Prologue:
Everything happened so fast. It was unbelievable. I don't even know where to start. Should I start with what happened before? I think that would be the best place to start.
Before everything changed, my life felt normal. I would hang out with my friends everyday and I would do what most Pegasi do and control the whether. It wasn't anything special except I was a good flyer. Actually, I am. I am the best flyer in Equestria. I mean, Princess Celestia herself asked me to do a sonic rainboom at Princess Cadence and Shining Armor's wedding! How cool is that? I think that's cool and that qualifies me for my title.
On the day that everything went wrong, I was just napping on my comfortable cloud like usual. Although there were other places that I could have napped on, a cloud felt like the best spot to sleep on at the time. I could hear the blissfulness of nature while I slept on that cloud; it was nice and quiet. No one could have bugged me too while I was up there so it was great. I mean it was great until it happened.
It first started with a scream. The scream interrupted my sleep and I became very irritable because of my dislike towards waking up during a nap. I woke up half-asleep and half-irritable. I looked down at Ponyville from my cloud and tried to find out what all the fuss was about. When I looked, I saw somepony galloping down a street who was being followed by somepony else. It was a chase from the look of things. I watched from above to see what was going on between them and I hovered above to find out.
The pony that was doing the chasing looked weird. He was covered, from head-to-hoof, in this mossy like covering with tendrils growing out of his head. Maybe, I thought, they were doing some fake monster chase for Nightmare Night which was the following week at the time. So I ignored them and tried to go back to sleep on my cloud. It wasn't until I heard another scream from the same mare that was being chased that made me wake up again. This time, I became fully aware of what was happening.
The stallion that was doing the chasing caught up with the mare and he did one of the most disturbing things I had ever seen in my life. He bit her. Not like a small nibble like Pinkie Pie did to my neck when I had some pink cupcake frosting on me, he bit her with enough force to tear flesh.
I was shocked. It was like watching a horror movie except it happening in real life. I couldn't just watch as a pony was being eaten alive by some freak of nature. I had to go help. When I jumped off my cloud and landed on the ground, I heard more screams echo in the air. The killing wasn't just isolated. Everypony was being attacked by other ponies that looked just like the stallion. They were all covered in a mossy tendril coverings and covered in pony blood. I knew something was definitely wrong but I couldn't do anything to help by myself. I had to get Twilight and the others to help me. Although... something happened. I never had the chance to find all of them. Sugar Cube Corner, Twilight's Library, Rarity's Boutique, and Fluttershy's cottage were all on fire when I tried to find them and there was no trace of their bodies when I looked. Everypony either left Ponyville or died to the cannibals. The only one I managed to find was Applejack who was in the middle of packing her things to leave.
"Applejack," I asked her when I first met her. "What's going on? Why are ponies eating each other?!"
"Ain't no time to explain," Applejack said to me back as she was tying her rope around her luggage on her wagon. "Something infectious is causing everypony to eat each other. Twilight and the others have evacuated ponies that have not been bit."
"What happens if you get bit?" I continued to ask her.
"Like I said, no time . We'll meet our friends later. Come with me. We have to leave now!" Applejack said to me back again.
We never went back to look for our friends. We never came back to that dreaded place again because everywhere else in Equestria was the same. Ponies were eating each other and the carnage only seemed to get worse with each passing day. I didn't even get to find out what happened to everypony else until one day twenty years later.
Author's Note
CHAPTER NAME EDIT:
This isn't the only chapter where Rainbow Dash and Applejack have a conversation with each other.
Chapter 1: One Day, Twenty Years Later
Chapter 1: One Day, Twenty Years Later
One day, twenty years later, I woke up like any other morning since the Corydcep incident in Ponyville. I felt relieved that I somehow managed to stay alive for another day in this hell. I remembered I have to fear that there will come a day that I will die and most likely to the Cordycep zombies outside the city walls. If I played my cards right, I might never have to leave the city walls again. The government watches over us survivors but I feel like even they I should avoid at all costs like the zombies. I got up from my uncomfortable mattress and trotted off to the kitchen where I brewed up my morning tea and breakfast. While I waited for my water to boil, I turned on the television to find out what kind of news was happening.
