My Little Walking Dead

Canterlot

“I want to go to Canterlot,” Fluttershy said. Twilight and Rainbow both smiled, clearly they were hoping she would choose that.

“Alright, well in that case,” Twilight said turning to Big Mac and the Cakes, “I wish you the best of luck and hope we see each other again someday.”

The last hour of darkness passed by in an uncomfortable silence, Fluttershy was confident she had made the right decision staying with her friends, although she would be sad to see the others leave, she knew it was for the best.

When at last the sun began to crest the horizon, Rainbow took a quick peek outside and confirmed the coast appeared to be clear. Twilight removed her cloaking spell and one by one they ascended from the crevice and stood awkwardly in the deserted plains.

“I guess this is it,” Twilight said, breaking the silence.

“Ponyville is that way,” Rainbow informed them, pointing away from the rising sun.

“We hope you find what you’re look for,” Mrs Cake said embracing each of them individually. Fluttershy accepted the gesture, unable to find any appropriate words for what was quite possibly the last time they would see each other again.

Lastly they waited for Big Mac and Applebloom to say their farewells, which once they were complete, the pair of groups split apart, heading in their own direction. Once some distance had been put between them, Applebloom addressed the group.

“So, how far is Canterlot?” she asked, suddenly concerned. She could see the mountain in the distance, but gauging how long it would take to reach it was another matter entirely.

“Two days maybe,” Dash replied, “less if we’re lucky.”

“What do we do when we reach there?” Fluttershy asked.

“The plan is to head straight to the castle to find the princess,” Twilight replied, her voice sounding confident. Angel tapped Fluttershy’s head urgently and she quick communicated with him.

“Oh my, you’re right,” she said to him, “won’t we have to pass by the train? Those creatures were hanging around it.”

“We’ll get close and see if it’s worth the risk,” Twilight replied, “if need be, we’ll go around.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” the mayor said curtly, Fluttershy had almost forgotten she was there. The train hadn’t been far from where they were hiding, and so after a short walk Rainbow gestured for them to sink low.

“I’ll head in and see if it’s safe enough to pass through,” she said. As she was preparing to take off, Angel quickly began communicating to Fluttershy.

“Oh, well if you really think so,” she replied before turning back to Rainbow, “Rainbow Dash wait, Angel says he’ll scout ahead.”

“Um, seriously?” Dash asked, clearly unsure if it was the best thing.

“He thinks since he’s smaller he won’t be noticed as easily.” Dash looked to Twilight for guidance.

“It’s reasonable thinking,” she agreed, “if he’s really up for it, I don’t see why not.”

Setting the rabbit down she asked him if he was sure he wanted to do this, he didn’t reply, merely hopped away with the train wreckage in his sights. Fluttershy sat back down between Twilight and Applebloom, saying a silent prayer for her faithful companion’s safe return.

“Hey, don’t worry,” Twilight assured her, putting an arm over her shoulder, “he’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, that’s one rascally rabbit,” Applebloom agreed. Fluttershy smiled back at them both.

“He’d better come back,” the mayor said bitterly, “I don’t feel comfortable just sitting out in the open like this.”

“He will come back,” Rainbow insisted, never taking her eyes away from the distant wreckage. The group continued to wait, and wait. Minutes quickly began to fold together until they could easily have been sitting there for at least an hour. Fluttershy was beginning to panic, and Rainbow was in the middle of assuring her if Angel didn’t come back in another ten minutes she’d go in after him herself, when a light scampering cut her off, and they both looked around to see the white blur darting across the grass.

“Oh Angel, you’re okay,” Fluttershy said, scooping him up, “I was starting to get worried.”

After quickly assuring her of his safety he began to relay the information he had gathered.

“So what does he say?” Rainbow asked, unable to make heads or tails of the rabbit’s gestures.

“He says there are still some monsters hanging around, but there are few enough of them that we could probably sneak through unnoticed.”

“Well that’s good,” the mayor cut in, “at least now we won’t have to lose any more time than we already have waiting for it to get back here.”

