Whiplash

Zecora spent almost all day, everyday scouring the forest for roots and herbs for her various brews. Nurse Redheart had requested a large shipment of medicine, so the zebra shaman had plenty to keep her busy.

She hummed to herself as she sprinkled a jar of shredded herbs into a large, bubbling cauldron. It wasn’t a fun task, but this medicine would greatly benefit the residents of ponyville.

VROOOOOMMMMMMMmmmmmm……

Zecora stopped what she was doing, raising her head in alarm.

That sound…

It was eerily familiar. That last time she heard that sound was when that human-

BAM-BAM-BAM

Somepony was frantically pounding on Zecora’s door. It wasn’t often she had visitors, so it took her by surprise.

She made her way to the door and cautiously opened it, when a sight for sore eyes greeted her.

The same, broken human being that Rainbow Dash led to her several days ago was on her doorstep; out of breath, a worried expression on his face. He was so panic-stricken, he hadn’t even taken off his helmet, or any of his armor. A messenger bag was slung across his back, and his black, metal steed was gently parked under the shade of a nearby spruce tree. But something in him had changed since their last encounter, his eyes spoke it all. And it wasn’t subtle whatsoever.

Zecora blinked, gazing at his depth from a more spiritual perspective. As she had told him in their last encounter, his eyes glowed red in the spirit world, as was normal for a soul who had taken the life of another.

But they weren’t dimly glowing anymore. They were BURNING red. It was as if a sea of blood had caught fire in his pupils, demonstrating the sheer malice he felt in his heart. Something had definitely taken a turn for the worse when they met the royalty.

“Zecora,” he panted incoherently. “I… Celestia… She… My friends...I tried to...”

“Patrick, what in Equestria is going on?” she asked. “Just take a deep breath, and tell me what is wrong.”

Patrick was completely out of breath, bending over and putting his hands on his knees.

“I-I, I don’t know what to do!” Patrick cried.

“Human, I cannot understand this chatter,” Zecora sighed. “Please, come inside, sit down, and tell me what is the matter.”

Zecora sat Patrick down at a table while her medicinal brew continued to boil.

“Okay,” Patrick let out a deep breath, removing his helmet. “We went to Canterlot or whatever, we talked to the princesses. I found a room full of human artifacts. I found the very same rifle I used in the Army! They lied to us!”

“That’s not even the worst part,” Patrick explained.

“Celestia killed my friends! She changed my past, SHE brought me here, she manipulated my life so that we could use the Elements of Harmony, or some shit, to destroy ‘the Nightmare!’ She knowingly let my people destroy themselves, because if they didn’t, Equestria wouldn’t exist! But, she wants me to save her people when she won’t even save humanity!”

He waited it to hit Zecora, for her to be shocked and speechless, but she didn’t seem the least bit surprised.

“Wait a minute,” Patrick said. “Did… Did you know this all along?”

“That I have, my human friend,” she spoke solemnly. “The spirits of your companions informed me in the first place of this act so unreverend.”

“THEN WHY THE FUCK DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?” Patrick banged his fists down on the table.

“When I found all this out, I tried to KILL her! I’m on the RUN right now!”

“You-You tried to kill the Princess Celestia?” Zecora gasped. “Please tell me you are joking, in the name of Equestria.”

“Notice how I’m missing something?” Patrick pointed to his hip, and then withdrew the empty holster from his messenger bag.

“Apparently, she can stop bullets. The ponies I’ve been living with broke me out of their dungeon, I escaped, and now I’m here.”

“This… This isn’t good,” Zecora rubbed her temples in thought. “I thought you’d react differently than you thought you should.”

“Well, I didn’t,” Patrick grumbled. “But, hey- You’d be mad, too, if this shit happened to you, right?”

Zecora nodded. “Yes, Patrick, I would indeed, but my advice, you did not heed.”

“Everything changed when she’s responsible for every bad thing that’s ever happened to me!” Patrick interrupted her. He stood up and paced around her hut.

“I’m only twenty-one years old, why the fuck didn’t she pick someone older, who at least had more life to live?! Why did it have to be me? Other people have friends, too! I don’t understand ANY of this!”

“You are different, Corporal Wilcox,” Zecora spoke. The mere mention of his rank made him obediently snap to attention. “You are the embodiment of the very thing the Nightmare mocks.”

“What?! How do you know my rank? How did you know my last name? What does that mean?”

“The magic of friendship you and your comrades share, is greater than any being that’s ever lived can hope to bear.”
Patrick broke eye contact, getting lost in thought.

“And forgive me, human, but I thought,” Zecora replied. “You were twenty years of age, were you not?”

“Yes,” Patrick sighed. “But… Today’s my birthday. At least, in my time.”

“I see,” Zecora bowed her head.

“Patrick please, forgive my deceit,” Zecora responded. “But had I told you, Equestria’s struggle against the Nightmare would have been a crushing defeat.”

Patrick grabbed a cigarette out of his pocket and headed for the door.

“I really wish someone would just tell me the truth for once!” Patrick grumbled. “And I don’t know how, but I’m going to kill Celestia. I made her a promise I intend to keep!”

“Patrick, wait! My intentions from the beginning have only been to help,” Zecora grabbed him by the pants leg to stop his departure. “But you need to stop and just listen to yourself!”

“I’m still killing her,” Patrick muttered. “If you fuck with me, that’s one thing. If you fuck with my friends AND my parents, that’s another thing.”

