Chapters After the Great Equestrian Chemdrop, the Mane Six went into hiding, away from all but each other. They were thought to be living simple lives, away from all harm after the nightmares they endured in the Unholy War. But they returned to a devastating reality: Gone was the Equestrian heartland. Gone was the Equestrian Empire. Here, was the wasteland. An unholy place ravaged by death. No spirits dare enter the wastes, and none ever leave. But with courage beyond the deceased, beyond the immortals, there roams the Tribe. No longer are they the Elements of Harmony; those died with Celestia. They are merely survivors in this world...
"Personally? Personally, I think we're going to die here. We failed Celestia, we failed Luna, we failed ALL of Equestria... Nopony still alive knows were here, and anypony left has probably become a citizen of the Gryphon Empire." Rainbow yelled, crossing her hooves. She flew a couple feet over the others.
"All of Equestria was pretty much injected with chemicals, 90% of ALL of our races died, and we're probably the only ones left in what once was Equestria. And I don't see much opportuunity to survive here, so... I hate to say it, but she has a point." Rarity piped up..
"Well, there IS still Luna, anypony know where she is?" Fluttershy asked. "Probably on the moon...." Rainbow retorted with a strong attitude.
"Okay, realistically: The Gryphon Empire! We get contact with them, and with all of us together, we can start anew. Not even here, there are other islands we can colonize!" said Twilight, trying to be optimistic. She was answered with a cold dish of silence.
"Hey, I see somepony!" Pinkie blurted out. "I dont think thats somepony... get your weapons out just in case, guys." Twilight said, and they approached the figure.
"Excuse me, may we ask who you are?" The purple alicorn asked, tapping It's shoulder. The figure turned around, and what they saw was something that stuck with you, haunted your every waking thought.
No eyes. No teeth. No gums. No skin. No horn, but a hole through the skull. But it was... alive.
"No, I was just... going to the store. It's okay, I can... move for you." It spoke. The voice was almost synthetic, spirit-like. And she moved, far away and disappeared into the storming clouds of dust in the distance.
"Okay, what the buck just happened? I mean...." Rainbow asked, scratching her head.
"I... Don't right know. Any idea what in tarnation that was?" Applejack said, her accent strong.
"One of the victims of a chem drop, called Subjects. Any survivors of the chem drop were picked up by changeling groups, and taken to be subjected to cruel, torturous experiments. When they finally succumbed to wounds, physical or otherwise, they just took them out into the wasteland and left them to die, as they saw them as no use." She explained softly, tears pooling up in her eyes. "If I'm correct, we should be coming up on a survivor's town. Let's keep the pace up."
"Yeah, I would kill for some grub right about now!" Rainbow said, soaring ahead of the group and dashing straight into the distance.
"Food, it's always a great motivator." Twilight sighed, shaking her head. "Well, let's not keep her waiting too long."
Rainbow fell to her knees and she looked around in shock and terror. The earth was black and dead. The soil was reduced to mere ash, the air itself was hot and filled with death. The camp was replaced with a small little patch of hell. She could hear the hoofbeat of her friends coming up behind her.
"What... happened?" Twilight asked softly.
"Oh Celestia..." Applejack muttered, taking off her tattered cowpony hat.
"What could even do this?" Applejack asked, taking a small, gentle step into the dark, charred earth. The dirt merely dissipated into ash at contact, no life left in it.
"Girls, stand closer to me and ready yourselves. We'll find out what happened here." She said, levitating a book in front of her. Pinkie looked at the page she was on, but it looked like nothing more than scribbles and foreign symbols to her. "Are we ready?" She asked. The group nodded. "Then let's get to the bottom of this." She said, taking a deep breath and steeling herself.
"Rahkata-Gro Machta... Zalhaya Morden Al-Heksire" She chanted in a long forgotten language, and a sphere of vibrant purple energy formed on the tip of her horn. it slowly grew until it enveloped the group in a vision of the past, in slightly older, faded colors...