Angel shot the mayor a stone cold glare and Fluttershy resisted the urge to do so herself, instead whispering into Angel’s ear that he should just ignore her.

Rainbow quickly explained the situation to Twilight and Applebloom, and they readied themselves to enter the wreckage. it was indeed fairly deserted, they did have to stop and hunker down as the occasional infected drifted by in the distance, but they were lucky in that none got too close and they were able to keep moving without great delay.

“They must have moved on,” Twilight suggested in a whisper, “to find a new food source.”

The thought made Fluttershy cringe but she was glad they weren’t here instead.

As they walked, Rainbow took the occasional look inside. Before Fluttershy had arrived, Dash had scavenged some supplies from one of the deserted train carts she searched, when the group went their separate ways, the food was divided amongst them, the majority going to the others as they had the greater need for what with the foals, much to the displeasure of the mayor. However Dash’s current searches yielded a few new finds, including a little precious food and water, as well as some fire lighters. It hadn’t been a lot, but in their current climate, every little bit extra was a blessing.

Midday had passed them by and the sun was now at the beginning of its descent as they reached the final section of the train, it had taken them a reasonable while to pass through what with having to keep a constant lookout for infected, but now that they were entering relatively flat lands, their journey would pass by much quicker. As they followed the track they reached the final carriage, and what they saw caused them all to freeze mid step. The train had collided head on with what appeared to be, a constructed barricade, right in the middle of the track.

“What?” Twilight whispered, walking up to it, “who would put this here? And why?”

“You don’t think,” Dash began gesturing at the Canterlot Mountain, “They put this up, to keep us out?”

“No! I mean, why would they? It doesn’t make any sense,” Twilight said shaking her head. Fluttershy examined it herself; it seemed to be made mainly of boulders, something like that didn’t just find its way onto a train track by accident.

“Now that I think about it,” Fluttershy began thoughtfully, “how long do you think this has been happening, before we were affected?”

The other fell into silent contemplation, but their concentration was broken by the mayor giving a disgruntled cough.

“As interesting as all this is,” she said in a tone which suggested she didn’t think it was interesting at all, “could we maybe hurry this up a bit?”

Twilight gave a sharp look at Dash as she opened her mouth to retort; instead she just grunted and continued forward. The group continued walking, leaving the crash site behind them, as they did Applebloom began to drop back, and it wasn’t until Fluttershy took notice that the group stopped altogether.

“Maybe we ought to take a quick break before going any further,” Twilight suggested, it was easy to forget they weren’t all adults. Nodding Dash opened one of the packs and passed out some food and water to the group. Applebloom ate greedily, nearly choking, it was only then that Fluttershy realised they were so focused on their mission they weren’t paying her much attention.

“How are you holding up?” Fluttershy ask holding the filly close. Applebloom muttered something indistinguishable, Fluttershy didn’t ask her to repeat herself, instead just stroked her mane.

Rainbow Dash paced around the group, her eyes peeled for any signs of movement. Twilight barely touched her own food, seemingly too lost in her own thoughts, while the mayor scoffed down her own. Angel sat on Fluttershy’s lap, his gaze fixed on Canterlot sitting high in the mountain. After several minutes Rainbow asked if Applebloom was fit to travel again, and when she confirmed she was the group set off once more.

“If we keep walking until night fall,” Dash announced, “we should make pretty decent progress.”

Fluttershy nodded but didn’t say anything, just focused on putting one hoof in front of the other.

Day 4

Twilight was weak; she had volunteered to hold a protection spell throughout the night so the others could get some sleep since they found no shelter. Dash had objected but Twilight put her hoof down, however now she was paying the price for her nobility as she stumbled along, half resting on Fluttershy. Applebloom was lying on Rainbow’s back, she had insisted she could walk fine on her own but Rainbow wasn’t hearing any arguments, Fluttershy knew it was because Applebloom was slowing the group down, but none of them wanted to say it to her.

Well the mayor had wanted to tell her, but when she tried, Rainbow gave her a discrete punch in the ribs which kept her silent. She had remained bitter and distant since then. The group was generally silent as the mountain drew ever nearer. They had been very lucky, not having run into a single infected since leaving the train behind, but Fluttershy was afraid their luck would soon run out as they approached Canterlot. The second night was well upon them when they reached the foot of the mountain.