“Trading blood for blood will not quell your broken heart,” Zecora said. “Taking the life of the princess will only tear you apart.”

An incredibly sharp, dominating crack burst across the Everfree forest, followed by a rumbling of the ground, and powerful gusts of winds that pushed all of the trees in their vicinity in one direction. Several trees were downed, while some lacked any leaves at all.

Potions, pots, and pans fell from the shelves of Zecora’s hut, leaving a mess of her personal collections of assorted items all over her living space’s floor. The cauldron cooking over the fire pit in the center of the room was overturned, spilling a mess of goop everywhere and making all her previous work redundant.

Zecora leapt under the table, assuming an earthquake was responsible for this turmoil. Patrick stood in awe, not knowing where to run. When it finally ended, Zecora poked her head out from under the table.

“Was that the end of this uproar?” Zecora whispered. “What was all this commotion for?”

“I don’t know,” Patrick replied. Zecora and Patrick went outside to investigate, but found nothing other than a few downed trees to answer them.

“Wait a minute,” Patrick looked just above the tree line. There was a faint outline of something, but the trees blocked his view.

“I think there’s something off in the distance, can we get higher up to see?”

Zecora nodded, pointing to a ladder next to the hut. It led to a small crow’s nest built into the gnarled willow tree she resided in.

Patrick ascended the ladder, stepping up into the lofty platform. He helped Zecora up, and then turned to face the horizon, and felt sick to his stomach.

It… It couldn’t be.

“Holy… Fucking… Shit.”

Patrick’s chest went stone cold. Celestia was telling him the truth. The Nightmare was real. Incredibly, and unfortunately, real. The fate of the world really did rest on his shoulders.

There was a lack of haze shrouding the horizon. It was many miles away, but it was unmistakably a mushroom cloud, swirling high above the Earth’s surface and extending upwards into the atmosphere. And there was only one thing that could cause a mushroom cloud that big.

A nuclear bomb.

“Well,” Patrick said as-a-matter-of-factly. “I guess the Princess was telling the truth. The Nightmare is real. And it has weapons of mass destruction. Huh.”

“Is that what caused this explosion so loud?” Zecora murmured. “What on earth is that evil cloud?”

This brought another problem, though. That explosion was miles away, but fallout wouldn’t be far behind. Patrick was no nuclear technician, but he understood that anything radioactive equals bad. He needed to run.

“Um, Zecora,” Patrick stammered. He cleared his throat and collected himself. “You need to run. You need to get as far away from here as you can.”

“Human, you clearly know more about this than I,” Zecora started. “What is that cloud off in the sky?”

“There’s no time!” Patrick slid down the ladder, and strapped his helmet on. He started up his Honda CBR and jumped onto the seat.

“You’ve helped me this far, so now I’m going to help you with some advice,” Patrick shouted over the noise of his engine.

“Get the FUCK away from here!”

Patrick gunned the throttle, his front wheel lifting off the ground and lurched forward in a cloud of dust.

“I have no idea where I’m going," he thought.

Five ponies waited anxiously in the throne room. They were summoned to speak with the princess before their departure. Twilight had apparently teleported back to Ponyville, so they would be traveling back on their own.

“S’pose they found us out?” Applejack asked. “Twilight ain’t here, that can’t mean nothin’ good.”

“She said Spike asked her back to the library for something urgent,” Rarity sighed. “That can only mean one thing.”

“What do you think they’re going to do to us?” Rainbow Dash looked around the empty throne room.

Before long, the anxious ponies were greeted by Princess Celestia herself. However, Luna was missing.

All five bowed, and then regained their stance.

“Hey, Princess!” Pinkie Pie cheeped. “Where’s Princess Luna? Doesn’t she want to say goodbye?”

“Luna is a bit,” Celestia looked away for a moment. “Pre-occupied at the moment. And I’d like to speak to you all alone.”

“Really, your highness?” Rarity said, a bit taken back. “Now, w-what about?”

“It is about Patrick, and everything you heard me say yesterday in our last meeting.”

Celestia turned to Rainbow Dash.

“Rainbow Dash, I hope my guards didn’t hurt you, I apologize for their use of force.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow Dash muttered. “I’m… Fine.” She tried to hide her anger, but it still stuck out like a sore hoof.

“Anyway, there is a matter I’d like to discuss with you,” Celestia’s voice suddenly became very dominating, echoing throughout the throne room.

“It’s my understanding that you assisted Patrick in escaping from the dungeon last night.”

All five ponies’ hearts skipped a beat. An awkward silence hung in the room for a few moments.

“Girls,” Celestia sighed. “I am not angry with you. But that was an act of treason against my kingdom, you of all my little ponies should know that.”

“Yeah, well-“ Rainbow Dash rose into the air. They were found out, so there was nothing to lose now. She was finally going to speak what was on her mind.

“You killed his friends and destroyed his life!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “We weren’t just going to sit there and let him rot in a dungeon because you drove him crazy!”

“Do all of you really feel this way?” Celestia responded.

Rainbow Dash was the first to nod, followed by Rarity, then Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and very subtely, Fluttershy.

“…I see.”

Celestia gestured for her subjects to follow her.

“Come, I wish to show you all something.”

Apprehensively, they followed Celestia to a balcony window. Looming off in the distance was a still unsettled mushroom cloud as the result of a nuclear detonation in Manehatten.

