September ~ Based upon TheLivingTombstone song

The sky in Ponyville was now a slate grey compared to the picturesque beauty of the sharp blue sky before it. Lifeless trees dotted the landscape with dead leaves hanging withered from long since killed branches. The once colourful meadows were now charred black and grey and no animals were grazing, for only corpses of dead creatures lay across the wasteland. Dirt and sand swept across the flat plains and whirled around the fence posts that jutted out like a bad tooth. The world was silent, and not a whisper of sound could be heard except for the faint whistle of the wind. But, amongst all this desolate carnage, a lone male pony strode atop one of the wave like hills overlooking the abandoned town of Ponyville.

The pony was as grey and dreary as the landscape with a shortly cut black mane. His face and body were lean and his eyelids were slightly dropping from tiredness. All kinds of dirt and rocks stuck to his coat, mane and tail and it was obvious from his smell that he hadn’t bathed for at least a month. On one side of his flank was his brown rucksack that sagged over his cutie mark, a single flap keeping his items inside. He didn’t need anypony to see his cutie mark if there was no other pony to see it. Opening his sack, the contents inside were a small leather-bound book, a lighter, a trowel, water bottled into grime covered jars, and a yo-yo. He needed the yo-yo. The yo-yo kept him sane. Ait was a remnant of the old world that still offered some form of comfort. He dipped his face into the bag and brandished the leather book. From the book, he pulled a quill and sat down on the sharp edges of grass, which disturbed some dirt and caused a small dust cloud around him. He began to write.

Diary Entry Day 34, November 21[SUP]st
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Finally returned to Ponyville, the place where my troubles began. I still can’t remember what happened in September, but everything feels so dark now and I’ve been alone since that one day. “Where the hell is everypony?” was my first question once I emerged from that bunker, but now I wish I hadn’t received an answer. They’re dead. All dead. Now, I just want to know the story of what happened right before I became so alone. I’ve come to Ponyville as it seems to be the epicentre of the problems. Were the rumours true? Was there a government secret hidden from Equestria?

He closed his journal and sighed whilst shaking his head, then tapped a hoof against his skull in an attempt to somehow knock the memories back into place. He had to know what happened and so he got up and started trotting towards the town.

Any other pony would have been shocked at the things he saw in Ponyville. Dead bodies of unicorns, pegasi and ponies alike were scattered on the tarmac of the town. Rafters creaked and groaned and the sound of tumbling concrete echoed throughout his walk. Some of the houses still had fires ebbing slowly out, whilst there were giant chunks of roof or walls missing from others. A few small bits of grit tumbled onto his mane from a rooftop and he shook them off, which made them clatter onto the floor. Large areas of the main street were cracked and the town hall’s roof itself had collapsed under the intense conditions. He’d seen it all before, every city in Equestria was like this. If there were any plans for a government secret, the town hall is where they’d be kept.

He gathered up what was left of his strength and bucked through the now flimsy wooden oak door. Pieces of timber bent into the reception room and thin shafts of light shot through the holes in the roof like daggers. If this was a normal deserted building, there would probably be bats flitting above his head, but this wasn’t a normal occurrence. There was no life at all. He made his way past the broken receptionist’s desk, and then opened a door labelled “Mayor’s Office”, which gently swung open with a slight rustic moan.

The windows had been shattered and pieces of glass littered the floor. His hooves made a crunching sound as he passed over the shards. Torn banners were at the far side of the room and various ribbons, trophies and placards were held in a glass case behind the mayor’s desk. Inspecting the case for any further clues, all he noticed was that they mostly belonged to somepony named “AppleJa”, but most of the names had faded away. He wished his cutie mark gave an indication as to what he was good at. “It certainly isn’t detective work”, he muttered to himself. A screw could indicate being an engineer maybe? He opened the top draw of the desk, and various files and paperwork lay within. He found a letter called, “Operation September” and began to read.