The group stopped at the mouth of the train tunnel, staring into the deep, dark abyss.

“We have to go in there?” Applebloom asked, fear evident in her voice.

“’Fraid so,” Dash replied solemnly, “there’s no way we’re scaling this thing, much too steep.”

“Couldn’t you fly us up?” the mayor asked impatiently.

“That would take too long, even for me,” Dash replied trying to keep her voice level, “it would take a couple trips up and down to get each of us and the supplies all the way up, and besides, do you want to be the one hanging onto me as I fall out of the sky at a couple hundred feet from exhaustion?”

The mayor didn’t answer, just rolled her eyes and walked away a few metres muttering something about pegasi.

“It looks like we don’t have a choice,” Twilight confirmed, “but… could we wait until morning, I don’t think I have it in me to create a light spell.”

“Of course,” Dash replied, sounding shocked that Twilight could think otherwise. “And this time, you’re sleeping, I’ll keep lookout.”

“I can help,” Fluttershy offered, Rainbow looked at her uncertainly, “I’m not tired or anything.”

Rainbow gave her a sceptical look.

“Well I am a bit,” she admitted, “but if we take it in shifts each of us can get some rest.”

Rainbow mulled that idea over; she liked the sound of it and so agreed to take the first three hours, promising she would wake Fluttershy up when it was her turn. Twilight went out like a light to nopony’s surprise; it had taken a severe amount of energy to make it this far following last night. Applebloom too drifted off relatively quickly, and before long Fluttershy too found herself drifting into blissful sleep.

Day 5

It was screaming that woke Fluttershy, her eyes snapped open just in time to see a gruesomely disfigured form throwing itself upon her. Giving a squeal she rolled over the ground just as the infected fell onto where she had been sleeping seconds before. shuffling as far back as she could she looked wildly around her, Dash was several metres away pinned on the ground trying desperately to hold an infected off her, it’s jaws snapping wildly mere inches from her face. Applebloom was draped over Twilight’s back who was backed up to the mountain side, firing spells off at the approaching infected.

Angel bounced over to her and began gesturing at her to get up. Snapping out of her daze she sprung to her hooves, Angel leaping into her mane. Running forward she tackled the infected trying to take a chomp out of Dash, sending it flying into a heap further away.

“Thanks,” Dash said accepting Fluttershy’s helping hoof. They looked around in time to see Twilight fleeing into the tunnel, her horn alight. The pegasi made to follow them but a number of infected beat them into the tunnel entrance.

Dash pulled Fluttershy back.

“We can’t go into the dark knowing those things are in there,” she reasoned, Fluttershy nodded reluctantly, but they looked behind them to see the remaining infected were now making for them. “Come on.”

Dash spread her wings and took off, Fluttershy didn’t need to be told twice, quickly ascending into the air and fling alongside her friend along the mountain.

“Ha! They can run,” Dash shouted over the wind, “but they can’t… fly…”

Fluttershy followed Rainbow’s gaze and looked over her shoulder, one of the infected was making its way after them, its wings spread. Dash quickly got over her shock and turned in mid-air, flying straight at the oncoming infected.

“I can take this one,” she shouted as she passed Fluttershy, “you go ahead, I’ll catch up.”

Fluttershy was about to argue but Dash was already spiralling into the infected sending them both careening out of the sky. Feeling Angel tug on her ears she focused her attention forward in time to avoid crashing into the mountain face.

She continued flying for a few minutes, looking around for where the tunnel broke out of the mountain, there should be a number of stone shelves she could land on. As she spotted one and began making her descent she heard flapping behind her and looked around panicked, only to be greeted by the confident smirk of Rainbow Dash.

“Piece of cake,” she assured Fluttershy as the pair of them touched down. They didn’t have to wait long before the purple glow in the tunnel exit signalled the arrival of Twilight and Applebloom.