“…What… I-in Equestria… Is that?” Fluttershy gasped. It took a lot for Fluttershy to speak up, and this was definitely enough to make her do so.

“It is the Nightmare,” Celestia replied. “I’m afraid exactly what I’ve been trying to prevent by summoning Patrick to Equestria is coming to pass. The Nightmare has somehow acquired human weaponry, and has begun its attack on Equestria.”

“Nah… Please, tell me that’s not-“ Applejack stumbled through panicked. “Is that Manehattan?”

Celestia nodded.

“No!” Applejack protested, running towards the edge of the railing. “Mah’ Aunt and Uncle Orange live there! Did anypony survive? Please, tell me they’re alright!”

“Girls, please, calm down, all of you,” Celestia cooed. “This was indeed the result of the Nightmare. Reports are hazy; there were survivors, but not many. Manehattan has been lost. But this weapon’s destruction is not limited to the initial blast.

It spreads a poison through the air, that lingers for untold amounts of time.”

The girls chattered to one another in fear, staring at the mushroom cloud off in the sky. The smoke had blocked out the sun, and cast a dreary, rotten olive-green hue across the sky.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light, as Twilight instantly appeared next to Celestia’s side. She took a moment to catch her breath. Doing so many teleportations in one spell exhausted her.

“Princess!” Twilight hastily bowed and regained posture.

“Twilight Sparkle, what is going on? What news do you have of Patrick?”

“He’s gone! He got on that ‘motorcycle’ and took off, I have no idea where he went! Now tell me, what is going on here? What was that gigantic explosion?”

Celestia filled her in on the situation at hand, and Twilight’s eyes widened.

“Now you all see why I made Patrick suffer so. I regret doing it, I still do. But by doing so, he and his friends share the strongest bond of friendship that Humankind, and Ponykind, have ever known. With the magic of their friendship, the Nightmare can be destroyed! But Patrick is the key, we need him, and after everything I’ve done to him,” Celestia broke eye contact.

“He is not going to help us.”

“Princess, there must be something we can do!” Twilight protested. “We used the elements before, we’ll do it again! Right, girls?”

They all nodded in unison.

“I appreciate the offer,” Celestia replied. “But you all do not stand a chance against the pure evil that is the Nightmare. Not this time. You would be destroyed, and I already have quite enough on my conscience.”

“At least let us try!” Rarity begged. “If Patrick has decided not to assist us, then what do we have to lose? What if we are strong enough?”

“I can assure you all, I have already considered that,” Celestia replied. “But the Elements cannot work where the Nightmare resides, the Nightmare has prevented the use of magic where these bombs are detonated. And as I said, I am not having your deaths on my conscience at this point, because I just acquired tens of thousands of them now. I have prepared a chariot for you all back to Ponyville.”

Celestia echoed the words of a defeated human leader, holding back tears.

“I urge you all to spend your last moments with friends and family. Ponyville and Canterlot will come under attack soon, and we have no defense against the Nightmare. I will protect the Elements of Harmony while we are under siege. Until the last pony is standing.”

“Princess, we cain’t jus’ give up!” Applejack raised defiantly. “There’s got to be something we can do!”

The princess paused, contemplating if she should really recruit the assistance of the Elements, which had betrayed her so dearly.

“As long as Patrick is still alive, there is a chance.”

“A chance for what?” Twilight asked.

“A chance to stop the end of the world as we know it.”

“I do believe we’ve found the solution, then,” Rarity nodded. “We have to find Patrick!”

“I am leaving this up to you then, my little ponies,” Celestia shot a worried glance off towards the horizon. She recounted her conversation with a human that had perished thousands of years ago. A human; whose death she had a hand in causing.

“Find Patrick. Convince him to stop this senseless bloodshed. But most importantly, I’d like you to tell him something.”

“And what would that be?” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow.

Celestia continued to keep her gaze off towards the mushroom cloud looming over what used to be Manehattan.

“Jose says: It’s going to be a good day. Tell him that.”

Nurse Redheart’s clinic was a crowded mess of anguishing patients. Ponyville, being the closest town to Manehattan, was congested with refugees from the destroyed mega-city by the thousands.

Nurse Redheart and Nurse Tenderheart were the only two nurses on staff, which was fine for their small, sparsely populated village of ponyville.

But when injured ponies suffering from all shades of burns, blindness, vomiting, wounds, blunt-force trauma, and “Radiation Sickness,” a new disease that was spread by the fallout of the Nightmare’s attack, was infecting ponies like mad. The disease had even spread to Ponyville through the air, even when Manehattan was miles away.

Unicorn and pegasi survivors alike were forced to hoof the journey from Manehattan to Ponyville. The Nightmare’s attack affected the air pressure, and prevented pegasi from catching air under their wings. An anti-magic residue lingered in the vicinity of the city, and on ponies themselves; preventing unicorns from teleporting away, or healing each other. Many did not make it, and perished of their injuries along the way. It was impossible to control the flow of refugee ponies from coming into the small village, spreading the particles of radioactive anti-magic from pony to pony.

Radiation was peculiar, it was not something Nurse Redheart had ever encountered before. A Royal Envoy had informed her that this “Radiation” was not a biological disease. It was decaying particles of matter, generated by the Nightmare’s bomb, and in the right amounts, fatal to all known living creatures.

“Hold still, dear,” Nurse Redheart wrapped a series of bandages around a badly burned filly, who had subsequently been blinded.

