The outside world, it was nothing like I had imagined it. Even from all the vivid depictions that were given from Dipper’s stories, I wasn’t able to grasp what I was truly seeing. The skies had sinister black smog covering them, blocking any sunlight from ever exiting their grasp and touching the ground. The heavens had been closed up for some time it seemed, and the earthbound may never see sunlight again. It was doubtful that even those with the gift of flight could fly high enough through the black coat of darkness to see the once proud glowing orb of life we called the Sun.

Floral life had suffered severely from this deprivation of light. Many of the trees were leafless, and rotting. There was nothing but tarnished dirt for miles it seemed. Not a flower in sight, or a blade of grass to be seen. The only things that appeared to survive in the plant category were the fungi, and even they looked unhealthy, more so than usual.

I stared down a lonely wasteland, void of life, presence, and existence; nothing but empty dirt and sand, and a strong odor. This odor, I had never experienced before; the foulest stench I could even get into my nostrils was before me. I was unable to even fully inhale without choking and my body telling me to upchuck. There couldn’t exist a smell as malignant as this one. It wasn’t coming from any particular route around me, more like every route. This stench; the only thing I could say it was off the top of my head, was death. This was what death smelled like.

The smell was appropriate, as gathered around the entrance to the city were the cadavers of several ponies. Many of them looked like they were malnourished during their hour of passing, implying to me that they had died of thirst and starvation waiting here. That was of course for the bodies that still had flesh on them, the rest left behind nothing but their skeletons and maggots.

I had never seen a corpse before, sure I had seen Dipper's dead body, but it was nothing like this. Part of me was expecting it out here though. I knew that the war meant there would be death nearby, but I didn’t think this close.

Glaring into the eyes of the most recent looking corpse, I could see fear in her face. She was a young filly almost at adulthood, probably no older than Torch. The look on her face, the terror in her eyes, she feared death. She came here out of that fear. They all must have come here for that same reason; they wanted salvation from this place, hoping that Skyvale would offer it. The city however wasn’t as generous as they had thought. They were locked out, and left here to die.

Finally the realization of what was happening around me hit. Tears ran furiously from my eyes as I felt my throat begin to contract in the opposite direction. Within only moments of that happening, I keeled over in discomfort and up came my last meal.

Dipper had forgotten to put more detail into the reality of this forsaken land. All he ever went on about was the Knights of Celestia, and the boldness of Rainbow Dash. He neglected to mention much of what this place was really like.

At my feet, a scrap of paper landed upon my yellow coated hoof. Tilting my head to examine it, I could recognize a pony on the poster; a light purplish coat, with a dark mane to match it. Her mane had been clipped to have bangs in front of her, and a pink streak right down the middle of her perfectly tamed mane. Her body safely guarded by some finely crafted white armor with gold trimmings. A set of gold wings decorated the hoof plating on all 4 hooves, but clearly for decoration and nothing more. This must have been the armor of the holy knights. I remembered her name, Twilight Sparkle. Sometime before the war Celestia announced her as her right hoof, there was a big televised event about it. I remember watching it with my father during the time.

At the top of the scrap I noticed another young mare in similar armor. This one however had a hood up, with her face still fully visible. She was a sky blue, rather majestic pegasus, with a vibrant multi-colored mane. Her magenta eyes seemed to compliment her extravagant locks, while maintaining a look of determination. It was her, the famous Rainbow Dash, I was sure of it.

I read the contents of the poster hoping for any further information. It read as followed:

I was almost in shock at how fortunate I was. It is her, was the only thing that I could wrap my mind around.

Frantically I peeked around for anything I could use to carry things. In my descent from the city, the idea of bringing anything with me hadn’t crossed my mind. I never imagined that the world down below would look like this. With a stroke of good luck, I was able to locate a small side bag. It was in rather poor condition, but it could definitely hold together for some light traveling. It was better than nothing.

Fastening the bag to my side, I silently thanked the kind traveler who had left it behind and hoped their fate was not an unpleasant one. I tossed the flyer inside; I figured it might be useful, even if its only purpose served as a self-motivator.

Peering around at my surroundings, I silently cursed Dipper; he had never given me a map. An expert on maps and navigation, and not once had I thought to acquire a map from him before making this venture, though I suppose it was my own fault. I was off to a brilliant start, out in a desert without a map, or a clue as to which direction to head. I had come to Skyvale in a chariot, which I slept during most of the flight. Not that it would matter anyways, judging by what I had seen already, any landmarks that were there seven years ago would surely lay in ruins now.

I couldn’t help but continually ask myself what could have possibly done all of this? The war was big sure, but this couldn’t have been some kind of weapon that destroyed the face of the entire country. Who would build such a thing? How would they build such a thing? Was it even possible to create a weapon of such destructive power?

I tried to keep those thoughts in the back of my mind, as I needed to figure out where to begin. If I stayed here any longer I might end up like my “sleeping” companions.

The flyer! My mind jumped. I reached into my bag and brought out the scrap and studied the backside of it. My hunch was correct.