“We managed to lose them,” she said out of breath, the filly clinging trembling to her back, “but we shouldn’t wait for them to catch up.”

Dash nodded and began walking, it was only now Fluttershy realised their group was a member short.

“Hey, where’s the mayor?” she asked. Dash spat on the ground at the mention of her.

“That bitch? She ran off,” she snarled, “she was awake when we were attacked; while I was trying to fight them off, she grabbed our bags and ran off.”

“Yeah, we found her in the tunnel,” Twilight added, “she’s dead. She used those firelighters to find her way and it must have attracted more hiding inside.”

“Serves her right,” Dash said without a hint of remorse.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t get the supplies,” Twilight apologised as they walked, “but we were still being chased at that point and we couldn’t stop and…”

“It’s okay Twi,” Dash assured her, “there was nothing any of us could do. Here I’ll take Applebloom for a bit.”

Twilight levitated the tired filly over to the Pegasus, once she was settled they moved on, entering the next tunnel, their way lit by Twilight’s illumination spell.

The uphill journey was easily the hardest part of their trek so far, with the mares often tripping on railway sleepers in the dim light cats by Twilight’s horn. By the time they reached the second shelf the sun was only beginning to rise and they still had a vast distance to climb.

“Um Rainbow,” Fluttershy began as they all looked in dismay at the rest of the journey that awaited them, “since there’s only us four now, and we have no bags, maybe we could fly Applebloom and Twilight up.”

“Well…” Rainbow hesitated, “I guess, but I’ll have to carry Twilight.”

“No it’s alright, I’ll manage,” Fluttershy insisted, putting her head underneath Twilight’s torso to her great surprise and placing her onto her back. She then looked over to Rainbow who was staring at her with shock. “Well I do have to do some heavy lifting occasionally.”

Once Twilight was positioned comfortably, both pegasi spread their wings and took off; their ascent much slower than their previous flight had been what with the new loads they were carrying. Angel sat atop Fluttershy’s head helping to navigate her as the two rose ever higher. They passed numerous shelves in considerably less time than if they had walked, but soon enough they both began to tire and were forced to land.

“Sorry,” Fluttershy said to the others panting.

“Sorry for what?” Twilight said looking up at the remaining distance they had to climb. They were now well beyond half way and it was only midday. Fluttershy looked up in surprise, she hadn’t realised just how much progress they had made while she was flying. Then without warning she felt herself being thrust into the air, she gave a frightened squeal but looked down to see that Twilight had thrown her onto her own back. “This time, I’ll carry you, you’ve earned a break.”

With that the group once again began walking through the train tunnels, their path lit by Twilight.

Rainbow was also exhausted by the flight, but she tried not to let it show, insistent that she was still capable of carrying Applebloom. They were lucky again as they walked through the tunnel, there were infected, but they were all dead, perhaps Canterlot was holding up against the outbreak. with new found hope Twilight and Dash doubled their pace, although Fluttershy insisted before long that she could walk on her own, though she appreciated the chance to rest after the arduous flight. It wasn’t until late evening that the group passed beyond the final tunnel exit into orange glow of the setting sun, the city of Canterlot standing before them.

“We made it,” Twilight said relieved, Applebloom who was now on her own feet looked mournfully out over Equestria, Fluttershy guessed she was thinking about her brother. She was going to say something encouraging when a high pitched whistling caused her to snap her gaze back to Canterlot in time to see an ethereal bolt of magic spiralling straight towards them. The group divided in various directions, avoiding the magical missile. Rainbow was the first to her hooves and was shouting at the city walls.

“Hey! we’re not infected!” whether her shout had been heard or they realised infected wouldn’t leap out of the way of an attack like that, they didn’t fire anymore shots, and slowly the group decided it was safe enough to make their way forward.

As they reached the city Fluttershy began to realise Canterlot was very different from the last time they had been here for the wedding of Twilight’s brother. The walls were higher, made mostly of wood and scaffolding as opposed to the usual smooth white brick. Guards lined the walls, glaring down at them with deep mistrust. Arriving at where the railway once entered the city, they found a tall wooden gate erected, blocking its path.