She worked around the clock to tend to the patients lining up outside her clinic; she had been treating patients for the last 16 hours straight. Ponyville had become so overcrowded, that refugees had begun taking up residence on the street until they could figure something else out.

The filly twitched as Nurse Redheart sprayed an antiseptic on his wounds, and then she finished wrapping him.

“I’ve done all I can,” Nurse Redheart sighed, feeling dizzy from exhaustion.

“Thank you,” a blue unicorn mare bowed her head respectfully, leading her blind foal away.

“Next patient, please!” Nurse Redheart yawned.

“This way, Mosely,” a formal-accented earthpony mare, presumably a wife, lead an orange stallion with a green mane to Nurse Redheart’s workstation. He had been blinded and burned across his back, like most ponies she saw.

“Now, what requires attention, here?” Nurse Redheart asked.

“I-“ Mosely Orange said. “I’ve been blinded by that flash of light.”

“I’m very sorry,” Nurse Redheart explained for the hundredth time that day. “But there is not anything I can do about blindness, and the unicorn healers here have been unable to bypass this spell that lingers on the refugees from Manehattan.”

“Please!” Mosely opened his eyes to show her. They had been glazed over, and did not respond to any stimuli.

“There’s got to be something you can do!”

“I’m afraid it surpasses my medical ability. We are awaiting aid from Canterlot, they will be sending highly-trained unicorn doctors and healers to assist us. For now, all I am able to treat is your burns.”

Mosely Orange sighed. “Very well.”

She treated the worst of his burns, dabbing them with disinfectants and wrapping them thoroughly.

A zebra sporting a tribal sun as her cutie mark pushed through the crowded infirmary, tugging a wagon with an assortment of glass jars.

“Nurse, Redheart, I have arrived,” Zecora spat the handle of the wagon out of her mouth. “For how long it took to make this medicine, I apologize.”

“Oh, thank you, Zecora!” Nurse Redheart let out a sigh of relief. She and Nurse Tenderheart, being the only two nurses on staff, had their hooves quite full. It was nice that at least somepony, or zebra, was aiding them.

“Since that evil cloud appeared in the sky,” the zebra stated. “I imagined you would need this medicine in a greater supply.”

Zecora turned towards the door, lifting the hood up on her cloak.

“Zecora, where are you going?” Nurse Redheart inquired. “I mean, what are you going to do, now?”

The Zebra looked around suspiciously, making sure nopony was paying them any mind before speaking.

“I was visited by the human we both know so well,” Zecora whispered. “I have seen him, but nopony should you tell.”

“Patrick?” Nurse Redheart looked over her shoulder. “He’s wanted by the Royal Guard right now. You know where he is?”

“At Celestia’s expense, Patrick has suffered a terrible twist of fate,” Zecora answered. “And because of that, his heart is filled with hate.”

“Please, Zecora,” Nurse Redheart rolled her eyes. “Just please speak to me clearly. What do you mean?”

“I must go, before the Nightmare decides to again rear its ugly head,” Zecora made her way to the door. “But do not speak to anypony about what I just said.”

Nurse Redheart, dumbfounded, watched her leave. What was all that about?

Several hours later, another envoy arrived from Canterlot. And this time, with additional medical staff.

“Oh, thank goodness!” Nurse Redheart shouted. “I thought they’d never send help!”

“Ms Redheart,” the envoy, Lieutenant Black Sword, approached her as the medical staff he teleported with him got to work. “A word?”

“I have many patients to tend to, can this wait until later?”

“It will only be for a moment, and it could greatly help our investigation of this incident. Please, come speak with me in private.”

Nurse Redheart glanced over at the many ponies she still had yet to treat, overflowing the waiting room. Perhaps taking a break for a few minutes would help her get through the night.

“Of course, lead the way.”

Lieutenant Black Sword led her outside, behind the Nurse’s office and out a back door. The last time Nurse Redheart had been in this spot, it was to observe a strange, two-wheeled carriage brought to Equestria by the only human patient she had ever treated.

“Ms. Redheart, I want to be frank,” Black Sword rattled his armor.

“Are you aware that Celestia herself was nearly assassinated by a creature known as a ‘human’?”

“Yes,” Nurse Redheart replied. She had mixed feelings about the entire ordeal. She had gotten to know Patrick very personally after treating his injures for the time he spent in Ponyville. But Celestia was her Princess, and she was loyal to her first over a stranger that was zapped into Equestria two weeks ago.

Although, Patrick was definitely not evil, he would not try to kill somepony for no reason. There had to be another side to the story, and she wasn’t willing to base her judgment off of only one side.

“There are rumors circulating that he was treated at this very facility, by you, after his discovery by the Elements. Is that true?”

“Yes,” she nodded. “Yes, I did. But what does all this have to do with Patrick? I thought the Nightmare was responsible for this attack, and he is being dealt with by the proper authorities?”

“The Nightmare is indeed responsible for the attack. That much is sure. But your friend ‘Patrick’ escaped from the dungeons, and was spotted in town earlier today, after beating up a stallion that tried to claim his bounty, who just so happens to also be my nephew.”

“Rotten apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” Nurse Redheart thought.

“Ah, yes, Grayburn,” Nurse Redheart stifled a laugh. “I remember treating him, he was beaten quite badly, if I do say so myself.”

The lieutenant scowled, clearing his throat.

“He was last seen heading into the Everfree forest. Did you have any interaction with him whatsoever during his visit here?”

