The Trotting Dead-The World After This

by Lucky_Phrase

Rating: teen
Tags: Tragedy, Sad, Main 6, Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Spike, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Other
Length: 7635

Equestria: A kingdom inhabited by all kinds of ones, from powerful mages to humble shopkeepers… A world untouched by war and evil and death. However all good things must come to an end, and they have decided to do such at the same time.

No world is as lucky as that of the one that harbors the kingdom of Equestria, and none exist more lucky than it's inhabitants. They live alone; unaware that things such as death and darkness and corruption are even capable of reaching nation threatening proportions. This is not a product of nature, but of the world nature has placed them in; barely even noticing their minor existence in their world. From birth, they know of the threats that this darkness places upon their world. Everpony knows that everypony had evil in them, everypony knows that they crave violence… everypony knows that everypony dies. There are times where they die one by one, slowly wearing downtown he population of the species, however that is not always the case…

Published 2014-03-06 22:00:03 UTC
Last updated 2014-03-06 22:00:03 UTC

Prolouge

In worlds so large and rapidly developing as Equestria and those similar to it, it should come as no surprise that every individual has their own unique take on a story or event, and their own story to tell that relates to recent events. Even in areas that we consider to have low populations usually harbor over a thousand of the dominant species of that world, and in turn, that is over a thousand varying stories and opinions to listen to in the event one wishes to receive every possible portion of information relating to a specific matter. However, in works of fiction, or even that of non-fictional narratives, the story tends to follow one individual being, or at the very least least a group of individuals, making it easy to forget that every character that they kill or spare, align with or battle, romance or turn away; each has his or her own respective story that lead them to the position that allowed the main character or group to do build or destroy whatever relationship they were destined to have. Ironically enough, this story begins far from our protagonists, following the story of a young mare who only knew of our main heroes through stories of their greatness; their honesty, their loyalty, their kindness, their generosity, their humor, and their friendship. Unfortunately for her, this protagonist would never live to meet these heroes, as her tale would end long before theirs even begins.

Our story begins nearly two hundred miles northeast of our main protagonists; in a city known as Canterlot, following a young mare named Divine Sunrise. Divine had already been working for the north Canterlot hospital as a nurse for over two years and was still only in her early thirties. She was rather effective for a simple nurse and many complimented her on her abilities and medical prows, saying that she should have finished medical school so as to become a doctor; she once attempted to do so, but failed her exams and decided that being a nurse was enough for her. Even she believed that it was odd for her to give up so quickly, but some part of her enjoyed the humbleness of being a simple nurse.

Over the past few months, patients had been checking in with odd symptoms with no determinable cause. It was simply as if their bodies were beginning to shut down, much like when a pony begins to die of old age as opposed to a disease; but she was noticing that the ages of anypony who came in with these symptoms could have been anything; eight to eighty. She had been walking down the halls of the hospital, heading to one of these such patients now and decided to look over his information before she checked on him, however through her entire walk her eyes never seemed to leave the section of the clipboard full of forms that specified his age. The stallion was only 17, and had actually been checked in with these symptoms by his mother when he reported feeling this way. Due to her focus on the forms, and not where she had been walking, Divine found herself colliding with a number of doctors on her way to the stallion's room. Eventually, her walk had come to an end, seeming to have been another thirty years placed on her life due to the question's filling her mind as to not only this stallion, but all who checked in with his symptoms. 17. Too young for whatever unlabeled decease had gripped his poor life. She peeked her head through the door quietly, trying to see if he was awake, however for nearly a minute, the contents of his room were beyond her field of vision; her mind dragging behind her body as she pondered the questions that had been baffling her for the past number of months.

When the doctors examined these ponies, the doctors would always say that they had no doubt that the patient would be fine, that this was perfectly treatable, and even so their immune system would kick it without any help from the doctors. Even many of the patents were able to determine the falsity of the doctor's words. Everything that the doctors were capable of examining checked out as fine except for the things that would initially cause the symptoms they were feeling, such as their vital organs only partially running, but they could not find any causes to that. Even with the obvious lie that the doctors were divulging to their patients, the doctors refused to release the truth to the public. After all, many ponies were coming in with these symptoms so if it was a disease or infection that they were currently unable to isolate, then it would most certainly be contagious and they would have no means of determining who has it. Even worse, this had been happening over the past number of months, so if anypony came to Canterlot on vacation in this time, they could have, and likely did, catch it as well, and if they left then they would have also brought this infection to their town of origin. The doctors also couldn't get that information either, as Princess Celestia getting involved in this would also arouse suspicion, and these doctors knew nothing of any Government operations that she's hidden, causing them to have no knowledge that she could hide this. Lying to the patients nearly induced a feeling of nausea for Divine; despite not having seen it, she had no doubts that patients had died due to these symptoms before and would continue to if the doctors did not find anything. This was another reason she was happy to not be a doctor as opposed to a humble nurse; she would only have to hold up the lies, as opposed to telling a pony with no chance for their life, that they will be fine without any need of help.