“Halt!” one guard shouted, “Canterlot isn’t taking any more survivors, turn back now.”

“Hey we didn’t walk all this way just to be turned away by some stuck up guard,” Dash shouted back, clearly upset by this poor reception.

“Please, I’m Princess Celestia’s student and these are my friends,” Twilight cut in before Rainbow could do anymore damage, “I’m sure if you let her know we’re here she’ll insist we be allowed in.”

“Nice try, do you have any idea how many nomads come here spouting garbage about friends in high places just trying to get inside these walls?” he asked rhetorically. Twilight opened her mouth to protest when she was cut off by someone shouting on the other side of the wall, followed by a loud commotion. The guard who had addressed them looked down kin surprise as apparently someone made their way up the tower he was perched on.

Confused Fluttershy continued to watch as a small purple dragon pulled himself up so he could see over the wall.

“Twilight!” Spike exclaimed recognising them instantly.

“Spike, you’re okay!” Twilight shouted back, forgetting about the guard.

“I was so worried you didn’t make it out of Ponyville,” Spike replied, tears brimming in his eyes. “Open this gate this instant!”

The soldier who had refused them entry looked furious at being ordered around by a baby dragon, but apparently decided against refusing, and instead gave the signal for the gate to be open.

it took a few minutes to heave what turned out to be a surprisingly thick door open, as soon as the gap was wide enough, the four ponies rushed into the safety of the city where Twilight was immediately tackled by the her faithful assistant.

“I told them to send help, I really did,” Spike sobbed into her chest, “Celestia too, but they wouldn’t spare the guards.”

“It’s okay Spike,” Twilight whispered, holding him close, “we’re here now, that’s all that matters.”

Spike finally let go of his surrogate sister and looked around at the others.

“Is this… all that made it?” Spike asked, his jaw falling slack.

“We’ll explain everything on the way,” Twilight promised sadly, “but we have to see Celestia.”

“I’ll take you to the castle, you can eat and sleep, but you won’t see the princess,” Spike informed them, beginning to walk down the street. “She and Luna are both out of Canterlot, not sure where they are, but they’re due back in the morning.”

“It must have taken weeks to fortify this place,” Fluttershy said in wonder, staring around at the heavily altered Canterlot city. “How long was this going on?”

“Nopony’s really sure when it began,” Spike admitted, “I can tell you Ponyville got lucky through the most of it, but as for everything else, it might be better to wait and hear it all from the princess.”

“That guard back there was kind of an ass,” Dash commented gliding alongside them, “what was his deal? I thought all the guards knew Twilight.”

“That wasn’t a guard,” Spike pointed out, “he was militia, most of the royal guard are protecting the palace or being sent around Equestria by the princesses. So the city of Canterlot established its own defence force, there are a lot of them but they’re nowhere near the royal guard standard as you saw.”

“It feels like we’ve missed so much,” Twilight said wistfully, “I didn’t even realise I had been out of contact with the princess for as long as I was, maybe if I hadn’t we would have seen this coming, maybe Applejack and all the others would still be alive.”

“What?” Spike shouted coming to a complete stop. Twilight sighed and the others looked down at their own hooves.

“I’ll explain everything from the start,” Twilight said.

As they reached the palace gates Twilight finished her account of everything that had happened to them since Fluttershy coming to her library the night of the outbreak.

“So Applejack is gone,” Spike whispered, Twilight nodded sadly, “and you don’t know where Rarity or Pinkie is?”

“No, maybe if we had gone back to Ponyville we might have found out who survived,” Dash explained, “but we had to come here.”

As they passed into the castle courtyard, the change from the militia to the actual royal guards was obvious, the stallions standing guard here were far more disciplined, and even recognised the mares walking past them, some whispering excitedly to one another.

“Celestia has been really worried about you all,” Spike told them as they entered the castle, “we all have, we wanted to send help, but we were ignored.”

“Who would ignore the princess?” Twilight asked in disbelief.

“A lot of the royals are using their influence to bolster the security for Canterlot, at the expense of the rest of Equestria; it’s been difficult for Celestia to do anything with their constant interference.”

