Equestria Has Fallen: The Depression
25/02/2036
19:48
The rodent seemed curious, and bounded up to her. She smiled at the sight of the furry creature. She had forgotten how some animals aren't all so ferocious. She could hear the wind rustling through the leaves in the trees around her. The forest was still quite beautiful, despite all that had happened. It was still winter, but the climate was transitioning into spring, making it quite warm.
The creature sniffed her foot, but not like that Slicker had. It wasn't hunger in the creature's eyes, but curiosity. She was about to pick it up, when suddenly, an arrow whistled past her foot, barely missing the mouse. It squeaked in fear, and ran off. She heard a loud "shit!" in the shrubbery behind her, making her ears flick up.
"Furtive!" she yelled, twisting around, "what the fuck was that?"
"That was dinner," Furtive said, stepping out from his cover in the bushes, "and it just got away. Why didn't you just kill it?"
Her ears sagged, but she quickly regained her composure. "I was about to, but then you scared it off!" He looked dumbfounded. She smiled at him, tilting her head. He looked so stupid when he did that. "Besides, it was just a rat. I'm sure there are bigger animals out there than that thing."
He smiled at her, but then the look quickly transitioned into a look of surprise. "Get down!" he whispered, his voice commanding.
She obliged, crouching down. "What is it?" she asked, using her horn to pull out a knife. "Slicker?"
He shook his head. "I don't know what it is, but I think it's friendly. You can turn around, it won't notice you."
She turned, staying crouched, and saw the creature. "It's a…" she paused for a moment, before a memory surfaced in her head. "Deer."
Furtive turned his head to her, his eyes quizzical. "A what?"
"You know, a deer!" He gave her a look of annoyance, it being evident that her response hadn't helped his understanding. She sighed. "I don't really know much about them, but what I do know is it's big enough to feed both of us for a while."
"I got it," he said, raising his crossbow.
"Nuh-uh, Fur. My turn." Without waiting for a response, she reared her head back, pulling the knife back with her, and then snapped her head downwards, releasing the weapon as she did so.
The blade flew through the air, spinning rapidly until it sank into the creature's stomach. It reared up, gave a shrill whine, and fell onto its side, behind a bush.
Furtive whistled approvingly beside her. "Damn, nice throw! I didn't know you could do that!" She frowned, the feeling that something was wrong nagging in the back of her mind.
"No, it wasn't."
"What? That was right on target!"
"No, it wasn't. I was going for the neck."
"Hey, don't beat yourself up over something like that, you still killed it! I mean, you threw a knife 20 meters into a deer's stomach, and I missed a rat with a fucking crossbow!" She smiled at his attempt to cheer her up, but there was still a problem.
"Fur, I never miss a throw like that. Something's wrong."
"I think you're getting a little carried away with this. You just need to learn from your mistakes."
She ignored his comment, and trotted over to the fallen deer. The creature was still alive, but barely. The knife had punctured it's lung, and it was coughing up blood. It was writhing in agony.
"Oh god," she whispered, her legs already shaking.
Furtive ran up beside her, crossbow at the ready. "What is it?" he asked, scanning the area for movement.
"N-nothing," she stammered, "better... put it out of its misery."
"Uh... It's already dead." He said, pointing at the creature. She looked down at it again, and saw that it was indeed dead. She hadn't put it out of its misery, it had died from it. She began to realise that most of her body was now shaking.
"Hey, you ok?" Furtive asked, noticing her discomfort. Trying to look unfazed, she bent over, and used her horn to pull her knife free. She almost dropped it, due to it being difficult to focus under her stress. She thought she saw the creature's hind left leg twitch.
Furtive put his hoof onto her shoulder. "Come on, let's go."
She shook his arm off of her. "No, it's fine. It's dead, we have to finish this."
He frowned at her. "Are you sure?"
"Of course! We already got it!" Furtive reached for her knife.
"I'll do it." Using her magic, she pulled the knife away from him.
"Furtive, it's fine! She knelt down beside the creature, and put her hoof on its stomach, readying herself. She heard Albert mutter something inaudible from where she was kneeling, and trot a few metres back.
"I'm sorry it had to be this way," she whispered, and plunged the knife into its stomach.
20:12
She was staring at the knife, testing its balance. The blood had been wiped off by her not long after cutting up and skinning the deer.
"Jeez, just give it up! You were a little off your target, just let it go!" exclaimed Furtive. They were walking through the forest, with the deer's meat in their backpacks.
"Still, I can't believe I missed such an easy throw," she said, still annoyed at herself.
"That was an easy throw?" he laughed, "the deer was 20 meters from us, but I almost hit you close range with a crossbow!"
"Oh, I'm the one who won't let missing go?" she said, rolling her eyes. "you keep bringing that up!"