“I did not, sir,” the nurse responded. “And are you trying to accuse me of committing treason against the Royal sisters?”

“I did not say that,” Black Sword replied. “All I am saying is that it was reported you became close to him, interacting with him on a day to day basis. Anyone found guilty of harboring this fugitive can expect to be charged with treason, yes.”

“…Good bye, lieutenant,” Nurse Redheart scoffed. “I have many patients to attend to. Perhaps you should focus the Royal Guards’ attention on the catastrophe at hand, rather than an escaped inmate.”

She left the displeased unicorn guard in a huff, returning to give the medical staff that had just arrived their orders.

The entire time she continued to treat the wounded and sick that night, Nurse Redheart couldn’t help but wonder…

In a time of such crisis, why would the Royal Guard be so concerned about finding a single fugitive?

Canterlot was a disarray of scurrying soldiers, senators, and other officials, responding to the Nightmare’s attack on Manehattan. The royal city’s esteemed residents had shut themselves indoors, fearing that they would be next for the Nightmare’s long overdue revenge. Not a soul occupied the streets, minus the rounds of the Royal Guard.

In a tower of Canterlot Castle, a certain alicorn was struggling against a powerful spell confining her to her chambers. She attacked it, crying out in the physical and mental burden of using such magic.

“UGH! CELESTIA!” Luna groaned. “I will get out of here! I’m not the helpless, foalish child you think I am!”

She hurled spells at the magic blocking her from leaving her balcony window.

“Wait a moment,” Luna thought. “Maybe, she just blocked the doors and windows!”

With that, Luna levitated a heavy, wooden bureau into the air, and flung it at the wall. It created a large hole, kicking up dust from the drywall, concrete, and brick. The bureau was reduced to an unrecognizable pile of scrap wood and splinters.

“Ha!” Luna smirked. “I knew it would wor-“

As the dust settled, a wall of magic was visible through the hole in the wall. Celestia had cast the spell on the entire room, not just the doors. Celestia was known for being thorough.

Luna spent hours in front of the wall of magic in the doorway of her balcony, her horn glowing faintly. She studied it, carefully examining its properties. Brash, direct attacks were not going to work on this spell. Celestia severely underestimated her, Luna was more than capable of reversing this spell.

It would just take time, and Celestia knew that. She knew Luna would negate the spell eventually. At most, it would only disable Luna for three days. Luna was not known for patience and restraint, taking the time to examine the spell was something she would only result to out of desperation, and therefore, do a sloppy, hasty job of it.

But Celestia still saw Luna as her baby sister, who needed to be looked after, and did not give Luna enough credit for her abilities. She was not as strong as Celestia by any means, but definitely not one to be trifled with.

Almost twelve hours later, the moon was raised, and it wasn’t Luna who did it this time. That angered Luna even more, that was HER job. How dare Celestia do this all over again, and not even allow her to touch her beloved moon?

This ignited a new drive inside Luna’s spirit, making her look at the confining spell a different way.

Hours had passed that she sat there, so many that she lost count. Until finally, after taking the time to exercise patience and study Celestia’s confining spell, Luna made one last attempt with her own magic.

With a powerful blast of light, Luna shot a bolt of her own magic at the barrier separating her from the outside world. It shattered into a million pieces, dissipating instantly.

Luna smiled, standing to her hooves and stretching her wings. There was no reason to stick around, the moment it was discovered she was free, Celestia would be right behind her.

She took flight off the balcony with speed even Rainbow Dash gape at. To the south were the lights of Ponyville. To the west, were the embers of distant fires still raging in the burning city of Manehattan.

The night’s cool, refreshing air was replaced with a clunky, gaseous haze from the destroyed pony mega-city. She avoided flying too close, but she needed to see for herself what happened. Luna’s heart shrank after sensing the large amount of death in the air. Many, many ponies had died. The city lay in ruins. Luna could not help but feel partly responsible.

She told Patrick where the Artifact Room was, she helped Twilight’s friends to free Patrick, all out of guilt for what had been done to him. She was starting to wish she had just stuck with the plan, and did what Celestia said. None of this would have happened, everything would have just gone back to how it was supposed to be.

But she didn’t. And she had to suffer the consequences, and deal with the untold amount of lives lost on her conscience. Still, there had to be something she could do.

From the air, she could see dozens of refugees crowding the streets. It was cramped, noisy, and unsanitary. It tugged at her heart to see her subjects suffering so, but she was going to fix everything. Somehow. And without Celestia’s help. She couldn’t just land in the middle of town, it may startle the already-distressed ponies for her to suddenly appear uninvited. Plus, the last thing she wanted was for Celestia to hear word that she was in Ponyville.

Luna scanned the town below her, until finally seeing a familiar face. It was one of Celestia’s closest advisors, Lieutenant Black Sword. He appeared to be hiding behind the Ponyville Nurse’s station, speaking to the Nurse about something.

From her altitude, their conversation was inaudible. The Nurse shook her head, saying something with a discontented expression, and going back inside, leaving Black Sword by himself. Perfect.

Luna gracefully landed behind the Nurses’s office, startling Lieutenant Black Sword into a bow.

“Oh, your highness!” Black Sword stuttered. “I was not aware you were here.”

“At ease,” she spoke softly. Black sword rose from his hooves.

“Yes, well then,” Black Sword said. “How may I serve you, princess?”

“I am looking for the human that escaped from the dungeons, the same that attempted to assassinate my sister. Has there been any news of his capture?”

