“C-c-c-cold…” Ryan shuddered, clutching at his arms as he watched his breath float up in foggy puffs. “Why is it so fuckin’ cold?”

I’ll give you three guesses, Discord replied, and Ryan would have sworn that he was smirking at him. And all of them rhyme with ‘snow’.

“F-f-fu-fu-fuck you.” Ryan shook, trying to keep himself warmer by walking. He was starting to miss the alcohol. It was strange; it had been so warm previously…

From what Ryan could see, Ponyville looked completely deserted. Many shops had been either closed or boarded up completely, which was strange enough in itself. A chill that he convinced himself was merely the gently falling snow crept up his spine as he passed Sugarcube Corner.

Or, at least, what was left of Sugarcube Corner.

“… What the fuck?” Ryan whispered, stalking up to the ruined building. Part of the roof had been blown completely off, and there was only one window intact. He sidled up to it, breathing on it and wiping it with his arm to get a clear look inside. However, all he could see were a couple of wooden crates, heavy with dust. A pair of dusty, upturned tattered baby carriages sat in the corner, one of them missing its wheels. Beside them sat a little cardboard sign, written with 'No Longer Needed'.

He slowly pulled away from the window, breath catching in his chest. He thought furiously, eyes darting about the abandoned town nervously. The last time he was in the 8-Bits, he’d spent about twenty minutes. In the world outside, however, it had been over seven hours…

“… How long have I been gone?” he asked no one. Discord didn’t seem to be answering anymore.

… I’ve got to find Twilight. He thought to himself determinedly, stomping through the steadily falling clumps of snow, clinging to him with a newfound vigor. She'd have answers. Oddly enough, when he glanced up at the sky, he discovered that there were no clouds – as in, at all. Bright, starry skies greeted him, blinking warmly back.

It left him wondering vaguely where all the snow was coming from, but not enough to keep him from his mission. Ryan made a beeline for the library’s general direction. It was a little more difficult to navigate throughout Ponyville, what with the debris scattered around. A single barrel burned with a dim light on a street corner, and as he passed it he discovered that Ponyville wasn’t completely abandoned.

A tiny, grey filly met his eyes in terror, cringing away as he passed and tried to hide behind the barrel. She poked her head around silently, and Ryan noticed that there was something off about her. It took him a full moment to realize that her eyes were pointing in different directions.

… She must cost a fortune in glasses.

Ryan grinned at that, crouching down and extending a hand to the Pegasus. “Hey, ki-“

The filly shrieked, shying away from him and galloping as fast as her tiny legs could take her, using her little wings to further propel herself forward. It took only a few seconds for the filly to completely leave his sight, and the smile slowly faded from his lips.

Sure, there’d been a few ponies that were surprised or weirded out by seeing him. None had ever done that before. His face slowly settled into a scowl, and he shoved his cold hands into his pockets. The fire in the barrel was steadily dwindling, and there didn’t look to be much left in it to burn anyway. Aside from a couple of sticks, a broken glass bottle, the remains of a signpost, and a few bricks the barrel was close to empty.

Ryan shrugged, trying not to think too hard about it.

He didn’t want to think about it.

He trudged further through the steadily growing snow, forced to increase his efforts in order to keep up his pace. The snow leaked in through his shoes, soaking and freezing his feet.

It was then, when he finally reached the place that had been his temporary home, that Ryan discovered something that put him off more than anything else.

The library was gone.

Ryan breathed in shock, staring at the place where the library used to be. The large tree – er, house – treehouse, had been completely ripped up from the roots. He had no idea where the tree had gone; in its place was a flat patch of land, clear save for a handful of slabs of wood, sticking directly out of the frozen ground.

He drew closer, calling out. “Hello? Twilight?” his heavy feet stomped through the snow, and he fumbled for his lighter in order to see the slabs of wood more clearly. Perhaps they held some clue as to where in the hell an entire house had gone.

