The Last of Us Ponies

Twenty Years Later...

Chapter 2: Manehattan

"And that's it for today. Have a good afternoon, class," Clockwork said as he smiled at his class of fifteen colts and fillies. The young ponies stood up and began to make their way out of the classroom. Clockwork felt sorry for them. It would be another difficult walk home for them. Today marked the fourth day in a row with heavy showers. Clockwork looked out one of the classroom windows and stared up at the bleak, dark, and cloudy sky that seemed to be nowhere near close to getting rid of its watery baggage. Clockwork smiled for a moment as he thought back to the days when the weather could be controlled by the pegasi. He quickly shook this thought away and returned to grading today's quizes. He had learned over time that thinking of the good days only brought sadness and despair.

He had just begun looking over Dark Shade's quiz when he noticed something: one of his students was still in the classroom. She was sitting in the back of the room and appeared to be reading the notes of old Equestrian history that Clockwork had stapled to the walls of the room. Clockwork smiled for he knew this particular student all too well.

Her name was Ivy. She was a small earth pony with a brown mane and a gray-blue coat. Her eyes were silver and her cutie mark consisted of an ivy vine with several, green leaves. She was quite intelligent for her age, which was around nine, and she did extraordinarily well in class. She was quite shy and hardly talked to anypony else. However, Clockwork had come to learn that she took quite an interest in history, which was a topic that he was particularly fond of as well. Ivy loved to read the historical notes that Clockwork occasionally posted on the walls of the classroom. He hadn't posted a new one for quite some time and yet she always reread each note as if it were the first time she had stumbled upon it. As Clockwork stared at her, he thought of her reason for staying after class. She had been doing this for at least three weeks now.

He stood up and slowly approached her desk. She appeared to be oblivious to the fact that he was approaching her. Clockwork politely cleared his throat and tapped one of his hooves on the desk. Ivy turned her attention away from the notes and looked up at him. "Class is over now, Ivy," he said with a kind smile. "You should be getting on home."

Ivy sighed as she got out of her seat and grabbed her bag. "Have a good day, Mr. Clockwork," she sighed sadly.

"Ivy." Clockwork placed one of his hooves on her shoulder. He wasn't entirely sure if he should ask, as it really wasn't any of his business, but his curiosity urged him to ask anyway. "Before you go, can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"I've noticed that you've been staying after class quite often for the past three weeks. I know that your reason for this has nothing to do with tutoring, as you're such a bright filly. If you don't mind me asking, is there something wrong?"

Ivy was silent for a moment. She turned away from Clockwork and appeared to be mentally debating on whether or not to answer his question. Clockwork began to feel slightly guilty for asking Ivy the question when she turned back to him. "It's...my friends," she replied.

"Your friends?" Clockwork asked.

"Yeah. My friends at the orphanage. They didn't go to school. I hung out with them everyday after school. Three weeks ago...Charlie got an idea...and-" Ivy stopped. She appeared to be holding back tears. "They're gone."

Clockwork didn't need to use any of his advanced intellect to deduce what Ivy meant by they're gone. It was a statement that he had heard all too many times within the past two decades. "I'm sorry, Ivy. Believe me, I can understand what you're feeling," Clockwork said.

"Yeah," Ivy sighed as she made her way out of the room. "I know." Clockwork could only watch sadly as Ivy exited the classroom and headed out into the rainy streets of Manehattan. He then let out a depressed sigh before returning to his desk to continue grading his students' quizes.

Applejack trotted down the muddy brick street. Dead and waterlogged weeds popped up through the spaces in between the bricks and brushed against Applejack's hooves as she walked. The street was empty aside from the occasional stray animal or shady shopkeeper. Applejack knew the residents of this street quite well. She had come to know a lot about the grimy underbelly of the Manehattan safe zone during the ten years she had spent there.

Her apartment was only five minutes of walking away now. Applejack yawned with each step. It had been a long and boring day of work. Her job consisted of her just helping unload and organize any new shipments of supplies from other settlements in Equestria. Today there had been only one shipment from the Baltimare safe zone and that had been it. It was boring days like this that reminded Applejack of her life back in Ponyville. Applejack always felt a bit of happiness followed by a sting of sadness every time she thought back to Ponyville. The memories of her life on the farm, her friends' happy faces, and all the adventures she had embarked on made Applejack's insides clench up. "Move on, AJ," Applejack stated under her breath as she continued down the wet street.

As she walked, she looked for a sign of any familiar faces. Unsurprisingly, nopony was outside in the bleak weather. This didn't surprise Applejack. Rainy days weren't exactly the most exciting days in the city. As Applejack came to an intersection, she debated on whether or not she should take a quick detour to visit her cousin Babs. Babs owned a small pastry and coffee shop not too far from Applejack's apartment. A loud yawn escaped Applejack's mouth and she decided that she currently needed a nap over a bite of coffee cake.