But after running her mind through all of this, she briefly put on her fake smile that the doctors tell her that it is polite to wear when entering one of these patients' rooms, but it did not take long for it to fade. She straitened her back and walked into the room, heading strait for the stallion's heart monitor and turning it off; silencing the screaming continuous beep indicating the stopped heart of the body that was lying on the floor next to the bed, face first on the ground. She felt around his body for a pulse and the temperature of his veins, trying to estimate his time of death. She felt sick to her stomach, and attempted to calm herself with slow, deep breaths as she documents the patient's time of death and notes that it appears that in this weakened condition, the fall from the bed to the floor broke his nose and killed him.

She wanted so much to feel sorry for the pony, but she had known too little to care about him. It wasn't that she was unkind or didn't realize the importance of every life, or even that she simply wanted to hold it in for the sake of her job; it was simply that she knew too little of him to know what this world lost in losing him. However, some amount of her still felt sick at the thought of the mother of this stallion hearing that he died from falling on his face too hard.

She had contacted the doctors to come and remove his body from the room, seeing as the room was technically now 'vacant' and anypony placed here would likely not take kindly to a dead body on the floor next to their bed when they're trying to be placed in a better condition. She sat there waiting for several minutes, her uncomfortableness of being this close to a corpse growing each time the thin second hand on the clock passes the 12 printed on the clock in an elegant font, as was typical of Canterlot. She looked up at it and watched the minutes roll away, trying to avert her eyes from the body and distract herself from the horrible things that come out of a death, let alone a death in a hospital; the hospital would likely be sued by the family members of the colt, or at least have to pay for his funeral, the mother would be distraught for years to come, and worse yet if he was an only child at this age then his mother is likely incapable of having any more children and the likelihood is that one of his parents' bloodline will not continue because of this.

She sighed and looked towards the door, noticeably failing to distract herself from each and every one of those things, and her mind only producing more terrible scenarios and effects as a result of trying to avert her thoughts from it. As she turned her attention to the door she had hoped to see the doctors walk in only seconds after her eyes reached the door, but was only greeted by the cold looking slab of concrete attached to a hinge or two. Reluctantly, she finally turned her gaze back to the body, not sure what she's find but no longer having anything she could focus on to avert her thoughts from him. However it was at that time that she noticed something; had he died from failing to sustain the impact then he would have eventually begun bleeding from the portion of his face that had hit the concrete ground at some point, especially considering how long she had been there, and the fact that she was beginning to smell the fact that he was dead. But the concrete under his overturned head looked as if it had been unchanged; smooth, cold, sterile, polished, and looking very "Canterlot worthy". Not a speck of blood; leaving the only signs that this pony was deceased being his lack of movement and the subtle, yet developing stench of a corpse.

Reluctantly, Divine slowly moved her hoof towards the stallion's head, gently placing it on the portion of his mane that overs the back of his head, pushing a large amount of the clean and rather smooth hair out of the way. She began to apply pressure to the back of his head, trying to apply as little as possible so as to not greatly feel the cold flesh and lack of warmth she expected to receive from a corpse of a pony, but still enough that if she changed the angling of her hoof, and by extension the pressure, it would be capable of overturning his head to that she could examine his face more closely. As was expected of her though she was hesitant to do so; she had never believed any of those myths of the dead rising from their graves, especially those that lead to those ex-beings becoming violent creatures like zombies or vampires, the idea of those granted with life not only wanting to only destroy, but for creatures as foolish and easily defeated creatures such as zombies conquering the world seemed absolutely preposterous to her. However, that was also the case with ponies of all ages reporting symptoms of a pony who is within weeks of dying of old age, and in most cases even less time than that, until a few days ago. And in a world that she thought had such set-in-stone ideas of magic's extents proving to have next to no limits with the rather recent news of Twilight Sparkle in Ponyville becoming an Alicorn, she was beginning to believe that is was not impossible for her beliefs on the undead to be disproven as well.

However, after a long while she eventually decides that she should examine him further. After all she felt that she needed to find his actual cause of death, considering that the doctors did not seem to be coming to collect his body any time soon. She shifted her hoof and began to slowly push his head over, doing so to reveal each feature at a time to compromise between feeling obligated to examine him and not wanting to do so at all. She slowly began to reveal his right eye which appeared to be mostly closed, but some part of his eyelid seemed to be lazy and did not pull up to conceal the entirety of his eye, revealing the lower half of his iris, and just a small portion of his lower pupil. This displayed the first flaw in the appearance of this corpse; the iris was a pale empty grey, almost silver yet luckily still a shade that was easily distinguishable from the whites, and the pupil as well seemed to have an unhealthy silver/grey glow to it that made the eye look like a pale marble held within a silver ring, and very noticeably not the norm for even a corpse.