The dim light from the flames flickered quietly in the breeze, and Ryan did his best to keep it lit by cupping one hand around the flame. It went out a few times, but he finally succeeded enough to peer at the slabs. As he examined them whilst kneeling in the snow, he found that each one had carefully etched drawings on each one, almost as if done by a child.

One of them was etched into the shape of a rainbow, and the one next to it showed what looked to be scribbles of butterflies. Opposite that one, a few feet away, stood one that jutted out of the ground awkwardly, almost as if it’d been kicked a few times. It portrayed a trio of apples.

A growing sense of dread slowly began to grow in Ryan’s chest.

… No. Please, oh please, god, no.

Another slab of wood was slightly larger than the others, and Ryan could see that it was made from the sign hanging in front of Rarity’s shop. Carousel Bout- was all he could see, the rest covered by snow. On its opposite side were a few glued jewels, and one of them looked like it had been broken, or a bite taken out of it.

Another one, directly in the center of every other slab, stood out much more easily than the others. Even though the paint was faded, and chipped in many places, it’s vibrant pink hue was stark against the dark sky and white snow.

This one had etchings of balloons, floating in a carefree manner upwards.

A quiet sob escaped Ryan’s lips, and he felt a burning sensation in his eyes. “… No. No,” he forced out, refusing to believe the scene that stood in front of him.

They weren’t just slabs of wood.

They were headstones.

It felt like Ryan’s brain was shutting down; he simply couldn’t comprehend how this could have happened. The tiny flame from the lighter flickered out, and Ryan dropped to his knees, hands flying out to the snow covered ground. His fist hit the ground once – twice – again. Again. Again. Harder and harder, punching the ground repeatedly, as if he could make everything the way it used to be out of sheer force of will.

It wasn’t right.

It wasn’t fair.

He was supposed to be there for them; he promised. Just the same as his cousins, he’d be there for them.

I promised I’d be there.

“Let me through – let me through!” Ryan screamed, shoving past the police personnel. The yellow tickers of tape were ripped aside as he pushed his way past the officers, desperately trying to get into the hospital room.

“Easy there, son,” one of them said, holding him back with one arm. “I can see how you might be upset, but this doesn’t concern y-“

“Like FUCK it doesn’t, let me through! I know ‘em, I know ‘em! Lemme through!”

Ryan threw the man off, scrabbling to get inside. He regretted running away in the first place.

In his defense, he did keep his promise. He came back.

Sometimes, though, Ryan just wasn’t fast enough.

It was bad enough discovering that Carlos had come back to finish the job.

Seeing what he’d done to Tiffany when she tried to protect the defenseless child was even worse.

So very, very much worse.

Ryan knew immediately that Bruno had been involved as well.

Carlos never left a mess like this.

And, oh, god was it a mess.

His eyes burned furiously, but he wiped them off as his shaking hands fumbled with the lighter.

There was still hope; there was one slab – no, headstone – that he hadn’t seen.

Each grave marker displayed one of the pony’s cutie marks in some fashion; however, he didn’t see one with Twilight Sparkle’s.

His light swung back and forth, searching and re-searching until he was positive that there were no more.

“I’m waiting for that day to come, too.”

Ryan jumped, the unexpected voice from behind him whispered softly.

“Shit!” he yelped, falling into the snow. He dropped his lighter, but thankfully grabbed it again before he could lose it. He desperately flailed about, straining his nearly frozen fingers in order to light the flame.

After a couple of tries, a dim, violet glow greeted him a couple of feet away. It slowly grew into a shining magenta orb, floating up from the unicorn’s horn and levitating into the air. In the light, Ryan could now see that the unicorn was none other than-

“Purple!” he cried out, flinging his arms around her. She cringed at his touch, but swiftly returned to her previous demeanor. The tattered yellow regal looking clothing she wore looked as if it hadn’t been worn, or even washed in ages.

Her eyes were sunken an her face was haggard, and she looked like she hadn't slept in a long, long time.

“… Christ,” he breathed, struggling to keep his voice in check as he hugged her. “What happened? Just how long was I gone?”