She had just made her way past the intersection when she heard the sound of somepony running towards her. Applejack looked through the sheet of rain to see a young filly running in her direction. "Please! Help me!" the filly begged.

"What's wrong?" Applejack asked curiously.

"Somepony's after me! Just let me hide for a few minutes!"

Applejack wasn't keen on getting caught up in any drama but something about the filly made her want to help her. "All right. Hide behind me." The filly nodded as she ducked behind a pile of old crates and cloth. Applejack sat down in front of the pile and waited for any sign of the unknown ponies that were chasing after the filly.

Several moments of silence passed and Applejack could hear nothing aside from her own breathing, the filly's scared breathing, and the rain pounding against the ground. Applejack was about to get up and leave when she heard the sound of several hooves running along the street. A couple seconds later, a group of stallions in ragged clothing appeared. "Hey! You!" called the leader of the group.

"Can I help you?" Applejack asked.

"Yeah. We're looking for a filly. Gray-blue coat. Brown mane. Silver eyes. Ivy vine cutie mark. Carrying a school bag. Seen her anywhere?"

Applejack had to admit to herself that she was pretty curious about why this group of stallions was after this filly, but she definitely wasn't going to hand the filly over to them. "Sorry. I haven't seen anypony like that all day."

"Are you sure?"

"Damn straight, I'm sure!"

"You better not be lying to us!"

"I never lie. I'm always honest."

The leader eyed Applejack for a few seconds before letting out a tired snort. "Fine." The stallions then proceeded to disappear down the street.

The filly waited another minute before stepping out from behind the pile of rubbish. "You've got yourself into quite a bit of trouble, haven't you?" Applejack asked.

"I guess I have," stated the filly sadly. "Well, thank you." Before Applejack could say anything, the filly ran off down another street and disappeared into the mush of rain and mist. An old part of Applejack urged her to follow the filly to try to help her, but Applejack resisted this urge to continue her trek home. She didn't want any trouble.

Applejack arrived back at her apartment a couple minutes later. She was happy to see that Vick was home too. Vick was a charming and kind earth pony who Applejack had lived with for at least eight years now. He had a red coat, black mane, blue eyes, and a cutie mark that consisted of two strawberries. Vick was one of the few ponies left in Applejack's life whom she deeply cared for.

"You're home early," said Applejack. Vick nodded as he sat at the kitchen table and sipped a cup of coffee. "Coffee, huh? You must have struck gold at your job."

"Nah. This coffee here is thanks to one of Babs's connections," Vick replied as he took another swig.

Applejack smiled as she thought of her cousin. "Good old Babs. Maybe I should have gone and visited her today."

"Yeah, maybe. So how was your day, AJ?"

"Long and boring. There was only one shipment today."

"It's not surprising. It's a dangerous world beyond those walls. I can only imagine how difficult it must be for the soldiers to transport supplies between the settlements."

"You don't have to tell me how dangerous it is out there. I spent a good ten years passing from town to town before I ended up here."

"And it's a good thing that you did end up here." Vick leaned over and gave Applejack a kiss on the cheek. She smiled seductively at him and gave him a quick kiss back.

"Anything interesting happen in your job today?" she asked.

Vick gave a quick laugh and shook his head. "Nah. Boring as usual," he replied.

"That's disappointing. Working for the soldiers sounds like an interesting job."

"Believe me, it's less exciting than it sounds. Don't believe the rumors that say that you hear interesting stuff if you work for the soldiers. All you do is clean their rooms, cook their food, and listen to bland and snobby conversations about how many things they've fucked in the last week."

Applejack chuckled as she stood up and approached Vick. She placed her hooves on his shoulders and kissed the back of his neck. "Well, it's been a long and dull day. I'm going to go take a nap." Applejack then stroked Vick's spine before trotting down the hallway towards the bedroom. Not one moment after she had collapsed onto the large sheet-covered mattress that she and Vick called a bed, she heard the sound of familiar hoofsteps moving down the hallway. Applejack rolled over onto her back to see Vick standing in the doorway.

"You know, AJ, I just realized that it's been a long time since we've had a large portion of free time to ourselves," he said.

"Yeah. I guess it has been a while," Applejack replied. Vick approached the mattress and knelt down. "I bet you could use a nap too."

"I really could use one." Vick slowly made his way across the mattress's surface until he was right on top of Applejack.

Applejack casually looked between Vick's hind legs and giggled. "Look out, partner. Your decency magic is fading away."