He laughed beside her. "Just trying to cheer you up."
She looked at him and smiled. "Thank you."
"Wow, a thank you for something like that? Who are you, and what did you do with the second best pony out there?" She laughed, ignoring the fact that it was a terrible joke.
"No, not about that," she said. He looked at her quizzically. "Thanks for coming with me. Would've been hard without you." He looked surprised.
"How would it have been harder than now? I mean, I nearly-"
"Shot me in the foot?" she finished, arching her brow.
"Oh, no, I was gonna say I almost distracted you with my amazing looks." he joked, "In fact, I reckon that's why you missed." She shook her head in disbelief.
"That has to be the worst joke ever."
"And there's the contender," he said with a smirk. She glanced at him, confused.
"What?" she said. He shook his head.
"Never mind." He said sadly. He looked away from her. Oh my god. she thought, He's moping because I didn't get his stupid joke!
"You are such an idiot." she said quietly. He laughed, giving up his performance.
"Oh, great, now we're telling jokes. Our relationship has officially gone up to "friend" level."
She shook her head, sighing. "You're a weird one, Furtive." she said. "Anyway, we almost there? My legs are getting tired."
Furtive looked over at her quickly, a look of concern replacing his smirk.
"Uh, is your leg feeling ok? I mean, maybe you shouldn't be walking on it so much."
"Furtive, it's fine." She let out a sigh, and turned to him. "I mean, it could be worse." Albert sighed beside her. She gave him a friendly punch with her good leg to his shoulder. "Anyway, like I asked before, are we almost there?"
"Oh, uh, sure," he replied quickly. She looked at him, suspicious.
"Don't tell me you don't know where we're going." He smiled nervously, kicking a pebble that he decided had come too close to his hoof. She sighed, closing her eyes. "What's the plan then?"
He paused for a few moments before replying. "I figured we could just walk until night came, then set up camp." she moaned, putting her hoof over her eyes in exasperation.
"I should have left you back in Canterlot."
23:27
The fire burned low. They made sure it was small, so that they couldn't be seen. They had set up a small campsite in the forest they were in. She was bored.
"Hey, did I ever tell you about the time I saved this kid from a slicker?" Furtive asked. He was lying on a log he thought looked comfortable. She sighed, boredom evident in the sound. She was sitting by the fire, staring as the deer cooked. The smell was starting to get to her.
"A few times now." she muttered.
"Want to hear it again?"
"Nope."
"Then what do you want to do?"
"Eat." She was tired, and not up for conversation.
"It won't be ready for a while." She moaned.
"Fuck." she said to herself. Furtive sighed, and brought out a large case from behind him. She looked over to him.
"What's that?"
"Something I found back at the town." She got up, and moved closer to investigate the case. It was rectangular in shape, being twice as long as one of her legs, and a little thicker than all of her legs put together.
"What's in it?" she asked. "is it a rifle or something?"
"Better," he said, smiling. "You wanna look?"
"Is that a trick question?" she said, snatching it off of him with her magic. He laughed, and moved closer to her. Using her hooves, she opened the case's latches, and slowly opened it. Inside was a guitar, in perfect condition. It was recently polished.
"You were talking about how you used to play guitar, so I figured... well, yeah." he mumbled. She smiled, and put her leg around him, pulling him in for a hug. She waited a few moments before releasing him.
"How did you find one in such good condition?" she asked, taking it out of the case. It had a strap attached to it. With her magic, she put it on. She realised that she had no say to play it. She looked into the case again, and let out a sigh of relief as she saw the two claw attachments. It was something you put onto both of your front hooves, and allowed you to use your hoof like you had a claw. Although, only unicorns could use them, because, other than magic, there was no way to move the claw to the different strings. She put on the claw, and gave the guitar an experimental strum. It was way out of tune.
"Oh... sorry," he said. She frowned.
"What?"
"Well, it's broken, isn't it?" she laughed at his ignorance.
"Oh my god," she said in disbelief, "you are such an idiot. It's just out of tune."
"Oh... ok." he said uncertainly.
"Jeez, did you never play an instrument?" she said, tuning the guitar until it made the right noise.
"Uh, no," he said quietly. "I mean, I did a little bit of drums, but only for like a month or two." She shook her head, sighing. Furtive tilted his head at her. "Anyway, can you still play?" She shrugged.
"We're about to find out." She proceeded to put her fingers to the guitar. "Hmm, these are pretty tough strings. Might take me a while to get used to them." She tried a chord. She made a few mistakes at first, but after a few attempts, managed to play it without any flaws.
"Nice. Know any songs?" he asked.
