Anon03/21/26, 02:36No.43119209
TIME IS ALL WE HAVE
ACT 2PART 1: MISSING HOME>You think it's almost March now.
>Or maybe it already -is- March. You haven't really been keeping track of the date lately.
>All you know is that it's been at least a couple weeks since you fled Canterlot.
>That night, the city that housed you for the past year burned in your rear-view mirror, glowing dimmer and dimmer until it was nothing but the dead of night behind you.
>By the time you stopped to sleep, the sun was already rising.
>It was well after noon by the time you got up.
>Scootaloo had been up for hours, but she'd since gotten up from the passenger seat to sleep with you in the driver seat.
>She didn't really wanna sleep alone anymore.
>You'd managed to grab everything you could take with you, enough to fill the truck bed corner to corner.
>You wanted to say you had enough food and water to last you a year, but that was probably being optimistic.
>But if you were even a fraction as lucky as you were in Canterlot... you could only imagine what you'd find out there.
>And so for the last couple or so weeks since leaving Canterlot, you'd been driving south, far away from the fire and the winter cold around it.
>You weren't sure how far south you'd traveled, but definitely far enough that the snow on the ground was greatly lacking.
>And it felt just a little toasty outside.
>You already missed the heat from the wood stove.
>Maybe you'll find another one out there, but until then, the truck's heater would make do.
>You only ever heard about what was going on in the rest of the world from the news before the TVs went down, and whatever radio signals were still broadcasting.
>To see it all firsthand was something different.
>You remember the first town you stopped in, a place called Clancy.
>Immediately, it was nothing like Canterlot.
>Signs of panic and devastation all over. A few cars turned over, and a toppled over street lamp.
>Smoke stains painted the sides of brick buildings. The rest were made out of wood.
>At least a third of downtown had been burned down.
>Trash littered the streets, and bits of vegetation seeped their way along the curb.
>The few shops that were spared from whatever fire rampaged through here had nothing left of value. One antique store had been mostly looted, its front windows shattered and the door ripped from its hinges.
>At least with Canterlot, there was something to look forward to or talk about.
>The neighborhoods seemed to fare better, but a lot of the homes had long since been looted.
>When it started getting dark, you parked in an alleyway behind a set of dumpsters and made yourselves look as hidden as possible.
>You were smart to grab the blankets.
>But you held Scootaloo extra close that night.
>The next day, you moved on from Clancy and continued south.
>Much of the highway was clear, apart from an abandoned car or two on the side, so you were able to cover a lot of ground in just a couple hours.
