie sat, trying to catch her breath and collect her thoughts. This was not normal. One of her friends was missing, not to mention her whole family. She would need help. She had to speak to Twilight, or maybe even the police. Had she ever spoken to Ranger Trotter? Maybe Twilight would be best. One Pinkie-Blink away…
Except there was no away. Pinkie found herself still on Applejack's ranch. In a way, this was as much of a first as blinking next to an 'empty cart'. The blink NEVER failed. It was her special trick, her ultimate secret. Twilight could teleport, but she needed to concentrate, and her travel was clear. With Pinkie, it was just here, and then there. It had always been that way…
Except now.
A trend that continued, as Pinkie tried furiously to get to Twilight's library and found herself stuck at Sweet Apple Acres. Again, and again, and again.
And all the while, the silence.
Eventually Pinkie found herself running, heading to Twilight Sparkle's library, trying to find her friend the old fashioned way. Her running did not last long, as she came to another realization.
She wasn't passing any ponies. The only sound of hooves she heard were her own. She could see no movement no matter which way she looked. The world was around her, but simply that. No sign of anything else.
She tried to ignore the empty streets. The silent houses. The absolute stillness. Until she slammed into Twilight's library…and found it as quiet and dead as Sweet Apple Acres.
No Twilight Sparkle. No Spike.
So it was everywhere, Pinkie Pie running herself ragged all over Ponyville. Rarity's fashion boutique: empty. Fluttershy's animal preserve: nothing. Rainbow Dash's cloud house: completely without motion. Eventually, Pinkie found herself barging into random houses, to find them as empty as the rest.
She did not remember when she started running to Canterlot. She did not recall precisely when she felt her hair go limp, and when her hooves began to crack under all the strain. All she knew was the need to go forward, to find somepony besides herself, to know what had happened…
Only to find Canterlot the same. Empty. Dead. Not a soul in sight. No pony, no animals, no bugs, nothing. Pinkie even made up to the royal palace, to find it silent and austere, like a holy shrine instead of where her princess lived, even that great pony gone, leaving naught but an empty throne.
It was when, wandering outside in a daze, Pinkie saw the fountain. Saw the water droplets floating in the air. Frozen in mid-fall. When Pinkie touched them, they moved, frozen solid specs, not ice but water still, locked in its droplet state.
A moment later, Pinkie realized that the sun had not moved an inch. Not since she'd arrived on the ranch.
Losing all her strength, Pinkie found herself sitting by the fountain. What had happened? Where was she? Where was everypony else? What had she…
You think that being in one place one moment and elsewhere the next is natural? Even in a world of magic, do you believe that is something that can be done effortlessly? Even if you alone can do it? You think it will always end with you outside doors and appearing in buckets of sponges?
"But…I…" Pinkie said to the thought that had finally formed. The terrible, terrible thought.
It finally didn't work. You've unstuck yourself from the natural progression of things. You're locked outside now. No one knows where you are. No one knows how to reach you. You are now the queen, and sole survivor, of forever static. A party of one, that will never end.
"But…I can't have a party alone…" Pinkie Pie said. Once again, there was silence.
She tried to fill it with screaming.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! SOMEPONY! HELP ME! PLEASE, SOMEONE! SPEAK! ANYPONY! TWILIGHT! APPLEJACK! DASH! RARITY! FLUTTERSHY! I DON'T WANT TO BE ALONE! PLEASE! DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE! ANYONE! ANYPONY! ANY NOT-PONIES! ANYOOOOOONNNNNNNEEEEEE! I DON'T WANT TO BE ALONE!"
We're all alone in the end.
All alone…in the night.
Isn't that right…MY friends? My dear outside witnesses to my return to glory?
Go ahead and scream.
She can't hear you.