“Negative, your highness,” Black Sword frowned. “He disappeared without a trace from the Castle. All that is known is that he was spotted in Ponyville earlier today, which is why I am here conducting the investigation. He was last seen heading into the Everfree forest, but I am not sending my stallions into such a dangerous place to comb every nook and cranny of any sign of it, until we have a decent direction of his heading.”

“I understand,” Luna nodded. “I appreciate your hard work on the investigation, but I will be taking over from here.”

“Uh, taking over, princess?”

“Yes, taking over,” Luna said. “I will enter the Everfree Forest and attempt to locate him myself.”

“The forest?” Black Sword asked, a puzzled expression on his face. “By yourself, when the Nightmare is at large?”

“I am more than capable of looking after myself, lieutenant,” Luna said belittlingly. “But thank you for the concern.”

“As you wish, your highness,” Broad Sword replied. “But what are my orders, then?”

“Your orders?” Luna thought for a moment.

“… I hereby order you to remain in Ponyville and keep order, assisting the refugees and medical staff as you see fit, until further notice.”

“But, your highness-“

“I have given you your orders, and now I must be on my way,” Luna answered, beating her wings.

“And one more thing: Do not breathe a word of my appearance here to Celestia. That is a direct order.”

She rose into the air, leaving a bewildered guard-pony behind.

The Everfree Forest’s winding, dirt paths served as guides for centuries to wandering travelers; pony, griffon, and dragon alike; that braved the monster-infested forest. Who made them, nopony could say, but they stretched for hundreds of miles, that much was known.

A black motorcycle chugged along these paths, steering around tree roots, being pushed by its rider through mud, and walked through tall grass too difficult to traverse normally.

The Honda CBR is a popular, high-performance sport-bike, but was definitely not designed for off road use. Its rider pulled to a stop in a clearing surrounded by endless rows of pines.

The rider lit a cigarette, holding the burning cancer-stick in two fingers, while his eyes watched anxiously for predators when noticing a trail of large tracks in the Earth.

Patrick sat on his motorcycle, his helmet removed and neatly hung on one of his mirrors. The rough terrain had caused his already cracked windshield to split in two, and rattled around obnoxiously with each imperfection in the road. He kept the key in the ignition, ready to take off at the first sign of trouble.

He inhaled a bust of burning tobacco, exhaling it through his nostrils and mouth.

It had only been a day since Patrick had escaped to Ponyville and recovered his motorcycle. Walking around town while he was injured instead of riding, and using his gas sparingly, was definitely a smart move.

But he severely miscalculated his miles per gallon. When confronted with off-road stop-and-go travel, it was like stopping at a red light every ten feet. The fuel gauge dangled between “E” and the quarter tank mark. At this rate, he’d be out of gas by the end of the day. Still, after all the abuse this motorcycle and its 1000cc engine suffered, it was a miracle it had gotten him this far.

The digital odometer indicated he had traveled about fifty miles, but it wasn’t clear how far from Ponyville he was, or where he was in general. Patrick had been riding in circles, everything looked the same, and it had confused and disoriented the rider into just following the sun. As if being a wanted fugitive wasn’t bad enough, now he was fleeing radiation.

He had spent the night sleeping in a ditch, covering his motorcycle and himself with leaves to conceal himself from the common manticore or a passing Pegasus royal guard.

He finished his cigarette and tossed it to the ground, stomping it out under the heel of his shoe.

Unarmed. Lost. Wanted. Alone. All these words circulated through his thoughts.

“At least I’ve still got my baby,” Patrick patted the gas tank between affectionately. “You’ll never love me back, but at least I know you won’t ever betray me.”

The only thing that ever stuck by Patrick his entire life were his bikes, except the one confiscated by the Georgia State Patrol, but that was understandable. He grew emotionally attached to them, and took no shame in considering an inanimate object his best friend. If this biker didn’t have a bike, he wasn’t happy.

Patrick looked back on the past seventeen days. The crash, the party thrown in his honor, the fight with Grayburn, the spiritual journey he took with Rainbow Dash and Zecora, the death of his race, going to Canterlot, finding out the meaning of his life, a Nuclear weapon being detonated within miles of him, and now….

The end of the world. And there was nothing he was going to do stop it, as far as Equestria was concerned.

“I failed, Jose,” Patrick sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’m letting my entire race down. I’m sorry I let this entire race of horses down, too. I just can’t do it, it’s all just too much.”

He hung his head in shame, reflecting on the guilt that he felt, and then thought of his next move.

Just keep going until the gas tank runs out, and then starve or get eaten by a monster.

“I honestly thought I was either going to be shot to death by towel-heads, lung cancer, or plowing into the back of a semi-truck at 160 miles per hour,” Patrick shrugged.

What a way to go.

Something began stirring in the brush surrounding the clearing. And it was big. Very, very big.

Patrick glanced around nervously, snapping to attention. Something was hunting him.

A towering beast with four long, snake-like necks and a large, orange dragon-like body, revealed itself, each of its heads hissing or growling.

Patrick shrank bank, frantically grabbing his handlebars and pressing the ignition.

The powerful engine roared to life as he bumped it into first gear, not even bothering to put on his helmet on. He moved out of the way just in time before one of the hydra’s gaping maws was able to chomp down on him. Riding into a monster-infested forest completely unarmed was now starting to seem like a bad idea.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” Patrick muttered under his breath, racing down the path as fast as the dirt road would allow his street tires. He may have given up on life, but the thought of being eaten alive was still frightening.