Operation September: TOP-SECRET

As we are all aware, someday the alicorns will realise that they have enough power to completely enslave all the other races in Equestria, so we have formulated a plan. With the funding of Ponyville and other investors, we shall quietly build a weapon that is strong enough to destroy the princesses should a crisis ever arise. With this, we can keep the alicorns in check and also our own frail democracy in balance. A lab shall be built beneath a cave inside the Everfree Forest and guarded to the highest level of security. I assure you, everything will be in safe hands.

Yours sincerely,

Thomas Archimedes

“So the rumours were true,” he grumbled with head held low and eyes shadowed. He knew his next destination. He knew he had to pay a visit to the Everfree Forest.

His journey would have to wait for now, as it was getting dark and he wouldn’t stand a chance in Equestria’s harsh, new apocalyptic climate. But he had to find a better shelter than a town hall. The dust storm was immense and kept blowing him back slightly even if he dug his hooves firmly into the ground. Dirt kept getting through the slits that were now his eyes, but he ventured on bravely towards the last bastion of Ponyville. The semi-protected home of Twilight Sparkle.

Slamming the door shut behind him, the maddening winds were now muffled and he blinked frantically to get the entire residue out of his eyes. His vision was blurry and clouded now that he was in the library, but he could still make out the golden silhouette of necklaces and a tiara. He took out his lighter and ignited one of the candles on the wall. The room was still dark, but he could at least see better now. He wished he couldn’t.

There, before his very eyes, lay the bones of six ponies all wearing the necklaces and the tiara. Could it be that these were the very ponies that had saved Equestria on countless occasions? Two of the skeletons, one a pony wearing a slightly battered hat and the other a pegasi, were touching what would be hooves together and were slumped against the wooden floor. He took the hat and placed it on his head for better protection against the cruel storms outside. The books were musty, and he spent at least three hours looking through most of them for signs of a clue. Nothing. Climbing the stairs, he passed another skeleton, but this one was more curious. It appeared to be that of a young dragon’s skeleton. Alongside the carcass lay a torn, frazzled note and he began to read once more.

Dear Princess Celestia,

You HAVE to help us! We don’t know what to do! Ponies are rushing around everywhere and the alarms just won’t stop! Twilight’s doing her best to keep the other ponies together, but Fluttershy’s hyperventilating and Pinkie Pie has lost it! Rainbow Dash and Applejack are sharing their last testimonies with each other, for crying out loud! WE CAN’T DO IT THIS TIME! THE SCREAMING, THE SCREAMING WON’T STOP!
PLEASE, FOR THE SAKE OF EQUESTRIA, DO SOMETHING!

SPI-

A shiver ran down the pony’s spine. Something happened and it was beyond the alicorn’s and the champion’s control. Getting out his yo-yo, he played with it for an hour, but he couldn’t allow himself to forget such details. He sat on the step underneath the candlelight and began to write in his book. Mercifully, the clock tower hadn’t fallen so he knew it was past midnight.

Diary Entry Day 35, November 22[SUP]nd
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I’ve just discovered that the ponies were defeated by something really strong, which even killed off the mighty alicorn race. All of this just seems so very weird and wrong. How can anything like this have belonged in our world of harmony and love? It’s like witnessing something from another world. I’ll update this later today, but for now, I’ve got a cave to visit.

Exiting the tree, he made his way towards the forest and passed a little cottage that had many animals kept at the back. Well, dead ones at least. The forest was less of a woodland area now and more of a vast twig farm. The trees themselves were bare, and he hopped over muddy puddles and protruding roots as he strolled through what was left of a forest path. Somewhere around would be a cave, which wouldn’t be too hard to spot now that all the obstructions were gone. He passed a swamp and the body of a dead hydra with all four mouths open. Following the dried up river bed, there was yet another corpse, but this time of a sea-serpent. Finally, he arrived.

The mouth of the cave was large, which instantly raised a question in his mind. “Did something else live in here?” His brain flicked back to the mayor’s office and there was a mention of certain “security” aspect. “Oh horseapples,” he cursed, but then strode into the darkness of the crypt.