“… A while.” She responded with a quiet, sad whisper, and she threw a wing over his shoulder gently to comfort him.

It took Ryan a full beat to comprehend what just happened.

She threw a wing over his shoulder.

A wing.

He touched it, backing away as he held it aloft between two fingers. “… What the…?”

“… A long while.”

Ryan ran a hand through his greasy black hair, mind still trying to wrap itself around the entire situation. “I-I don’t understand. I… I just…”

“Unicorn horns grow back. Did you know that?” Twilight said in a soft, conversational tone. There was something hidden beneath it, he could tell; sorrow, pain.

Bitterness.

When he remained silent, uncertain as to how to respond to this new piece of information, she continued. “They can even be forced to regrow rapidly, if enough magic is forced into them. They act as a natural conduit for magical energy. It’s quite fascinating, really.”

“… Why are you telling me this?” Ryan asked, confused.

“… You’re right. You were always right,” she replied with a small, sad smile. “Why bother explaining…” and with that, she flared her wings as her horn glowed a violent, bright purple. The air around them crackled with energy, and Ryan covered his eyes with his arm to keep from being blinded.

A moment passed, and he felt similar to being flash-fried. It quickly passed, and he discovered that Twilight had indeed gotten practice with the teleportation.

He gazed around in dim surprise, taking in the new environment. This place was in bad condition, as well; even more so than Ponyville. The spiraling, golden towers shined brightly in the night sky, reflecting the many fires around them. It was like the entire place had been battered with artillery.

Heavy artillery.

“When I can show you.” she finished miserably.

“… Where are we?”

“Canterlot,” Twilight whispered, and Ryan could barely hear her over the sound of tinny sirens in the distance. “Or not. Take your pick.”

“Whadd’you mean?” he asked, turning on the spot. The snow was falling even more heavily here, but he could see a few more clouds this time.

The question answered itself as he turned. Behind him were the remains of Canterlot.

Many, many miles below him stood the burning wreckage of Brooklyn.

“Sweet mother of Christ,” Ryan breathed in shock, staring in awe and horror at the enormous level of destruction. Light fluttering overhead caught his attention, and he gazed up just in time to see a barrage of dark-winged, bat-like Pegasi with glowing violet eyes hurtling themselves at the city below. Ryan realized that the sirens he thought he’d heard were actually the screams of the bat-ponies, throwing themselves into the ground beneath them.

“What’s going on?” he yelled, fists curling into balls. “What the fuck is going on? Did – how…?!”

Twilight slowly stepped up to him, looking at him with large, baleful eyes.

“No longer am I subservient.” Her eyes glowed brightly along with her horn, and Ryan gradually felt his feet leaving the ground. He panicked, not expecting the sudden levitation.

“No longer shall I suffer for sins that are not my own,” she said more loudly, and to his great displeasure, Ryan discovered that the rocky edge of the flying city was slowly growing closer.

… She’s going to kill me, he realized with dim awareness.

Her voice grew soft again, and he could see that she was weeping openly now. “No – no longer. You will know what to do when the time comes,” she cried, trying to keep her voice even as Ryan was dangled out over the edge of the cliff. The burning city below him greeted him hungrily.

“Purple – Twilight, stop!” he struggled in fear, kicking his feet uselessly to get back onto solid ground.

“… Tell her. Tell her for me, ‘love will hurt you’. Tell her for me,” Twilight said quietly through the tears glistening down her cheeks. “Tell her.”

“Tell who? Twilight, please!” he begged, desperate.

“No longer.” She steadily drew him closer to the precipice as she walked slowly to him, and put her forehooves on his chest as she looked him in the eye.

And then, Twilight whispered something in his ear. Something he wished he’d never, ever hear again.

Something he certainly hoped he’d never hear coming out of Twilight Sparkle’s mouth.

“… Hail, Dawnbreaker.”

And then she dropped him.

The buildings were on fire.

The screaming shells of twisted, bat -like Pegasi rocketing toward the ground around him were on fire.

