Coming out of it...

The town of Evergreen was almost completely empty, devoid of life, abandoned. The only sign that anything still live there was the building sitting on the river by the bridge, though it was dead silent the lights still were on thanks to the generator that chugged on in the back of the building. The saloon had once been a place of merriment and good times but now it stood as the last bastion of life in the small Colorado town, its walls now adorned with trinkets and pictures of those that were lost and those who had been found and then there were those who had been cured. Each of those photos was accompanied by a single shell casing, their once life filled features now pale and their eyes glossed over.

The figure that sat at the bar alone stared at the now empty space that his friends and family had enjoyed in his youth. The darkened atmosphere made it difficult to see his face, piercing green eyes stared down into the mug of beer that sat in front of him. His mane of black hair that had once been high and tight was now covered by an old american M1 Steelpot Helmet that he wore atop his head. The young man wore a long leather jacket, An olive green T-shirt. Knee and Shin guards were strapped on his legs over his Dark Denim pants, that gave way to Large, black leather boots.

On his hands he wore thick leather gloves, his arms were covered with crude leather gauntlets he’d crafted from motorcycle saddlebags. His face was hidden by a black bandana worn like the desperados in old western movies. Across his chest were to Bandoliers stocked fully with ammunition. He wore an old backpack he had found in his old high school, whoever it had belonged to he thanked because they had unknowingly given him a place to store more ammunition and food. And finally, stitched to the sleeve of his jacket, was one large purple six pointed star and five smaller white ones. The only thing that reminded him of how innocent the world had once been.

He sighed after taking another sip of his beer, then chuckled to himself. How odd it was that just two years ago he was sitting with his mom discussing him getting his permit, she had been so proud that day. That memory brought a tear to his eye which he wiped quickly as if he was in front of someone and didn’t want them to see it, then he pulled out his wallet. Old and made of duct tape it had served him since he had been in first grade, he opened it and looked down at the permit that he had longed for since he had turned ten that was now nothing but a relic of the passed.

“Dominic Occisor.” He read his name aloud like it was nothing but a memory, he sighed before reading the information to himself. Always wanting to remember that despite everything that had happened he was still human, he was still the Same Dominic Occisor that had loved his dog. The same boy that had taught his sister how to ride a bike. But with these happy memories also came bitter ones that had haunted him since the fateful day that Evergreen began to fall, when his sister had been bitten and died only to come back as some horribly deformed monster. How his mother, the nurse that she was, tried to help the sick. How his family was wrenched asunder in only hours of the infected first arrival.

Dominic looked at his weapons for a moment, A Benelli Twelve Gauge from a sheriff's officer car, a revolver that had exchangeable cylinders so it could fire 9mm, .357, or .38 rounds. That was his personal favorite, a gift from his father. It was black with the words ‘Overkill Is Underrated’ Engraved in the barrel, the grip was textured and comfortable. The shotgun was was Gunmetal Grey with a wooden stock.

Dominic sighed as he looked about the room, eyeing his revolver for a moment. before shaking his head. Not today... he thought to himself before he walked over to the door and peered out the door. There they stood, unmoving, snapping their jaws as if trying to speak. Dominic grabbed his weapons and prepared to enter hell once more. He needed to get more food, the only place not touched by looters was the Little Bear tavern down the street. Ironic the business rival of his favorite saloon was also his salvation. In between him and his food, stood at least one hundred infected. He sighed and then went back into the darkness of the saloon for only a moment before returning with some fire crackers and his zippo lighter, he lit the fire crackers and toseed them as hard as he could in managing to get them to land in the street.

The loud noise caused all the infected to turn towards the spot where the firecrackers had exploded, they howled and hissed in anticipation for the meal they were sure to recieve and then charged at immense speeds towards the site. Meanwhile Dominic took off towards his destination at immense speeds of his own, he had taped a large kitchen knife to his shotgun and was using it to slash any of the ugly monsters that got in his way. He didn’t call these creatures Zombies, they were still alive and could be killed thusly. A knife to the chest was as lethal as any bullet to the head. As he ran he tried to dodge as many of the creatures as possible, occasionally having one of the creatures reach out after him but ultimately they were to busy going after the source of the noise that had woken them from their slumber.

Finally he made it to the location of the Little Bear and kicked the door in, To his surprise the infected in the building were still there. one of them turned and pointed a grotesque finger at Dominic before shrieking out its desire to devour him. Dominic readied his shotgun and took aim at the creature's chest before pulling the trigger and sending a round of birdshot into its chest. The monster’s compatriots started charging at Dominic with blind fury.

“Come on!” Dominic shouted angrily before he looked at the infected, one leaped from a counter and was about to pounce when time seemed to slow down. Dominic raised his shotgun and the creature impaled itself on the blade before he pulled the trigger and blasted it off, as what felt like seconds ticked by Dominic had lined a another shot at one of infected. He pulled the trigger sending it flying through the air and into several of its companions, Dominic let out a battle cry before unleashing the beast that dwelled within him. Fed by the rage that had built up over the past to years he was as fast as lightning slicing and shooting his way through the Infected until all of them lay on the ground. He looked outside and saw that none of the others had heard the noise surprisingly.