Vick leaned down and gave Applejack a long, hard kiss on the lips. "Maybe that's the plan." He then brought one of his hooves down and began rubbing it up and down between Applejack's hind legs. Applejack groaned quietly as waves of pleasure phased through her entire body. She missed this. It had truly been a long time since she and Vick had last slept together. "Do you like that?"

"Why do you always got to ask that?" asked Applejack with a seductive smile. "Of course I like it!"

"I'm just making sure," Vick replied with a naughty grin.

"Well, are you just going to keep teasing me or are you going to get serious?" Vick didn't respond. He simply smiled as he began grinding his hips against Applejack's. Applejack groaned as Vick's growing member rubbed against her lower torso. He did this for a few seconds before angling himself properly and plunging deep into her.

"There we go," groaned Vick. Applejack spread her legs out and groaned as Vick fell into a pleasant routine of pulling in and out of her. She really had missed this.

"Oh...right there," Applejack sighed under her breath as Vick pushed in deeper and deeper. Her coat was quickly getting drenched in sweat and her body was shaking with pleasure.

"Oh, AJ." Vick closed his eyes as he quickened his pace. Applejack leaned up a bit and kissed Vick on the mouth. Their lips locked for a good minute before she finally pulled away and fell back onto the pillow. The two lovers fell silent for several minutes and the only sounds they could manage to utter were the occasional groan, grunt, or sigh. Vick opened his eyes and stared down at Applejack. Applejack wrapped her forelegs around Vick's forelegs as she stared back up at her lover. "You're so beautiful. I've really missed being with you."

"It's been...ah...too...oh...long."

Vick's pace quickened and Applejack groaned loudly in response. "Oh sweet Equestria...I'm so close now!"

"Ah...ah...don't hold back...give it all to me." Applejack tightened her grasp on Vick's forelegs as the waves of painful pleasure pounded against her senses. The world seemed to become blurry and all Applejack could focus on was Vick's face. Vick closed his eyes again and gritted his teeth.

"Oh Equestria! It's coming!" Applejack was getting close too. The lower half of her body had become immobilized and showed no resistance to Vick.

"I...ah...I...AH...love you...AH...so much...AH...Vick!" Applejack groaned as Vick became faster and harder.

"Oh, AJ!" Vick groaned back. He plunged harder and deeper into her. Applejack felt as if Vick was going to split her lower body in two. "AJ! AJ! AJ! APPLEJACK!" Vick gave one, last, deep plunge into Applejack and the two lovers cried out in ecstasy as they simultaneously reached their climaxes.

After a few more moments of heavy breathing and tired kissing, Vick pulled away from Applejack and collapsed on the edge of the mattress. Applejack remained sprawled out on the mattress for another minute or two as the final bursts of pleasure faded away from within her. She sat up and looked over at Vick, who had now fallen asleep. "That's so like you," she said under her breath with a smile. "You get your fill and then you pass out." Applejack stood up and walked over to the sleeping Vick. She gave him one last kiss on the forehead before making her way over to the bathroom. Before heading in to take a long, cold bath, she looked back at Vick and smiled warmly. "It's funny how I hardly think about how nice it is to have something to live for." Applejack's eyes then trailed down to her right foreleg, where a faded cloth was wrapped. The smile on Applejack's face faded as she headed into the bathroom and shut the door.

Luna Ray stood at the window of the shop and watched as the rain tapped against the glass. She liked watching the rain. It washed away most of the grime and muck that the city was always keen on creating. It always made her happy to watch the rain, but her own reflection in the shop's window saddened her. She didn't see herself as ugly or anything like that. She took pride in her dark blue coat, indigo mane, violet eyes, and moonbeam cutie mark. What saddened her was the metallic contraption that replaced her left wing. Luna looked at her right wing and thought back to the days when she could fly through the sky with her sister. Now, thanks to a simple mistake and a routine of betrayed trust, she would never be able to fly again.

"Anypony outside?" asked the voice of her boss and close friend, Babs Seed.

"Wha?" asked Luna as she turned around. Babs was standing at the shop counter with a chef's hat on her head and a white apron clinging from her neck. "Oh...no. Nopony's outside."

"Figures. Shitty weather like this doesn't exactly encourage ponies to go out and get a snack."

"Yeah." Luna sighed as she look a few steps towards the counter. "I really want to thank you again for giving me this job."

"Hey. It's no problem. Life has been enough of a bitch to us." Babs's eyes trailed off towards Luna's metallic wing. She lowered her head a bit and Babs awkwardly cleared her throat. "Besides, we all need to find some stable source of income in this crazy world."

"Yeah. Um...Babs...can I ask you something?"

"Sure. What's up, Lu?"