Even more fortunate, there was a small map there. Ponyville appeared to be far east of where I was. There was no scale on the map to determine how long a travel it was, but I could probably just look for landmarks from here, even if they are ruined.

With the first hoof forward, I began my long walk towards a fairly uncertain destination. Anything was better than here though.

I couldn’t tell how long I had been walking, maybe a couple of hours, perhaps even a full day. I didn’t feel as though I was getting any closer to where I was heading as everything out here looked the same to me, perhaps an additional stray corpse here and there. Corpses seemed to be the only inhabitants of this place, as I hadn’t come across signs of life for miles. I was beginning to get doubtful that anypony was alive out here. It was possible; Dipper hadn’t been out here in a good five years, so maybe in that time things had changed, though I was more hoping a change for the better.

It was hard to imagine that this pit of dust and charred dirt was once the beautiful countryside of Equestria. I could see the blooming flowers, and tree branches swaying in the gentle breeze in my mind. The memories of a world before the war were racing through my head as I looked at the results of said war before me. The beauty of Equestria back then was breathtaking, and I regretted not taking it in more than I had.

I snapped out of my daydream to see a figure off in the distance. It appeared to be moving towards my direction. Another pony. My heart nearly leapt out of my throat at the thought. For the first time out in this land of death, I had discovered another living creature. With full heart, I darted towards the individual yelling to them.

“Hello over there!”

The figure appeared to have heard my call, and didn’t change his speed even the slightest. I galloped faster trying to close the distance between us.

“Are you with the Knights of Celestia!?” I asked, knowing the chances were low.

It answered me with silence from the distance.

I was getting fairly close to it, when I realized that this creature wasn’t a pony at all, but some kind of large dog-like monster. Its coat had several patches missing from it, most of which were covered with its own blood.

It was missing one of its eyes. The wound from that injury however looked days old, and appeared to be festering with infection now. It looked exceptionally hostile towards me as it snarled and hissed viciously at my direction. It was missing a majority of its teeth, which only made it more terrifying.

The beast was probably at least five times larger than the average canine, but despite his massive size, he appeared malnourished. It was clear he planned to correct that problem.

“Easy boy…” I pointlessly tried to calm the monster.

As expected he didn’t seem to be very interested in my words. I was foolish to think that a starving monster would be willing to obey commands from what appeared to be dinner to it, but it was worth a shot.

I slowly trotted in a circle around it, attempting to lead it away from me, but he followed not taking his only eye off of me. Up this close, I could see that he had a collar on him as well, but I couldn’t get close enough to see any of the writing on it, not that I wanted to get any closer to this beast.

Without much warning, the massive creature lunged at me. I only had a second to react, but I aimed my back hoof to it, and bucked as hard as I could. Luck was on my side, as I managed to hit the beast in the face, causing it to fall to the ground in pain. I almost felt sorry for the thing.

“Go on, get out of here!” I scolded.

That wasn’t exactly my smartest move, as it rose back to its feet with a ferocious growl. In the face of his hunger it was clear that he had forgotten all about fear, that or perhaps I wasn't that intimidating.

His second lunge was just as unsuccessful as the first, as I repeated the strategy, but this time darted off in the opposite direction of the beast, hoping to outrun it so that I could keep going towards my destination.

Peering back I saw it was still giving chase to me. He wasn’t going to let a meal get away from him that easily. I set my attention to straight ahead and focused everything on galloping faster.

Not too long after I started, the creature gave up and turned the other way, but I didn’t stop running. I wanted to put some space between me and that thing before I was ready to slow down. Last thing I needed was a second encounter with that monster.

Nearly an hour of galloping had exhausted me. I needed to rest somewhere, but there wasn’t a house, or remains of one anywhere to be seen.

I was fortunate however that there was a small cave under a jutting cliff. It wasn’t exactly as inviting as it could have been, especially with thoughts of my own bed in my mind, but it was perfect in comparison to the outside. The shelter of a cave sounded very comforting by that logic, granted nothing else had already claimed said cave.

I approached cautiously trying not to disturb anything that could be resting in the dank hole of limestone. Performing a thorough inspection, this small opening in the rocks appeared to be empty, and uninhabited, and thankfully clear of dead bodies. I didn’t think I could handle resting next to a “permanent sleeper”, right now.

The cave was small, but cozy. Curling up against a wall, I let my eyelids fall. I don’t think I recall ever being quite as frightened as I was out in this place. My whole life I had always gone on about how I wanted to be a fearless hero, somepony that ponies could count on, but the truth is, I had never experienced how real the world can be until I came out here. I never imagined that I’d ever be stranded in a forgotten land fighting for my own survival; a place where you had to find a dark old cave just to get some sleep.

My stomach hissed something fierce at me. I had gone probably a day and a half without eating, on top of that the only meal I had before I left I had vomited up. I would need to find something to eat soon. Right now however I only wanted to drift away into a slumber. Maybe if I went to sleep, I’d wake up and this would all just be a horrible nightmare. I wasn’t counting on such luck however.