Fluttershy was surprised by the maturity with the way Spike reported the events, clearly these events had taken a profound effect on him.

“But like I said, you’ll hear about all this from Celestia herself,” Spike repeated, “right now we’ll get you all something to eat.”

As he said that they entered what was once the royal banqueting hall, which now resembled a common mess hall. Ponies from all walks of life were packed into the room, making it feel a lot smaller than it actually was. There were mostly off duty guards, but many were also civilians, mares, colts and fillies who Fluttershy presumed couldn’t be housed anywhere in the city. Spike led them across the packed room to what could be considered one of the emptier spots. Once they were seated he dashed away, returning moments later with four packs.

“It’s not a lot, but rationing is a big thing here,” he explained, Fluttershy didn’t care; it had been too long since they last ate, and she was ravenous. However before she settled in herself she picked out some items she knew Angel would appreciate and offered them to the rabbit. He accepted grateful and began munching, allowing Fluttershy to tuck in. as they ate Taillight continued to fill Spike in on some of the finer points of their journey. They were only there for a few minutes when Fluttershy began to notice they were getting quite a few stares from nearby ponies, including one in particular she vaguely recognised. Spike noticed who she was looking to just as the stallion left the room hurriedly.

“You remember Blueblood right?” Spike asked bitterly, “no doubt he’ll kick up a shit storm at your arrival; anyone who supports the princess and not the other royals is a threat to him.”

Angel told Fluttershy not to worry about him, and soon they exited the mess hall and made their way down some emptier sections of the castle to one of the tower rooms.

“This is where I’ve been staying,” Spike explained, gesturing around the room. “Technically anypony could just come in and grab a bed if they need it, but I’m mostly on my own.”

The room was indeed filled with camp beds including the large four-poster bed that originally occupied the room on its own.

They all looked at it, clearly wondering who would get it. Fluttershy’s first instinct was to offer it to somepony else, but then Applebloom spoke up.

“Ah think that bed is big enough for all of us,” she said hopefully. Fluttershy glanced over at Rainbow and Twilight, they all realised what she was getting at and why, and they weren’t about to tell her no. it was a tight squeeze, but none of them complained. Soon all five of them were huddled together under the covers, Twilight on the far left side, then Spike, Applebloom, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, with Angel resting on Fluttershy’s head.

Fluttershy felt Applebloom snuggle up against her and began stroking her hair as she gently drifted off to sleep in her embrace. They all fell asleep at different times, but just before Fluttershy sunk into sleep; she felt a pair of hooves wrap around her waist. She had been friends with Rainbow Dash since they were just fillies, she knew that although she was putting on a strong face during this, inside she was struggling, so she inched back on the mattress further into her embrace, before allowing herself to drift off.

Day 6

Fluttershy was awoken by a curious noise, it sounded like thunder, as well as that the bedroom seemed to be shaking. One by one her friends began to stir from their slumber and look around in fear and confusion.

“Is it zombies?” Applebloom asked clutching to Fluttershy.

“Maybe it’s an earthquake,” Dash suggested only to be interrupted by Spike who was standing over by the window.

“Or it’s the sound of an alicorn who just found out her faithful student is still alive and in Canterlot, and is about to burst through the door right about…”

The door was smashed off its hinges at the force it was swung open; the four ponies still clinging together in bed stared wide eyed at the figure in the doorway.

“Twilight!” Celestia exclaimed rushing forward, all sense of dignity forgotten she leapt onto the bed and tackled Twilight. “I was so worried about you.”

Dash couldn’t help but start laughing at the sight before her, and Fluttershy couldn’t help but join in. it was a strange feeling, it felt like forever since they had reason to laugh.

The sound of hooves clattering could be heard and Fluttershy looked around to see Luna enter the room, a smile blooming on her face at the sight of them all.

“This is truly turning out to be a glorious day,” she said approaching the bed just as Celestia released Twilight. “I see Tia has finally gotten all the worry out of her system, tell me Twilight Sparkle, she didn’t break any ribs did she?”

