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Read The Bridge

Carousel Boutique was a place custom built by its owner to be a palace of peacefulness and comfort, meant to be nothing but inviting and charming. Worked out pretty well too. Barring a certain sweetshop, the fashion design's residence was probably one of the nicest looking houses in town. A mix of being surrounded by organized chaos and the ingredients of her talent were key for helping a young entrepreneur to keep her head together. Having just moved out from her family into a new town to set up shop, she'd needed it that way to keep steady without relatives around her. For years, it was her beloved home. A safe place that nothing too terrible could hurt her in. Tonight however, that protection unraveled. The sleeping unicorn was restless, and not by her own doing.

Rarity's face winced and scrunched, as she tossed and turned in her bed despite the veil of unconsciousness. Her reaction was to be expected. She was seeing her world being murdered.

Manehattan, population of three hundred thousand. Right now though, she would be as surprised as she was horrified if it had a tenth of that, judging from all the screaming. The sky was darkened, half choked with smoke. The only lights about where sparking street lamps and the bonfires that had once been homes or businesses. Windows shattered, streets torn apart; homes crushed down into coffins. Carneighie Hall was flattened into a smoking crater, mangled so badly it was only recognizable by the remaining half of its otherwise crushed entrance. Farrier Hill was on fire, a dark green form looming over the apartment complexes before digging its massive arms into the buildings. Rarity didn't want to think about what it was bringing up to its mouth after digging, but she knew it wasn't any construction materials. The dusty, dank air stung her nose and chest with every breath as she ran through debris filled streets. She had just past the ground level throne to the monolithic Imperial State Building when a large shadow with a glowing blue light flew over the structure like a massive bird. With a flick of its long tail, it tore the top half of the structure off its base, sending a tidal wave of falling glass, concrete; and metal crashing down towards her.

Rarity's coarse throat cried out, putting up her arms to brace a shield when a flash of light shifted her point of view. Now she was in the Crystal Empire. Or at least, what was left of it. The Crystal Castle still stood tall, but only as a dark bastardization of its once illuminated, glorious self. The beacon of love and hope had ravenous aerenths stabbing their way out of the sides and roof in a crooked, chaotic fashion that made the tower almost resemble a horned, snarling monstrosity more than it did any castle. The rest of the Empire was practically unrecognizable. The various neighborhoods were under assault from all angles, the Equestria Games stadium being little more than an ignited crater. Rarity panicked and raced through the streets trying to find somepony, anypony. All around her the landscape itself was being disfigured.
Some houses were being gradually destroyed and flattened out by waves of obsidian. The dark plague tore the homes free of their foundations with a chorus of shattering gems before the buildings themselves were greedily swallowed up by the shade. All around her, unnatural shapes skittered about between the buildings, but they were far from anything recognizable Rarity had ever seen in her life as they darted past her. Multiple pairs of sword like claws dug into the sides of the crystal buildings, gorging their hosts on the remains. But it wasn't the demons running amok or the stabbing cold she felt on her fur that left Rarity's voice in a terrified choke. It was the fact that aside from the gnawing of the ravenous pests and viral obsidian, the broken jewel of a city was completely silent.

Wh-Where did all the crystal ponies go?…

She hated herself for pondering the answer when the scene shifted once again, and at first she almost thought the nightmare had finally ended. It was a calm, cool, gentle night atop of a grassy hill. The stars were glimmering, Luna's moon was casting a silver blanket across the land; and Canterlot stood tall and proud. The relief she felt upon seeing something something pleasant and normal was incalculable. Questions were ripping through her head as she closed her eyes and rubbed her temple. Why was she seeing this? She almost never had a nightmare in her life, let alone ones quite so, graphic. She'd been feeling a few headaches over the last few days, maybe this had all been some sick sequence of visions spurred by something she was coming down with. She took deep breaths and held it, trying to slow down the throbbing pulse in her chest and nerves.

She was strangled on her own air when a massive flash of light shot through her eyelids.

There was a low rumble that rattled the earth beneath her hooves. The curtain of air that slammed into her was so astoundingly cold it burnt. Her eyes were forced open, and what she saw left her lungs spasming. When she tried to finally empty her chest and yell out, the shockwave forced her scream back down her throat. Rarity was thrown onto the floor, coughing and hacking to try and fix her lungs.

The lands shifted. As she struggled back to her hooves, Rarity realized she was back in a place she knew well. And that fact was horrifying. She'd seen Manehattan, the empire, and Canterlot; now she was looking at home. It was barely distinguishable from Tartarus itself. Rarity limped forward on trembling legs, her lips and eyelids whimpering. She walked past tombs and morgues, barely able to so much as glance at what she was seeing. There wasn't anypony in sight, least anypony who was breathing. A stabbing thought lashed at her mind as her nose began to plug up. How could this happen to this place?…

A mature, feminine voice in the shades answered, whispering echoes as it circled her.
HE, happened…

Flashes shot before her eyes before Rarity could even ponder at who was speaking. She was looking at her own personal Tartarus, now she was looking at its Kronos.
He towered over the landscape like a mountain. A thick, long tail ending in many thorny prongs swatted down a bleeding ruin to its knees. Taloned feet slashed into the earth under thousands of tons of mass. A triple pronged crown rested upon a head that scraped the sky.

"Wh-What… in the name of…"

If he comes here, this will be the result… Nothing else…

Lines of glowing orbs glared down and through the Element of Generosity from high above. Then she saw what it was standing over. Like a lion over a gnat. A small shape barely visible laying beside the corpse of a door. Rarity's pulse sky rocketed to dangerous levels. She charged forward, throwing aside fallen homesteads and bulldozing through hellscape; not questioning how she was doing such feats. It didn't matter what monstrosity was in front of her. What mattered was what was in front of him.

"No…"

Rarity gritted her teeth as her magic wrapped around what used to be a hollow oak tree and threw it out of her way. Her eyes were beginning to be drowned as her chest felt crushed in from the inside.

"NO NO NO NO!"

Her legs gave out in front of it, but she didn't take her eyes off her treasured. The voice returned, practically whispering in her ear.

If he makes it to Equestria… No survivors…

Upvotes at import: 48 | Stars at import: 37
Posted previously at: 2015-03-06T08:55:02 | Posted previously by: Chapelseed