Even the water below was on fire.

Ryan screamed, voice lost in the wind as the flaming river below rushed up to meet him-

- And he tumbled out into the streets of Ponyville through the door of the pub, daylight streaming down from overhead.

Ryan took in deep, heavy gasps of air, tears of pain and fear falling down his face as he thrashed about. The black form of the tall, slender man lurched back in surprise, and Ryan scrabbled to his feet.

“Back off! Just back the fuck off!” he screamed at it, swinging violently.

It looked the same as when he’d left it; ponies standing around, staring in shock. Ponyville recently ravaged by rampaging Parasprites. The only real difference was the suited faceless man, watching him expressionlessly.

Gotta get to the kid.

“That’s-that’s right,” Ryan said breathlessly as he brandished the lighter in front of himself. “You-you-you just… back the fuck off.”

“… ScOotAloO wAs rIgHt, yOu ARE rUdE.”

Ryan blanched, not expecting the thing to talk. He watched as it slowly shrank down from its previous towering height, its features shriveling until it merely resembled a very large and skinny pony. It’s elongated face (if you could call it that) was still a blank, white mask. A red circle with an ‘X’ appeared on its sides, and Ryan guessed that it was supposed to be some kind of imitation cutie mark.

“… You can talk.” It registered more as dull surprise than anything else. He’d seen enough in the past few hours that he felt absolutely nothing could surprise him anymore.

The poor, poor bastard.

“WeLl, EvIdEnTlY.” The slender mare shot back at him, and Ryan felt that it was glaring angrily.

Then again, Ryan would be angry too if someone had thrown a person at him.

“… What do you want?”

The slender mare simply stared at him (or turned in his direction and stood very still, anyway,) before reaching into its breast pocket with one hoof and pulling out a small, rectangular grey box.

“My LiTtLe OnE fOuNd ThIs. We SuPpOsEd It BeLoNgEd To YoU.” it dropped the box into Ryan’s outstretched hand.

“… My phone?” he said, confused. He thought he lost it when he arrived in Equestria. It was definitely his; the initials ‘RM’ had been scratched onto the back of the Nokia.

“Daddy!” a small voice called as it came around the corner, and Ryan saw a small orange Pegasus with a bright violet mane and amber eyes break out into a large smile.

Just when Ryan thought that nothing else could surprise him today, the Slender Mare and the little orange Pegasus embraced lovingly, before walking away down a back alley talking about the young one’s day at school.

“… Huh.” He grunted, and turned his attention back to the phone in his hands. Unsurprisingly, it wouldn’t turn on; probably a dead battery.

Now I just need some cigarettes and my fuckin’ wallet, he thought grimly. He paused in the middle of the street, thinking. After the recent events, he needed a moment to ruminate. He could have almost sworn he was doing something impo-

“Fuck me with a shovel, hang on, kid!” Ryan yelped, dashing down the street toward the library.

Ryan kicked in the door to the library, barreling inside. Spike leapt from his spot on the couch, quickly brushing speckles of gems off of himself.

“I was gonna –burp! – share, I swear!”

“Where is she?!” Ryan said frantically, sweat rolling down his back.

“Who-?”

“Twilight! Fluttershy! Pinkie, Skittles, anybody!”

“Oh, there you are – I see Zecora’s antidote worked much faster than I’d previously anticip – oof!” Twilight gasped in surprise, the human throwing himself around her neck.

Great, bellowing sobs escaped him as he squeezed her as tightly as he could, thankfully finding that she had no feathery wings.

“Yes, I- hnng! – I’m glad to see you, too, but – hff! – I can’t breathe…!”

Ryan relaxed his hysterical grip, wiping the tears from his eyes. “You’re – you’re okay. You’re okay,” he said with relief, more to reassure himself than anything. Twilight merely stared at him in confusion. “Of course I am. Except for Pinkie Pie; she almost swallowed her trombone when you ‘solved’ the Parasprite problem.”

“Wait, Pinkie?”

