The End of the Beginning

I rushed into the night, to where I heard the scream. What I saw was something out of a horror flick, designed for children.

I saw a bunch of... horses? Ponies? Let's go with the second one. They all had ruby red eyes, which brought back memories of a song I'm fond of. Their skin was black, and hanging loosely on their bones. They seemed to be a zombie of some sort, and obviously had not be the source of the scream, but the cause of it. More  notably, however, would be the smaller pony off to the right, in the corner of my eye. It (I'm gonna call it "it" because I don't know it's gender.) had short red hair, yellow skin, orange eyes, and was the only possible source of the scream.

Unless I'm on some sort hallucinogen, this was real.  So that's when I thought of why a small pony would be out here in the dark. I also thought of what weapons I had, wei-

AHHHHHH!

THAT ONE TRIED TO BITE ME!

OH GOD RUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRURNUNRUNRUNRUNRUNURNURNURNURNURNURNRUNRUNRUNRU GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

TAKE THE PONY WITH YOU!

*five minutes later*

Phew... I think we lost them. What time is it? It seems to be 1:10. I had the small pony with me, who seems to be HORRIFIED of me. She's (I'm gonna assume that it's a she, due to how feminine her screams sound) only been wailing for the last few minutes, but now she was screaming "GO AWAY!" quite frequently. Due to this, I decided to try and talk to her. (for conversation, the pony will be in red.)

"Stop screaming! I'm not going to hurt you."

"Yah ya will! Applejack told me about the monsters in the Everfree Forest, but she never said anything 'bout a bear that walks on two legs!"

"I'm not a bear! I'm technically a monkey. But, more to the point, who's Applejack? And isn't this forest called the Timeless Forest?"

"Mister, ah don't know where ya got that name from, but this here forest is the Everfree Forest. Anyways, yall ain't gettin' the name of my sister from this pony! No sir!"

Well, now we know her age. Only a child would make a mistake like that. But, you have to admit, her antics were adorable.

"So, what's your name?"

"Ah ain't telling ah monster my name!"

"If I wanted to hurt you, I would have done so earlier."

"How do ah know ya ain't lying ta me?"

"We're in a secluded forest. I'm at least a good 2 feet higher than you. I have a knife and a gun. You are unarmed. Face it, in a fight, I would win."

"... alright."

"Good! Glad we agree. So, I've got a few questions for you. One, What's your name?"

"Mah name's Applebloom."

"Next, what are you doing in a forest in the middle of the night?"

"Ah'm here ta get mah cutie mark!"

...

...

...

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!"

That was my immediate reaction to the rustling in the bushes that I heard. I turned around to where I heard it, and I saw one of those zombie ponies. I then preformed a roundhouse kick, which knocked it's head into the nearest tree. However, there was no apparent damage, and it continued to attack me. I then took out my knife and tried to stab it in the face.

DAMN! I MISSED!

C'MON! DIE!

AHH! IT BIT ME!

*Swosh*

*STAB*

*Thunk*

Is... Is it dead? I think it's dead. That's good, cuz I feel a bit woozy. Do I have any tylenol? No, I don't. Maybe the pony knows where to find some.

"Hey. Appleboom."

"It's AppleBLOOM."

"Riiiight. Do you know where I can find some painkillers?"

"What are those?"

"Pills."

"Nope. Sorry mister."

"Could you stop calling me that? i do have a name."

"Then what is it, mister?"

"Jacob Schott."

"That's a funny name, Jacob."

"Not where I come from. By the way, where is the nearest hospital?"

"In Ponyville! Ah can lead you there, but I can't run that fast, so ya'll have to carry me."

"So, if I hadn't picked her up when the zombies attacked her, she would be dead."

"Alrighty then, you have yourself a deal. Hop on!"

I was leaning over to let the pony on my back, and as she was surprisingly light, I could tend to my right ribcage. There was a startling amount of blood on my shirt, and it hurt like hell.

"That must be where the zombie bit me... Let's hope there's no venom."

Here I had a choice. Use up some of my clothing to make a bandage for my ribs, or move on. On the one hand, I'll bleed out much slower. On the other, I'll have to waste time making it, and I'm not that experienced in first aid. I decided to ask Applebloom if she had any first aid knowledge.

"Hey, Applebloom was it? Do you know how to make a bandage?"

"Nope!"

"...Fuck. This. Noise. With. A. Hammer."

"So, about how far are we from the hospital?"

"It's in tha middle of tha town, and we're right next to tha edge of the forest."

"Thank God with a basket full of blood."

"Who's God? And what's blood?"

"I'll explain after I get patched up."

Just then, I heard a extremely guttural cry of rage. At this noise, I yelled at Applebloom to get off my back, and that I would handle this. I pulled out the gun, and dimly recognized the fact that it was loaded with rubber bullets, and if the target was a zombie, then i'm dead.

The good news: the cry seemed to have come from a large orange pony with a hat. The bad news: the pony kicked me in the chest before I had time to get a shot off.