He rounded a corner, the hydra close behind and snapping at him any time it came close enough. Patrick watched his mirrors, dodging out of the way each time a pair of jaws tried to nab him.

Finally, a straightaway! It was still dirt, but relatively smooth with very few obstacles. Patrick smiled; time to ride like his bike was intended for.

Patrick twisted the throttle aggressively. The exhaust let out a roar louder than Equestria had ever heard before, lurching forward with such force that Patrick was pushed backwards. He accelerated to eighty miles per hour, then ninety, then triple digits.

He left the hydra in his dust, but struggled to maintain control on the dirt path he was careening down. Patrick took a glance behind him, and saw that he was still being chased, but he had made a considerable amount of space between him and his pursuer.

Patrick turned back around, and his eyes widened. A rock sticking up out of the ground was directly in his path of travel. Steering around it would cause him to wipe out with this traction. He quickly glimpsed at his speedometer.

141 MPH

Now would be a good time to be wearing a helmet.

The front wheel collided with the rock, lifting his bike off the ground for a brief moment. Patrick stood up on the pegs while airborne to steady the bike, shifting his weight backwards.

The rear wheel was the first to make contact with the ground, then the front. His handlebars shook side to side violently, rocking him back and forth and knocking his helmet off the mirror it was perched on, disappearing behind him.

Patrick instinctively brought his right fingers forward, randy to clamp down on the front brake.

“NO!” Something in his head screamed. “RIDE IT OUT! RIDE IT OUT! RIDE IT OUT!”

Patrick fought his instinctive reactions and refrained from engaging either brake, closing the throttle. Gradually, as his speed decreased, so did the wobbling of his handle bars, and Patrick regained control.

The hydra still pursued him, running quite quickly for such a large, heavy creature. It ripped trees out of the ground, punching a hole in the tree line and plowing right through everything. Another break in the tree line was approaching, abruptly slowing Patrick to a halt.

A giant chasm shrouded in mist, the other side just barely visible, lay before him and stopped his advance. On top of a hill, Patrick could see the silhouette of a large, medieval castle. The only way across was a long, rickety old bridge. The wooden boards that served as the floor creaked as it gently swayed back and forth.

Behind him, the Hydra was only getting closer.

“This is a terrible idea.” Patrick angled his bike towards the beginning of the decrepit bridge, and slowly rolled onto it, the wood cracking under the pressure of his 500 pound speed machine and Patrick’s added weight.

He briskly moved along, when the bridge began to stretch, lowering very abruptly. The ropes that held the boards together couldn’t handle the pressure, and were starting to undo themselves.

“FUCK!” Patrick opened the throttle, but it only made things worse. The bridge was going to snap. He was going to plummet to his death into the mist below…

Unless, he abandoned his loyal Honda CBR1000, his only true friend in this dark world.

He could make it before the bridge snapped if he jumped off the motorcycle now. But then that would mean… No more motorcycle.

Patrick got this far. As much as it hurt, instinct wasn’t really going to let him die over a machine, no matter how much it meant to him.

The human stood on the gas tank and leapt from the moving motorcycle, desperately flinging himself through mid-air. The ropes snapped, and split the bridge in two. Patrick had just managed to grab the other side of the bridge, and used the boards as a ladder to pull himself up to the ledge.

He watched his motorcycle plummet, until the white mist filling the gorge swallowed it whole. Several seconds later, the most disgusting, heartbreaking sound Patrick would ever have the misfortune of hearing graced his ears.

BOOOM!!!

His baby, his most treasured possession, his motorcycle, his Honda CBR, impacted the bottom of the canyon. It exploded into a ball of fire, totaled, destroyed, and lost forever.

Patrick dropped to his knees, staring at the embers still burning at the bottom of the canyon visible through the mist. His heart went numb, no thought other than complete and utter loss going through his mind.

He was so focused on the bottom of the canyon, he didn’t even care to look up at the hydra he was fleeing from, growling at him in defeat from the other side of the canyon before turning around and leaving.

“No...” Patrick felt his eyes welling up, and let the tears fall freely. He could handle keeping his eyes dry after getting thrown into the future, after finding out his entire race was dead, that his entire life was a lie, getting his gun taken from him, being beaten by authorities, and becoming a wanted fugitive.

But not the loss of his beloved motorcycle. That crossed the line. After everything that happened, he still had the will to go on somehow. To still fight, to still run, as long as he had his bike by his side.

But that was a luxury Patrick could no longer have.

Hours passed, and he simply remained there, staring in disbelief at the small flame still burning at the bottom of the chasm.

“Not cool,” Patrick sniffed, wiping his eyes and nose on his sleeve.

Patrick continued to kneel there until the flame went out, murmuring incoherently to himself.

“My bike… My fucking bike, man…”

“I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up.”

“I don’t know how much longer he can keep this up.”

“He’s going to crack, soon.”

“He’s already cracked. I don’t blame him, but nothing’s getting through to him, not even us. Humanity is done, and now this race is done. We tried, but thousands of years dicking around in the afterlife failed.”

“What a surprise.”

“He’s alive, but he lost the bike. It’s going to be a miracle if we can keep him from committing suicide.”

“Everyone’s going to be so disappointed. I’m kind of nervous of what’s going to happen to him once he gets here.”