“Yes, Pinkie,” Twilight replied in exasperation. “You know, about ‘yea high’?” she said, holding a hoof up to her own height. “Very talkative. Smells like bubblegum, breaks the laws of physics on a regular basis?”

“I meant, she’s still alive?”

Twilight stared at him in confusion, her own violet eyes tilting with her head slowly. “Yes…? Ryan, you saw her, like, ten minutes ago.”

“Twelve minutes and forty-six seconds, actually,” came a lilting, strong feminine tone from the other room. Twilight did her best to improve her posture suddenly, smiling. Even Spike tried to look a little less gem-encrusted. He wasn’t doing a very good job of it, as he was continually trying to lick his elbow to get the last of the jewel dust off.

From behind Twilight quietly stepped a much larger horse, head nearly meeting Ryan’s eyes. The flowing, shining multi-hued mane and regal golden brooch and tiara with an inlaid amethyst gave her the impression of the very, very wealthy. Ryan immediately began disliking the newcomer.

He’d had experiences with enough rich ponies traveling through Ponyville when he was ‘minding his own business’. Technically, finding new ways to cause trouble without getting caught. Regardless, the rich ponies he had met were generally rude, stuck up, and snotty as hell. This one wasn’t going to be any different.

She looked a little familiar, the way she was half-frowning at him. Her large, lilac eyes met his beady black ones, and he did his best to remember where he’d seen her before.

“… Have we met?”

“You nearly set me on fire.” She replied bluntly.

“Oh, yeah,” Ryan laughed. “That was funny as hell.”

“I believe when it comes to androgynous humans violently disrupting the harmony of Equestria and committing a brutal, flaming genocide in front of my very eyes, you and I have very different perceptions of ‘funny’.”

Ryan stared at her, crossing his arms. “Christ, who’s the stick in the mud?” he glowered, asking Twilight as he leaned against the wall.

Twilight flinched, and Ryan noticed that the large white horse had both a long unicorn’s horn and wings as well. It reminded him of that twisted, frankly terrifying version of Twilight.

He didn’t like it.

“So, like, what are you?” he asked the regal looking white one without awaiting an answer. “You’re like, part unicorn and part Pegasus. Are you, uh… unisus? Pegacorn? Unisus. A unisus. Anus.” He snapped his fingers, a grin spreading on his face. “That’s what I’m callin’ you, now. Anus.”

The white one’s eyes narrowed sharply, and for a moment, Ryan got the insane thought that she might try to spear him with her horn.

She opened her mouth to speak, but Ryan cut her off rudely. The faster he got rid of this one, the sooner he could get back to looking for the other ponies –

Which, he realized far too late, had all gathered wordlessly in the doorway, mouths agape. It was apparent they’d been watching the conversation with some level of horror. Rarity’s face looked particularly pale, which was difficult already, considering her coat color.

“So, you got a butt-tattoo as well, huh?” Ryan asked conversationally in a taunting tone. “I hear those are all ‘bout certain skills ‘n shit. So, what? Your special talent is havin’ an ass bigger than the sun? Yoo-hoo, pegacorn?”

Rarity swooned on the spot, and fell to the ground with a dull thud.

She quickly stood again, once she realized that all of her friends were far too distracted to help her to her feet.

Twilight slowly pinched the bridge of her nose with her hoof, sighing in agitation and despair at Ryan’s unbelievably immense level of sheer stupidity.

Ryan blinked, and he could have sworn he heard heaving guffaws coming from somewhere.

Ha ha ha ha! Oh, now you done goofed! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha! Ha ha ha ha!

“… Ryan, I’d like to introduce you to my personal mentor and the ruler of Equestria, Princess Celestia.”

“… Aw, fuck.”

Author's Notes:

The plot thickens.

(A pair of dusty, upturned tattered baby carriages sat in the corner, one of them missing its wheels. Beside them sat a little cardboard sign, written with 'No Longer Needed'.) Seriously, those two little lines have got to be the DARKEST thing I have ever written.
Ever.