It was pitch black in here, so he pulled out his lighter and clicked the mechanism three times to set off the spark. Illuminated before him was the biggest skeleton of a dragon he had ever seen. It had a long metal chain clamped into place around what remained of its neck and the other part of the chain was hammered with a strong peg into the cracked cave wall. Stalagmites dangled dangerously from the space above so he was careful not to make much noise. However, he tripped over the dragon’s tail and dropped his source of light. It landed with a sharp pinging sound. He gritted his teeth and his eyes widened awaiting something bad to happen. He sighed in relief and then the floor rumbled. “Oh hell,” was all he had time to say.

He could hear the spears of rock entering the floor behind him as he ran and he didn’t wish to be caught underneath one. There was a speck of light in a tiny opening in front of him and he put his legs into overdrive. His thighs burned and his throat filled with lactic acid, but he had to keep going. He leapt for the opening and dived through just as a large boulder covered it up.

This place was much different to the harsh terrain outside. He was in a laboratory of sorts, which was dark and shadowed, yet clinical and white at the same time. Ahead of him lay a dimly lit corridor, cloaked in a red light emitting from a dome shaped bulb. The dead bodies of what were mostly unicorns were lying on consoles to either side of him, obviously at work when the disaster struck. As far as he could remember, he hated all the other people around him, but he sort of pitied them now that most of them were dead. He picked up a clipboard that had scrawled writing and blood on it from the floor.

I’m hiding in the supply cupboard, so if anypony finds this when I’m dead, just know that we didn’t mean for any of this to happen. Thomas Archimedes went insane and we can’t stop him, because he has the button for the countdown. He’s already killed seven of us, and I fear he plans to kill a lot more. I just hope that he can’t hear me breathi-------

There was the name again. “Thomas Archimedes,” he repeated to himself inquisitively. The colt in charge of the programme. He recognised that name, and he began to remember.

The unicorn was wearing a lab coat and glasses with a spiky, blonde mane. He had an atom cutie mark on his flank and had blue coloured fur.

“FINALLY!” Thomas cackled manically to his left, “FINALLY IT’S DONE! IT’S FINALLY DONE!”

He remembered that he was there at Thomas’s right and he said, “Stop him! He’s trying to kill us all! Stop him!”

“NO!” Archimedes responded angrily, “I’m going to save you; I’m going to save you all! Don’t you try and stop me!”

He gasped slightly and realised just how far this Thomas Archimedes was willing to go to save the world from the alicorn. He trotted down the corridor more nervously this time, and expected to see Thomas’s skeleton. He was correct. But, something was amiss. Thomas was on the right of where he should have been in the memory. He looked to the left of the body and saw a hatch that said, “Emergency Teleportation Module WARNING: MAY CAUSE MEMORY LOSS.”

A smile cracked across his face, and he remembered the whole thing.

“FINALLY!” he cackled maniacally to the left, “FINALLY IT’S DONE! IT’S FINALLY DONE!”

“Stop him! He’s trying to kill us all! Stop him!” said Atom Spark, his right-hoof pony.

“NO!” Archimedes responded angrily, “I’m going to save you; I’m going to save you all! Don’t you try and stop me!” He edged closer towards the teleporter to the bunker, and his hoof hovered over the button.

“THIS IS YOUR REDEMPTION DAY EVERYPONY!” he said crazily, “GO AWAY FROM ME! STAY AWAY FROM ME! GO AWAY! YOU CAN’T TOUCH ME NOW! YOU SEE THIS BUTTON HERE? I’M GONNA PRESS IT!!” He stepped into the teleporter and pressed the button, sirens rang out, the countdown begun and he vanished.

“Of course,” he said grimly, “The nuclear materials discovered in the Everfree forest, and the bomb that was created from it.” He felt like he was losing himself, so he brought out his yo-yo and spun it from his hoof. The string on it snapped. For the last time, the grey pony brought out his notebook and began to write.

Diary Entry Day 35, November 22[SUP]nd[/SUP]

I’ve regained a small memory, came to my head just like that suddenly. I think I’ve gotten a clue, something tells me this is worse than what I knew. My name is Thomas Archimedes and I just remembered what happened in September,

I’M THE ONE WHO KILLED THEM ALL, I SURVIVED AFTER THE FALL!