Ring the bell, and ask for none

For there is no one left to answer…

The moonlight came and stole away

My ponies from my pasture…

And I am left, left waiting here

To be allayed of this disaster…

My solemn wish, forever more

Don’t let me forget their laughter…

Calamity

Authored by The Forgotten Dreamer

Act I: Alone

“My cheeks sting…”

The sensation captivated her mind, ensnaring it, even with what lay before her eyes.

“So much in front of me to take in, so much information to process, and all that I can think about is this stinging in my cheeks, and in my eyes. It is…

“Unpleasant…

“Such an unpleasant feeling…

“…

“Am I moving?

“I can barely feel it. Barely control it.  I think I am moving forward, but I can’t be sure. Where are my legs taking me?

And why does every step make my heart grow heavier? What is this place…?

“And why can’t I seem to stop this infernal stinging in my cheeks?

“…

“Is that blood…?

“It is all so surreal… Where am I? This can’t be Equestria. Equestria is a happy place. A land full of joy and laugher… This can’t be part of my Equestria…

“There is no laughter here…

“…

“But then where am I?

“What is this place, torn apart, and shredded before my eyes?

“And where are my legs taking me…?”

•--♣•♣•♣--•

Celestia stood unblinking, paralyzed in the face of such a brutish scene of massacre. Buildings had been torn asunder, and walls lay crumpled, strewn across the small streets that once made traveling through the small town of ponyville such a delight.

There was not a shop left untouched by the destruction. Roofs, collapsed or collapsing, caved in on to the remains of once popular interiors.

Sugar Cube corner, recognizable only by the remains of its gingerbread roof, was now a smoldering shamble of scorched ruins, lay wasting away under the coming darkness that was slowly enveloping the sky.

Somewhere deep inside of the withering Alicorn, a memory sparked and came to life. She could see a ghost of the past, the pink pony known as Pinky Pie, energetically bouncing around the store, welcoming hungry ponies to the most renowned sweet spot in town. But even as Celestia watched her, the memory faded into the smoke, and dissipated on the slight breeze that was stirring around her.

She continued walking.

Homes stood all around her, each in worse condition then the last. Some looked as if they had been hit by a cannonball. Others looked as if the very earth beneath them had grown an appetite, deciding to venture a taste, swallowing them whole.

Glass lay glittering in the receding Light of a fading sun. The magic that controlled it working only because of habits formed in the millennia of perfect control.

All she could do was continue walking, barely conscious of her surroundings.

Eventually she arrived in front of the Library. She hadn’t meant to end up there, but it had happened. Something had drawn her to the home of the one pony that she cared for above them all.

The tears that were silently flowing down her cheeks suddenly became a living fire, burning their paths down her face. She couldn’t even think enough to wipe them away. The world was silent, unmoving. Even the wind died down into silence.

The enormous, ancient tree that had survived so many centuries of hardships and natural disasters, and that had housed one of the few remaining sanctuaries of knowledge in Equestria, was gone. Vanished as if into thin air…

All that was left were stray branches, and a massive stump that had been the ground floor and support of the Ponyville Library. There was no trace of the rest of it, leaving the one part of it that couldn’t leave the ground. The wood was splintered, shattered and broke, as if it had been torn in half by some impossible strength.

Celestia, her mind having partially shut down in her grief, fell to an awkward sitting position. Her mane, once perpetually in motion, became immobile. It fell and settled upon her shoulders, adding to the already massive weight that threatened to crush her.

“I… I am sorry Twilight…

"I am so sorry…”

•--♣•♣•♣--•

To be continued…