“Shut up, Spencer. And you guys need to have a little bit of faith, this is Patrick we’re talking about. He’d take a bullet for any of you, and you know that.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. We’ve still got a job to do. I can’t reach him unless his life is in danger, or if he allows me into his mind, but I’m waiting for that opportunity. I just don’t know when the next one will be.”

“What’s it like in there?”

“It’s a scary place to be right now. He’s caught up in emotions of revenge, rage, sadness, and heartbreak. He’s hurting a lot, I’m trying to help him through this the best I can without telling him anything.”

“Hey, Jose?”

“Yeah?”

“If Patrick does end up helping them, and the timeline’s fixed- what’s the first thing you’re going to do when we get back?”

“Pick up where I left off, I suppose.”

“That’s it?”

“-Oh, and I’m getting a motorcycle. Patrick’s made it look way too fun for me not to own one this go-around.”

“You’re going to kill yourself.”

“Probably, but at least I know what lies after death.”

Twilight and her friends had been in the Everfree forest since the early morning. Reluctantly entrusted with the task of finding the only being in the universe that could save them from the apocalyptic threat of the Nightmare, even Pinkie Pie had taken on a more serious attitude.

“We went to Zecora’s a few days ago,” Rainbow Dash explained. “I’ll bet you anything that’s the first place he went.”

She led the way to Zecora’s hut, and arrived just as the Zebra was tying a tarp over an overpacked wagon.

“Zecora!” Twilight shouted.

The zebra looked up from her current task, turning around to acknowledge the ponies.

“Zecora, are you going somewhere?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I am indeed, Rainbow Dash,” Zecora said. “I am headed back to my native land of Zebrica, before this land is turned to ash.”

“Wait, really?” Pinkie Pie chirped. “You’re walking alllll the way back to Zebrica?”

Zecora nodded.

“I wish you all the best,” Zecora said. “But it is time to begin my quest.”

“Wait!” Twilight cried. “Just one thing!”

Zecora raised her eyebrows, as if to say “Go on.”

“We’re looking for Patrick. Have you… Well… Seen him?”

“Equestria is dependin’ on him,” Applejack said. “But this here forest is huge, we can’t find any trace of ‘im!”

Zecora stared at them with a blank expression for a few moments, and then pointed to the ground.

A subtle imprint a few inches wide, with imprints of swirling lines of treads, lead away from Zecora’s hut, and disappeared into the forest.

“If you look closely, you will see,” Zecora hooked herself up to her wagon and began to head down a separate path. “The way to find Patrick is quite easy.”

“His tracks!” Twilight gasped. “Why didn’t I think of it before?”

“Thanks, Zecora!” she called after the determined Zebra towing all of her personal belongings to her native, faraway land.

The rest of the day was a confusing game of trial and error. In some places, the tracks disappeared, or it was made apparent that Patrick had been riding in circles from not knowing the forest too well. He had pushed his motorcycle through a patch of tall grass, cutting off the trail.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy took to the sky, keeping their eyes peeled for any signs of Patrick’s trail while the unicorns and earth ponies continued their search from below.

Clouds had gathered overhead, and a gentle downpour began to pat down rain on the ponies.

"Ugh, stupid uncontrolled weather!" Rainbow Dash grumbled. "It's going to wash away his tracks before too long!"

But suddenly, Rainbow Dash picked out an unmistakable line in an intersecting trail ahead.

“I think I found something!” Rainbow Dash called from up in the sky. “Yep, it’s tire tracks! He was here!”

She landed next to the rest of the girls, showing them on hoof where she was pointing to. They entered a clearing, and it was clear that Patrick had been there. His footprints were still in the dirt path, a burned out cigarette short stomped flat just next to it. But there were other signs of activity. Including enormous tracks that dug into the path, following a straight line away from the clearing and towards the ruins of the old castle.

“Fluttershy, what are these tracks?” Twilight asked.

The yellow pegasus stepped closer to them to examine them, and looked back to Twilight.

“It was a hydra!” she yelped. “The way they’re dug into the ground, I’d say it was chasing him!"

The girls gasped simultaneously, staring off towards where the tracks led. Twilight broke into a run, leading her friends along the path Patrick’s tire track and the pursuing hydra’s tracks were embedded into.

She ran out of breath, and stopped in the middle of the path, the rest of the girls stampeding to a stop. She panted, wheezing in and out consistently.

“Maybe if y’all didn't spend so much time with yer’ head in a book, ya' could run faster,” Applejack jeered.

“Hey, look what I found!” Pinkie Pie jumped up and down towards the rest of her friends. A black helmet, visor down, was on her head, covering her whole face.

“Hey look at me, I’m a space pony!”

“Pinkie!” Twilight cried. “That’s his helmet! Quick, give that here!”

“Okey-dokey-lokey!” Pinkie nonchalantly removed the helmet and hoofed it to Twilight.

“This couldn’t have happened long ago,” Rarity stated. “Why would he leave this behind?”

Rarity may have blocked Patrick from locator spells, and more successfully than she believed Rarity was capable of without help, she had to admit. But the inside of his helmet was still moist with sweat. That would give her a very strong link to Patrick, if he was nearby.

Twilight’s horn glowed for a moment, levitating the helmet in the air.

“What’s she doin’?” Applejack shrugged.

“She’s trying a locator spell,” Fluttershy whispered.

“Got it!” Twilight smiled. “He’s not far. Come on, this way!”