Twilight laughed, although Luna continued to stare at her, clearly expecting an answer.

“No she didn’t,” Twilight said as soon as she realised this.

“Twilight, you must tell me everything,” Celestia said, “How did you get here?”

“Aright, but we want to know everything we’ve missed as well,” Twilight said, Celestia nodded gravely.

“Of course, you deserve no less than the complete truth.” with that Twilight explained once again everything they had been through to the two princesses. It was beginning to feel harrowing for everypony involved, but Twilight saw it through to the end. When she was finally done, the room hung in an awkward silence, eventually broken by Celestia.

“I am so sorry about Applejack,” he said to them all, though she was mainly focusing her attention on Applebloom, “she was a good mare. It seems everypony has suffered loss through this crisis.”

“But please, tell us what’s happening,” Twilight begged, Fluttershy, Rainbow and Applebloom all slid forward, eager for an explanation.

“Of course,” Celestia relied solemnly, “nopony know exactly how this all began or where it originated from, but it first came to my attention little over a month ago. Of course I would always receive the occasional paranoid pony in court, claiming some new disaster was sweeping over Equestria.

“I admit, when the word zombie was mentioned I dismissed it,” she said ashamed, “but as the reports kept coming in, steadily becoming more concerning, I was forced to look into it, by the time I did, it was everywhere, seeping into the cracks of every major city in Equestria.”

“obviously we attempted to investigate the source,” Luna continued, “to treat the scenario as one of your experiments, but things quickly spiralled out of control, and by the time we were sure the danger was both real and imminent, we could do little but attempt a mass evacuation, bring in as many Equestrian citizens to Canterlot, fortify it and keep it protected until we could find a solution.”

“But why didn’t Ponyville hear about this?” Dash asked incredulously, “we didn’t have a clue what was going on until those thongs were swarming our streets, we brought them into our hospitals for pony’s sake.”

“I know, and I am so sorry for everything that’s befallen you,” Celestia said desperately, “we tried to make Ponyville a priority, but stuck up pr… Royals, did everything in their power to undermine us at every turn. Since Spike was here in Canterlot it was nearly impossible for me to get word out to any of you without directly traveling there myself.”

“And no doubt you cannot begin to fathom the chaos this city became during the outbreak,” Luna added, “if either of us had left, all Tartarus could have broken loose.”

“But you were gone yesterday when we arrived,” Rainbow retorted, clearly unhappy with their explanation so far.

“Yes, we were,” Celestia said, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth, “you see, in recent days, we have been making some major breakthroughs in understanding this infection, and are, we believe, very close to developing a cure.”

“Yes! I knew you would!” Twilight screamed, jumping up and down in excitement.

“Yes, well with this new development, we have been forced to drop everything and focus our efforts, hoping that all the work we’ve done in the past few weeks is enough to keep everything together.”

“So where are you working on the cure?” Twilight asked, “is there anything I can do to help?”

“Actually I was hoping you would say that,” Celestia admitted, “we’ve been dancing around a problem for a while now, but I think you could easily deal with it.”

Leading the way out of the room, Twilight and Rainbow hurried after Celestia and Luna, Fluttershy on the other hoof took her time getting out of bed. She looked over at Spike who hadn’t moved from the window.

“You go on ahead, I’ve already seen it and I have some work I need to take care of.” Fluttershy nodded before looking to Applebloom.

“Are you coming?” she asked, the filly didn’t look positive.

“Actually, ah’m still pretty tired,” she admitted, “would it be okay if ah stayed and snoozed a little while longer?”

“Of course, we’ll come get you when we’re done,” Fluttershy said leaving the room, Angel hoping out after her. She trotted down the tower to catch up with the others; she hadn’t missed much apparently as Celestia was just explaining some of the in-depth science involved with the cure. She and Rainbow stuck to the back of the group, following them in silence as they were led further into the castle.

“So what do you think?” Rainbow asked quietly, “about a cure I mean?”

“It sounds great,” Fluttershy answered happily before remembering, “but it won’t bring back those who are already gone.”

Rainbow nodded sadly, before looking back up, fiery determination shining in her eyes.