"Food rations have run to a bare minimum standard and there's barely enough to go around," said a news reporter on the television. "Be advised that you may not receive any food for this week."
"Yeah," I said to myself. "It's a good thing I managed to snag some extra food from the bank while I was out yesterday."
I knew that one day Buckston would run out of food for the winter. I bought some extra food the day before so I could survive the winter by myself. The bank teller wasn't all too pleased about my withdrawal for extra food but some bribing changed his mind otherwise. I poured my water into a mug and made my tea. I carried my daisy and wheat sandwhich and tea to my coffee table and continued to watch the news.
"In other news, Cloudsdale still refuses to make it possible for resident Pegasi to return home as to make sure the infection doesn't come to their citizens. Despite Princess Celestia's plea for help, Cloudsdale and other Pegasi cities refuse to help their fellow ponies down on the ground. More development will be reported later on, as we come to know of it."
Cloudsdale was the first of many flying cities to close off their cities to the outside world after the outbreak started. Apparently, the mayors of each town wanted to exclude everypony, even Pegasi, from their cities to stop the infection from reaching them. When I tried to get inside Cloudsdale, I was immediately rejected by patrolling Wonderbolts. Even Spitfire, my Wonderbolt idol who was left to help the government contain the ponies on the ground, said to me it was impossible to get inside the floating cities.
Before I could listen to more news about recent events like another Firefly demonstration, I heard knocking at my front door. I turned off the television and looked for my gun. I never trusted anypony who came to my door, whether it was a friend or the police. Because of the outbreak, I've had a lot of trust issues with other ponies. I stopped giving the benefit of the doubt to others because of stray ponies who were actually bandits that stole food from me a couple years back.
As I loaded my six-shooter with bullets, I looked through the eye hole of my door to see who it was. I saw Applejack and Big Mac behind it. I felt bad that I almost pulled a gun on them and I put my gun away, under my seat cushion. I opened the door and greeted them kindly.
"Hey Applejack and Big Mac!" I greeted. "What's up?"
"I was just wondering if you could do a small favor for us," Applejack asked.
"Eeyup." Big Mac followed up.
"What do you need help with?" I asked.
I closed the front door behind them and asked if they wanted to have some water. Big Mac didn't want any but Applejack accepted my offer. "You remember those gangsters that I've been telling you about don't you?" Applejack said.
"Yeah, what about them?" I said to her back. I gave her a glass of water to drink.
"Well, last night, they stole some apples from us and you know how valuable apples are nowadays," Applejack explained.
"Yeah I do know how valuable they are," I replied back. They were extremely valuable. The Cordycep, being fungus and all, also infected major pony food sources. A lot of water was tainted with the fungus and a lot of apple trees became fungi infested. Luckily, Applejack managed to find a way to grow apples that were immune to the Cordycep fungus and began to grow these apples inside Buckston. Growing apples is illegal, enforced by Celestia's new administrative government, but Applejack made some fancy connections with Celestia to grow them. She only made herself an easy target for bandits to steal from her. "What do you need me to do? Beat-them up and hope that they give back your apples?"
"Eeyup," Big Mac said first before Applejack.
"Yeah, that's exactly what we want you're help on. Could you go with Big Mac to the bandits' hideout, and I don't know, steal back our apples?" Applejack requested.
"What's in it for me? If I remember correctly, I almost died going on one of these missions going outside the wall. Your cousin left me behind with at least ten Cordyceps behind me the last time I went out," I said to her with a stern look.
"This time will be different. You can get to their hideout directly through checkpoints to the West District and you can get back through the same way. Its easy-peasy. When you get back, I can make you ten barrels of my special apple cider. What do you say?"
Applejack's famous family cider was to die for. Survivors from all over the quarantine zones came to Buckston for Applejack's annual sale of apple cider. Even though I always get stuck waiting in line for my cider, the long waits were always worth it. Getting paid ten barrels didn't sound like a bad; it sounded amazing.
"You're the fastest flyer I know which will make this job easy and fast for us. We need those apples back and we need you're help with this," Applejack pleaded one more time.
"Alright, you've convinced me," I said. I finished my tea before I proceeded to talk. "When do we go?"