Dominic breathed a sigh of relief before walking to the kitchen, he hadn’t been in this place for over a week. That explained the infected getting in, he couldn’t be too careful now. As he stepped over the twitching corpses he made sure to look at their faces, some of them he would soon add to the ‘cured’ section of his bulletin board and he made sure to pick up the shell casings. After doing so he began to look at all the canned ingredients and food left in the old saloon before filling the empty part of the backpack. when he had finished he reloaded his weapons and prepared  to exit the saloon but a rustling noise caught his attention.

Carefully he approached the sources of the noise, his shotgun at the ready. The noise came again from a large refrigerator in the kitchen, slowly he got closer  and stowed his shotgun only to draw his revolver. With his free hand he grasped the handle of the fridge and quickly he yanked it before leaping back.

A massive shock wave blasted Dominic off his feet, he flew through the air and slammed into a wall before the shockwave reversed and pulled Dominic towards a bright glowing light inside the fridge. It was so bright he was forced to cover his eyes with his hands only to see it get brighter. He felt it reaching out for him, he could feel tendrils of energy grabbing him. His vision became white as he felt his body pulled into what felt like viscous warm energy, his hairs stood on end.

Dominic tried to scream, he prayed to whatever deity would listen, he tried to beg but still he was pulled closer as the sound of him shouting in protest was deafened by some unseen force. Soon the edges of his vision began to turn dark, it was going to be the end for sure. What an anticlimactic way to go, no last stand, no final battle, just a strange anomaly. Soon his vision got darker until finally he was unconscious.

{♠}

Twilight Sparkle was still getting used to living in Canterlot again, being a princess was far from what she thought it would be. Ponies with magic problems came to her for help, which she was happy to lend, and occasionally ponies with questions would ask for her advice. In layman's terms she was BUSY. To pass the time when she wasn’t signing off on papers, giving advice or studying, she often looked through the Starswirl The Bearded wing of the archives. That evening was no exception, her eyes read over the ancient equestrian scripts with large interest.

“Hmmm.” She would occasionally hum when she read something especially interesting, her eyes widened as she set her eyes on on spell in particular. “Transdimensional Teleportation, A spell to use when one requires something otherworldly to study.” She read aloud before looking over the spells parameters, to her it would be foals play. She was a smart alicorn, she realised that casting a spell like this inside the most important archive was dangerous and so she memorised the spell in her head before walking off to her room. Not even noticing the words ‘...Once brought through the object can never return to its Dimension for if it did the universe could rip itself apart..’ that occupied the bottom of the page.

As she walked through the palace her mind shifted to how exciting it would be to study some other worldly artifact. Perhaps it would be a piece of literature she could translate, perhaps it would be a statue of an otherworldly creature. Oh how proud Celestia would be! Twilight made her way to her room with a massive smile on her face, she couldn’t wait to see what wonders other dimensions held. She nodded to her guards and entered the room before closing the door and bolting it shut.

“Okay, lets see how did it go again? Oh yes!” Twilight’s horn ignited brightly, the room instantly bathed in bright purple light. “From a world not our own, whether it be flesh or stone, bring to me what I request, So I may see the universes guest.” Her horn exploded in a massive blast of magic, she flew into a wall and groaned before getting to her hooves. In front of her was a milky white portal, it pulsed and hummed loudly. Its surface shimmered before it began to part, Twilight gasped as a strange creature  began to emerge from the portal and immediately ran to the door. The second she unbolted it a dozen guards rushed in to help her with whatever may be the problem.

“Princess! What is that thing!” One of her guards asked gesturing to the unconscious creature.

“I don’t know, Princess Celestia needs to know about this though. She’ll know what to do!” Twilight replied, the guard saluted and rushed out of the room. Twilight took several tentative steps towards the creature and poked it with her hoof, it didn’t move in response only laying there on her floor as if it were dead. For a moment she thought it was until she saw its chest rising and falling in a steady pace. Whatever this thing was, it was in for a surprise when it woke up.

{♠}

Dominic moaned in discomfort as his senses began to come back to him, he instinctively tried to move his arms to rub his eyes only to find them bound. One word ran through his mind at that moment. ‘Raiders’ He angrily thought, his thoughts went back to what had happened. Was that a dream, had he been drugged?

“It’s waking up!” A feminine voice called from his right, his eyes slowly opened only to be assaulted by bright light. He snapped his eyes shut and waited a moment before trying again, again he tried and his eyes stayed open this time. “Oh Celestia this is so exciting!” Dominic didn’t know what to make of that statement, perhaps this raider was a member of the fandom before the outbreak. Dominic took a second to look at himself at this point, he was dressed in his regular clothes save for his jacket and helmet.

“Should we tell the Princesses?” A more masculine voice interjected, Dominic could swear that they were entirely serious. These Raiders’ leader must refer to themselves as ‘Princesses’, he was annoyed by this. “I mean this is the strangest thing in Equestria I’ve ever seen.” At this point to Dominic the joke was over and it was no longer funny. (Not that being tied to a bed is funny either but I digress)

“No it hasn’t, Princess Luna and Celestia will want to hear about this. Would you mind getting them Azure Gear?” The first feminine voice asked.