The inhabitants of the camp were staring with vivid fear and terror at an large beast on the crest of the hill in the distance. The entire hill was ablaze, and dark clouds loomed over the the figure. Nopony dared move, nor breath within sight of the beast. They all stood in the tension, the air thick with sulfur wofting into the camp. The figure then began making it's way to the camp. Every step cracked and shattered the earth, leaving behind a pool of molten fire in it's hoofprint. The inhabitants of the camp still remained motionless as It approached. The being reared up on it's hind legs and roared a roar of fire and brimstone, and clouds of ash formed over the town. thunder rumbled, fire itself rained from the sky. There was no time to react, nearly all the survivors were vaporized instantly. The earth was charred and dead within a minute, and the beast strode into the firestorm that had ensured. It was a beast of fire and flesh, it was Death itself. Then, abruptly, the world began to shrink, and Twilight's magic faded back into her horn, and she let out a massive sigh.
"That was more hell than we've been through in the past number of years in just five minutes." Rarity said, standing on numb and shaking legs. "Can we never do that again?"
"Yeah, I don't think I'll be using that spell very often..." Twilight said. "Let's see about settling down somewhere down toe road, there's still some daylight left to burn." She said, and the group said their prayers and left the decimated campsite.
It was dark, cold, and cramped. The dirty, dusty early morning light peeked through the cracks and warps in the boards from which the shack was built from. Fluttershy had spotted it while she was in the air looking for anywhere to settle down for the night. Unanimously, it was better than nothing... but not by much. There was only one bed, and it was occupied by Twilight. All the others rolled out their sleeping bags and crashed right then, right there. Pinkie was awake but still had her eyes close, enjoying the refuge that the shack provided from the harsh weather of the Plains. She heard the rustling of one of her friends shifting and turning, and opened one eye to take a peek. Applejack had sat up and was stretching her legs and neck.
"Sleep well?" Pinkie asked her quietly.
"Like a farm dog after a long days' work. You?"
"Not great, but not bad. The usual. You wanna go outside, I'm sick of the dead air in here..."
"And the air outside is better?"
"Better than this, yes." She insisted, quietly slipping out of her sleeping bag and walking to the door. Applejack sighed and reluctantly followed her friend outside.
The air outside was, in fact, better than the air inside the makeshift shed they had taken shelter in. Pinkie stretched her legs and yawned, looking around at the surroundings. Something caught her eye, and she poked Applejack repeatedly on her shoulder.
"What are ya pokin me for!?" She said, confused and annoyed. Pinkie silenty pointed off into the distance. Applejack had to look hard to see it, but there was some figure moving around not too far away from them. She couldnt make out what it was, though.
"Let's go check it out!" Pinkie said excitedly and began hopping to the being. Applejack thought quickly and grabbed her by her tail.
"Shouldn't we get our gear first? Just in case something goes wrong?" She asked, nodding her head back to the shack.
"Yeah, actually, that's a good idea." She said, and they both snuck back into the shack.
When they came out, they were both donning the prototype shoulder-mounted crossbows they were given years ago. They both looked off into the distance, and the figure was still there, but it was closer. Pinkie took lead and approached the being. It was skinless, every inch meticulously peeled away from the dirty, dead flesh. Flies buzzed around, but it didn't seem to notice the flies or the ponies that had approached it.
"What... IS it?" Applejack asked, a mix of horror and disgust in her voice.
"I think this is a Nekrobe, one of the beings that was caught in the Chemdrops... should we put it out of it's misery?" Pinkie asked unsure of the proper course of action. Applejack thought and, without saying a word, loaded a bolt into her weapon, took aim, and fired the projectile directly through the beast's skull. On impact, the bolt tore through the decaying flesh and penetrated the soft skull, the force sending the Nekrobe tumbling over.
"Is it dead?" Pinkie asked with a frown.
"Deader than it was before, I can assure you of that. Let's get back to the shack, the others might be up by now." She said, turning Pinkie's head away from the body in an attempt to protect what's left of her young personality.
"Alright... We need to ask Fluttershy about them, maybe we could learn some useful information." Pinkie told Applejack. She smiled and nodded in agreement.