"Uh, yeah. Don't know if I can play them though. It's been a while." She tried the first real song she ever learned, her dad had called it 'Down With the Walls'. The tune slowly began to reform in her mind, and she played the song. It had a sort of country element to it, with a sense of joy. She knew a whole lot of pretty bleak songs, but she figured they may not be appropriate at the time. She would have sang the lyrics, if she hadn't already forgotten them. Also, she usually preferred to sing in private.
"Wow, you're good!" Furtive exclaimed, "you should have joined a band or something!" She smiled at his compliment.
"Stop exaggerating."
"No, really!"
"You get that impression from a basic song like this?"
"Well, you play it really well. Jeez, just take the compliment!" She laughed.
"Well, even if that was true, do you really think a mare called 'Rapid' would catch on well in a band?" Furtive chuckled, then turned to her.
"I keep telling you, it aint a stupid name. Also," he continued, humour entering his voice, "I'll trade you mine any day of the week." She rolled her eyes at him, before turning her focus back to her instrument. She played for a few more minutes, before hitting the final strum.
"Alright, I think that's enough for now," she said. "Anyway, we should-" her stomach interrupted her, its growl cutting her off mid-sentence. Furtive chuckled. "Alright, I think we should eat now." she said, blushing, "is the deer ready yet?"
"Oh, shit!" He said, looking at the deer. The song had distracted them from their cooking. Furtive ran over to the deer.
"Uh... yeah, that looks pretty ready to me." he said, pulling off a charred leg. Rapid stared at the leg, and felt a massive sense of unease take over her. She looked away, shaking again. Albert looked over at her, then at the leg, not yet making the connection. "Rapid, are you ok?" he said, cantering quickly over to her. She quickly turned back to him, and put on a fake smile.
"Oh, uh, yeah, I'm fine." she said quickly. The smile must not have been very convincing, because he still looked concerned. "Uh, I guess we should get some sleep then." she said, cantering briskly past him. She moved to her bedroll, unrolled it quickly, and lay down on it. Furtive watched her, and realised he was still holding the deer leg. He finally connected the dots.
"You fucking moron," he said to himself, throwing the leg into the bushes.
17/03/2033
12:02
"Yep, this'll do." Rapid said aloud, picking up the bolt cutters, her magic pulsing around it. She tested its strength, picking up a small pipe with her mouth, and placing it between the bolt cutters blades. She tensed, and slammed the cutters shut with a loud clang, cutting the pipe clean in half. She picked up half the pipe, putting it in her bag, leaving the other half behind. She stood up, putting the bolt cutter into her bag as well, and looked out the nearby window. "Who's idea was it to lock the gates anyway?" she asked herself, staring at the locked barricade across the street. "I mean, if they were leaving, why would they just leave it like that?" Because of the lack of civilisation, Rapid Bliss had taken to talking to herself on a regular basis. She used to think it was weird, but over time she came to realise that it kept her calm.
The room she was in obviously used to be a bedroom. It had an old monitor, dust covering the screen. There was also a wardrobe, missing one of its double doors. The bed was queen sized, and had had a brown blanket, with a decoration of a yellow flower sown into it. Apart from the missing door on the wardrobe, the room looked pretty ordinary.
Rapid left the room and walked to the front door. She was about to open it, when something caught her eye in the living room to her right. Crouching down, she moved swiftly to the wall, in case of danger. Listening carefully, she thought she heard a click from the next room. Quietly, she drew her knife with her horn, and was ready to throw the projectile at any moving thing. She could definitely hear whispering now, and thought she could hear quiet footsteps moving towards her.
"I saw her... into this house... upstairs!" she could barely make out someone say inside the room. The voice like it belonged to a stallion, and based on what she could make out from their conversation, it seemed that they saw her enter the house, and thought she was upstairs. It also seemed there were more than one of them, since the voice seemed to be addressing someone else. Quickly, she peered in for a split second, and saw three people, standing in the next room. Two were armed with pistols (both unicorns), and the other (an earth pony) had a spiked bat.
She quickly retracted her head, not wanting to be seen. At the moment, they seemed to be unaware of her presence.
Slowly, she sneaked away from the living room, watching her hooves to avoid stepping on creaky boards. She snuck up to the stairs, and looked ahead of her. There was a corridor, which led to an undiscovered part of the house. She pulled her arm back, and in one fluid motion, brought it quickly forward, releasing the knife. It span through the air, going over the stairs, until it was on the upper level, and thudded into a wall. She could hear a gasp behind her, and she quickly moved to the corridor, and pressed her back to the wall, taking cover, so she could see anyone who went upstairs and remain undetected.