“Yes ma’am!” Another voice replied before what sounded like a pair of footsteps left whatever room he was in.

“Okay lets see if its eyes are responsive.” The Masculine voice said, Dominic felt something round press down on his chest before a bright light was shone into his eyes causing him to wince.

“GAH! KNOCK IT OFF!” Dominic shouted angrily, the light immediately died and whatever had been on Dominic’s chest disappeared just as quickly.

“It...IT SPOKE!” Said the female voice, Dominic growled angrily.

“Of course I spoke!” Dominic turned his head to look at the speaker and for the second time in his life he had nothing to say. Rather than seeing a human raider, he saw a small white horse with a soft pink mane and a little hat atop its head. On its rear was a red cross with four hearts surrounding it, its eyes were massive and its snout was shorter than a normal horse. What made the situation even more unbelievable was the fact that he KNEW who this pony was. It had been years since he’d seen her but there was no doubt in his mind. Finally his mind found the right words. “What the fuck. This is some sort of dream right?”

{♠}

Celestia was pacing back and forth, what was she to do with this creature. She could destroy it and cast a memory spell on all who had seen it, but that wouldn’t be right. It wasn’t his fault that he was brought here, she couldn’t destroy an innocent being. She could keep it prisoner, that would only prompt it to be angry with her and what if its other beings wanted him back. She could unveil him to the world, but that would lead to dozens of political problems. Why had Twilight gone and cast that spell?

All of these things went though Celestia’s head but at the center of it all was the what the being had with him, his jacket had a patch sewn into it. It was the same shape of Twilight’s cutie mark, how it knew that she did not know but it made her shudder to think what it could possibly mean to its culture. The strange metal objects seemed to be weapons of some sort, was he a soldier? Was it part of his culture to carry such weapons? Why was his clothing covered in blood? Even more shocking thoughts echoed through her head to the point she could barely think straight, her stupor was shaken from her when the sound of soft knocking on her door drew her attention.

“Enter.” Celestia said, her motherly tone all but completely subdued. The door slowly opened and a guard poked his head in. “Yes?”

“It’s awake your highness.” The guard stated, Celestia rose to her hooves and walked to the door.

“How long ago did he wake?” Celestia asked, her eyes facing ahead as the guard followed behind her slightly.

“Ten minutes ago your highness, he seemed quite agitated.” The guard stated, the rest of the walk was silent until the two ponies arrived at a door.

“....NO! THIS IS A DREAM! *crash*  GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME! NONE OF THIS IS FUCKING REAL!” A very young, masculine voice shouted.

“How did he get out of the restraints!” another more frantic voice shouted, another loud crash went through the door and Celestia cringed. The guard tensed up and was about to buck the door open when Celestia shook her head to him, she pushed the door open and was met with a large metal pan that had been hurled by the strange creature, it was caught mere inches from her face by her magic.

“GET! THE! FUCK! AWAY! FROM! ME!” The creautre shouted, several nurses and doctors rushed out the open door without stopping to bow to Celestia, celestia dropped the pan to the ground and saw the creature glaring at the only nurse in the room. She coughed and his gaze turned to her, she winced as she saw the emotions in his eyes, confusion, anger, hatred, misery...fear. “YOU!” He pointed at her with a trembling finger, sweat was staining his already stained shirt. “YOU AREN’T REAL! NONE OF YOU ARE!” He turned his attention back to the nurse, Nurse Redheart stared at him with wide eyes. “THIS IS ALL A DREAM!” He turned back to Celestia and stormed over to her until he was only inches away from her face.

“I COULD KILL YOU IF I WANTED AND NOTHING WOULD HAPPEN! I WOULD WAKE UP RIGHT AS RAIN AND I WOULDN’T FEEL A DAMN BIT OF REGRE- *Clang*” The Creature paused mid sentence before his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes, Celestia looked wide eyed at Nurse Redheart holding an Oxygen tank in her hooves. She was panting through gritted teeth and glaring at the now unconscious creature, she saw the massive bump forming on the back of his head.

“Nopony...*huff* ….Messes...*huff* ….With My....*huff* ….Staff!...*huff*” Redheart grunted out, she looked up and realised the Princess was staring at her. She dropped the O2 tank and into a bow, Celestia looked at her still shocked.

“Rise my little pony.” Celestia said calmly, Redheart did as she was told and stood up. Celestia eyed the now unconscious creature laying on the floor, he looked younger than she remembered. Maybe the fact he wasn’t wearing his jacket and helmet made him look more innocent. Celestia turned to the guard that was standing behind her, he too looked stunned. “Guard, take him to my quarters. Seal it off from everypony save for my sister and myself. Even Twilight Sparkle. If he should wake and we are not there do not let him out, if he becomes violent....subdue him.” The guard looked at her for a moment before nodding. The guard hoisted the creature onto his back and began to trot off. “And Guard....return his jacket and helmet.” Celestia frowned a bit as she saw the guard handle the creature roughly but said nothing.