“But we can still save those still with us.” Fluttershy grinned back and nodded, things were finally starting to look up for the group as they entered a room Fluttershy had never seen before. it was completely below ground level and so was being entirely lit by torches on sconces, lining the wall. The underground chamber reminded Fluttershy of Twilight’s basement back in Ponyville, with its various machines that she could never hope to understand, and it’s many flasks and burners and other various science related equipment.

The princesses led them around the room explaining as they went. Fluttershy wasn’t sure what they expected to find when they followed the princess, perhaps a large vat conveniently labelled ‘cure’? In hindsight it was a ridiculous notion, there would obviously be more to it than that, so Fluttershy and Rainbow were forced to hang back and hope the others knew what they were doing.

“So you see the problem we’ve been having,” Celestia said turning to Twilight, “if we could just deal with that we might have a serious chance at making a breakthrough.”

Twilight pondered the problem for a few minutes, clearly running over possible solutions in her mind, carefully analysing everything Celestia had told her.

“Princess,” she said at last, grinning, “I believe I can solve this.”

Twilight opened her mouth, ready to explain, which is when all Tartarus broke loose.

“Princess! Princess!” a guard screamed running down the stairs into the lab. They all spun around to face him. “The quarantine has been breached, the city is overrun.”

“What?” Celestia exclaimed, her eyes stretching wide, “how?”

We don’t know,” he admitted frantically, “please we need your guidance out here.”

Celestia didn’t hesitate, charging from the room, Luna close at her heel. Fluttershy looked over at her friends who shared her panic stricken look before running out as well. They followed the princesses to the castle courtyard, as they reached the surface the sounds of screaming became deafening.

“What is the situation?” Luna demanded of one of the officers amidst all the chaos.

“Your highness they’re pouring through the city, the militia are fighting back but they’re overwhelmed,” he explained. Fluttershy glanced out through the portcullis of the castle; the city was swarming with ponies running in every direction.

“We need to divert Royal Guards from the palace to aid the defence of the town,” Celestia said, the officer was about to salute and carry out the order when another voice cut through.

“Are you mad?” Blueblood demanded storming forward, “we’ll be left defenceless, we could all lose our lives and for what? The common pony? Seal off the castle while we can, we can still live.”

“I will not sit in an ivory tower while my little ponies are slaughtered!” Celestia shouted back.

“Sister hold on,” Luna said and a nervous voice, “if we do lose the castle, we lose any hope we have of a cure.”

Celestia froze, she hadn’t considered that.

“Whoa whoa hold on everypony,” Dash cut in, “what good is a cure if we let everypony die? We shouldn’t abandon them.”

“But we’ll help nopony if the cure is lost,” Twilight pleaded.

“Princess I need you to make a decision,” the officer requested, his voice shaking. Celestia looked wildly between all the ponies gathered around her.

“I…I don’t know,” she admitted weakly.

“Seal off the castle!” Blueblood demanded, “Even your sister agrees.”

“But those are your subjects,” Spike insisted, appearing at Fluttershy’s side, “they need our help.”

“I can’t make this decision,” Celestia insisted, clutching her head.

“What about Fluttershy,” Luna said suddenly. Fluttershy squeaked at suddenly being thrust into the limelight. “While I would trust all your judgements, except maybe you Blueblood… but we need a decision, somepony has to tip the scales; I think it should be Fluttershy.”

They all looked towards said Pegasus, who gulped. They were expecting her to make this decision; she wasn’t a princess, hay! She wasn’t even the princess’s student.

Fluttershy realised they needed an answer, and at this rate another pony saying they didn’t know would not be met with a great deal of support. She quickly ran over the steaks in her head, on the one hoof they could seal off the castle, effectively signing a death warrant for everypony still in the city, but the cure would be safe, Twilight would finish it and maybe, just maybe they could end this nightmare. Or they could try and save the city, endangering the castle and cure, but potentially saving thousands of lives. She nodded slowly to herself, she made her decision.

“I believe,” she began slowly, “we should…”

Do you:

a) Protect the castle-

b) Protect the city-