"I...I've always wanted to ask you but I either never found the time nor the courage to do so. Nopony else likes to talk about it and, since we're friends, I was hoping that you'd be willing to at least tell me something."

"Okay...go on."

"Can you tell me...what life was like during the good days?" Babs fell silent and her face became a bit more serious. "I'm sorry for asking. It's just...I've always been curious. I was born eight months after the initial outbreak and my parents hardly ever mentioned anything about the good days to my sister or me. I've always wondered what it was like."

Babs sighed sadly as she looked at Luna. "The good days aren't really something that us older ponies like to discuss. Not because they were bad, but because they were perfect. Life was...great. Equestria lived peacefully under the rule of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna and was saved many times thanks to the will and strength of the Elements of Harmony. There wasn't that much to worry about aside from finding your place in the world and getting your cutie mark." A small smile appeared on Babs's face. "Heh. I remember worrying about getting my cutie mark back before everything went to shit. I had this cousin...Apple Bloom, who wanted a cutie mark just as badly as me (maybe even more). She and her friends had this club called the Cutie Mark Crusaders. I became a member, following some muddy circumstances, and expanded it over here to Manehattan. The sad thing is, I didn't get my cutie mark until after the initial outbreak." Babs looked down at her cutie mark, which consisted of an apple pastry.

"What about Apple Bloom and her friends?" Luna asked.

Babs shook her head and sighed. "Apple Bloom never got her cutie mark. She...she died the night of the initial outbreak," Babs replied.

"I...I'm so sorry."

"Yeah. She was my favorite cousin. I never saw her friends, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, again. Equestria knows what happened to them. However, I did manage to reunite with Apple Bloom's older sister Applejack."

"Oh yeah! I think you've mentioned her a couple times before!"

"I probably have. She lives about five minutes from here. She arrived in Manehattan about ten years ago. You can't imagine how happy I was to see her. Of course, that's when I learned about Apple Bloom."

"It sounds like the good days were wonderful."

"Of course they were. That's why they're called the good days."

"Do...do you think it's possible for Equestria to become like it used to be?"

"I wish but it's not likely. The world's too crappy now. Our government is nothing but a bunch of snobbish unicorn dickheads, we've still yet to find a cure to the spores, and the AFOE has been extremely quiet recently."

"The AFOE...I think I've heard about them."

"You may or may not have. The soldiers don't like us talking about them."

"They're a rebellion group...right?"

"Yeah. The Army for Old Equestria. When the world was going to shit, Princess Twilight Sparkle was trying to establish order after Celestia and Luna were infected and...taken care of. However, our current leader came in and performed a coup d'état. Now Princess Twilight is in charge of a group of rebels while the rest of us are being fucked up the ass by our perfect and glorious Prime Minister Osor. If you ask me, I'm wishing for the day that Princess Twilight finally manages to break back into Canterlot and rip Osor's dick off with her horn."

"Believe me, Babs," said Luna as she looked at her metal wing. "I have many reasons to hate Osor."

Babs's face fell as she looked at Luna's metal wing. "You've never told me how that happened to you," Babs stated.

Luna turned away from Babs and looked out towards the raindrops gliding down the shop's window. "It's...not something I like to think back to. I might tell you someday, Babs, but as of now...I'd like to keep that memory to myself." Luna then stepped away from the counter and approached the window, where she continued to watch the raindrops fall.

Ivy was breathing heavily when she finally made it back to her room in the orphanage. She was soaked from head to hoof in rainwater but she was glad to see that the contents of her school bag remained dry. She quickly dried herself off with a bath towel before running over to her bed to look through a series of history notes she had taken in class. She thought back to Mr. Clockwork and wondered if she should have told him. He seemed like a nice and trustworthy pony. But in this crazy world, it was hard to tell who you could actually trust. Ivy looked out her bedroom window and managed to catch a glimpse of the stallions who had been chasing after her. At first, she hadn't understood why they had been after her; but now she knew.

She recognized one of the stallions. She had seen him the day she, Charlie, Sunny, and Amber Glow had foolishly entered the danger zone. The stallion had seen what had happened to her friends. He had seen what had happened to her. He had told his friends and now they knew it. They knew she was different. Tears rolled down Ivy's face as she thought back to that day. She wished she could go back in time and save her friends; but she knew this was an impossible dream. Once somepony is taken by the spores, they're gone. However...Ivy was shaken by the fact that she was the exception to the rule. Ivy walked over to her bedroom mirror and examined the red mark on her right hind leg. It looked like an ordinary bruise but Ivy knew differently. She knew where it came from and what it meant. "What...am I?" Ivy asked through her tears as she examined the three-week old, red, infected bite mark.