"Go check it out!" she heard a voice say, followed by footsteps heading for the stairs. She drew one of her other knives, and looked into the room. A stallion was heading up the stairs, pistol at the ready. She quickly sent the knife forward, aiming for the man's neck. The blade struck home, piercing the pony's jugular, and coming out the other side of his neck, blood spurting out on both sides. The stallion gave out a strangled cry, and tumbled down the stairs, crashing to the ground.
"One down." she whispered to herself, drawing another knife. The other two had heard the commotion, and galloped into the room. They instantly saw their friend dead on the ground, a knife through his neck. Before they could say anything, another knife came whirling into the room, and hit another in the stomach. The pony cried out in surprise, pain and shock, before falling to the ground, hoof on the blade. He wouldn't survive. The remaining stallion was stunned, staring at his fallen comrades. He was the one with the spiked bat. She sent another knife at him, but now he knew where they were coming from, and dodged to the right, avoiding the sharp blade.
Rapid cursed under her breath, drew her remaining knife, and sprinted at him. The pony didn't expect a full on assault, and was more surprised when he realised that his attacker was a young mare. She was on him in an instant, knocking him to the ground. She tried to bring the knife down, but he grabbed her arm, and pushed her off of him.
She hit the ground hard, but managed to roll backwards onto her feet. The stallion had already gotten to his feet, and had retrieved his bat. He slowly started advancing on her. She quickly aimed her horn at her holster, and pulled out her revolver, before pointing it at him. The stallion froze.
"Put the bat down, dick wod." she said, not taking her eyes off of him. The pony narrowed his eyes at her, glaring his anger at her. He knew that she would shoot him in an instant.
He dropped the bat, the movement making her frown.
"No sudden moves, idiot." she said angrily. It was the stallion's turn to frown.
"If you shoot me, my buds run in, and blow your god damn head off." she rolled her eyes at him.
"Oh, I think I can handle three more of you morons-"
"Three?" the pony said, smirking. "there are a lot more than three. About a dozen. You really think you could kill them all?" the stallion bent down, and picked up the bat. "Then shoot me now." he started advancing on her. Rapid pulled out her knife, and in a split second, had it ready to throw. The man froze in place.
"You think I'm gonna miss?" she said, flipping the knife in her hand, so she was holding the point for a more accurate throw. The pony growled in annoyance. He knew that she wouldn't miss, after seeing the way she had dispatched his former comrades.
"Alright, you win." he said, dropping the bat again. "what do you want me to do then?" she smiled at her own victory, but the smile quickly became a frown. She had no idea what to do with him now. She pulled her arm back again.
"Fuck it." she muttered, and threw it at the man. He hadn't expected this, and had no time to avoid the projectile. The base of the handle on the knife struck the man square in the forehead, knocking him to the ground. He was out cold. Rapid shook her head in annoyance.
"Well, that could have gone better." she muttered, walking over to the unconscious looter. She laughed at the sight of him. He had a dent in his forehead, and a bruise already forming. She stooped over and picked up the knife, twirling it before putting it in its sheath.
She turned to picked up the other knives from the other bodies. Suddenly, the door behind her slammed open, hitting her in the back. She stumbled forward, and crashed into a wall. She twisted around to see her attacker, but he had already reached her. He stomped his hoof into her head, sending it into the wall. She slumped to the ground, barely conscious. Her eyes were unfocused, and she couldn't hear much else other than a high pitched ringing. She turned to look at her attacker, but could only see a blurry haze.
A shape was coming closer to her, but she couldn't quite make out what it was. Quickly, the haze became the barrel of a gun. Her eyes widened in realisation. She started trembling, and tried kicking out, but to no avail; her attacker simply stepped on her leg.
"P-please don't!" she managed to say, her voice barely audible. The figure above her paused, and she that she could hear a sigh.
To her surprise, the figure stood up, lowering the gun away from her. She thought she could hear a voice, which seemed to be coming from the attacker, but she couldn't make out what he was saying. It looked like he wanted her to stand though.
She carefully got herself up, using the wall to support her. The figure started walking away, which probably meant he wanted her to follow him. She let go of the wall, and tried stepping to him, but her legs couldn't support her, and she stumbled forwards. She was about to fall, when a hand on her shoulder stopped her.
"Careful." She could barely make out the warning. She turned and saw her attacker's face. She was surprised to see a young face staring back at her. Despite her blurry vision, she could see that he had a long mane, that was a dark blue in colour, which covered one of his eyes. His coat appeared to be grey.
"Thanks." she mumbled, before losing consciousness.
Author's Note
So, this is my take on an the pony apocalypse. And for those who were a little confused by this, time is NOT linear in this story. I will follow one timeline for a little bit, before jumping to the next. I will jump back to most of them, so the timeline will eventually all fit together. Most of the chapters are in Rapid's perspective, but it will sometimes jump to others. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the story.