Divine felt her heart skip a beat at the shade of his eye. She had already felt awkward and scared at having to be in the room with this pony and now the shade of his eye made it apparent that his death was far than a normal occurrence, only leading for the shadow of dread that was already covering her to only become darker over her body. She stumbled and nearly dropped the head, but managed to catch herself, thinking that she wouldn't want to have to overturn his head to see that again. She deeply inhales and then exhales before proceeding. She pushes ever so slightly more, rolling his head again at the same pace, eventually reaching his snout and getting a good look at it. His nose was indeed scrunched up and busied, however it being bruised indicated that he fell over still alive and that the fall did not kill him. Though that wasn't that implausible, after all if he survived the fall then it wouldn't be surprising that if he didn't get attention from a nurse or doctor than he would die on his own considering his symptoms. Though there was something off about his mouth; which as well had gotten weak and was dangling open as no muscle that would hold it closed was still functioning. His teeth looked stronger than they logically should, especially considering how weak the skin on his head felt and looked already. They looked hardened and durable, capable of biting through Celestia knows what. Divine almost felt inclined to feel them, to determine if her optical analysis deceived her, however she had already begun to question her previous lack of belief in the undead and wasn't going to take the risk that he may be what she was finally believing to be a probable creature. A shutter ran down her spine at the thought that this young stallion had actually become such a thing, and that she was holding his- or rather it's head in her hooves, placing her in one of the more dangerous positions when encountering a the creature she thought she held in her hooves.

Divine stopped again and began to think to herself. Why had she begun to think of this now? She never believed in threats like this before now, why would she start now? Just because of some corpse; surely that couldn't be it, she knew that ponies died in this hospital every day. Could it be his symptoms; no, many ponies had reported them recently and anypony who admitted under them normally (say a very old pony) stayed dead. Had she been Pinkie Pie the credit would go to her Pinkie Sense, had she been Twilight Sparkle her magic could likely find if there was still some consciousness within his body if she willed it to do so, had she been Rainbow Dash or Applejack she would feel no fear as she could handle it, and had she been Fluttershy or Rarity she would not have been brave enough to be here in the first place. Her mind began to prattle on in that manner for a while; thinking of what the Elements of Harmony, or rather Ex-Elements of Harmony at this point, would do in her place, how they would know why they wouldn't be afraid, and who and how they would comfort the ones who are to scared to continue, and then realizing that Princess Celestia would let her own life be taken before she reveals to her prized pupil the levity of death, especially when top doctors in Canterlot are unable to determine the cause.

However, Divine's extended fantasies were quickly cut short as she heard an empty groan escape the mouth of the stallion. A rough, drawn out sound that sounded as if he was waking up from being stabbed in the throat; his breath washing over her hooves and scampering up her body, moving along her nerves like squirrels running along electrical wires, the cold moist breath tickling the fur over her hooves and pushing them towards her ever so slightly, making her feel as if she was being forced up against a wall as a monstrous beast approached her and was likely to not waste it's time toying with her, despite it simply being the breath of a pony that she had confirmed to be deceased. Within seconds of the cold breath touching her fur she could feel every booming beat of her heart in her chest, and feel the warmth of her blood leave her chest and spread amongst her body, leaving her chest feeling cold and empty before the blood returned, only to leave again with another booming thump ringing in her ears. She tried to drop the head and run for the door, or at the very least stumble back into it, yet no movement came from her; her muscles tightening up to move her backwards and away, yet her blood seeming to freeze in place every time she tried desperately to jerk her fearful body away from the now breathing corpse as her mind raced with ideas and questions about this pony. Her mind a broken flood gate all of the terror inducing outcomes of this situation her overwhelmed and terrified mind could bear and her eyes began to leak with tears as the faint images of all of the ways she could die, or kill him, or even become another as the movies say so that she could make more and more piling up over the image of the awakening corpse in front of her as her tears leaped from her eyes and fell down her cheeks, eventually leaving her face and seeming to fall for an eternity before finally landing on the ground below her, spreading a small moist dot on the otherwise flawless floor.

However the creature in front of her had no such reservations; no thoughts, no emotions, and no pulse; nothing to stop it from standing and claiming it's first victim. It let out another similar groan, a series of gurgles mixed in behind the large groan as it began to move it's limbs, slowly dragging them along the floor so as to position them to make it possible for the creature to stand it's self up. After slowly dragging it's fore-hooves along the ground for what felt to Divine like an eternity they reached the sides of the creatures head and it re-angled them to face the ground. Divine finally managed to move from her position once, finally pulling past the seemingly solid blood in her legs to jerk her foreleg up from touching the back of the creature's head only to place it at her side as she freezes in fear once more, the same feelings shooting through her nervous system as she continues to try to run and the hard teeth she observed before, as well as the hollow sounding bones and the flimsy dead skin of the corpse's head smacking into the hard mahogany floors. It let out another groan from under the weight of it's own head as it began to apply pressure to each of it's limbs, slowly lifting himself from the ground so as to stand up as his limbs wiggle and flail around, struggling to hold his weight as his motor functions were not entirely functional again. He let out another sound, sounding more like a growl with another gurgling sound behind it than a groan, as his freezing saliva jumped from his mouth at his most recent sound and landed on Divine, only causing her to lock up more as she gazed up at the weak looking corpse. His skin looked thin and weak, his pale, empty eyes now fully displayed and his strong teeth visible as he screeches towards Divine, frequently letting spit hop out of his mouth as he continues to make similar sounds, but luckily he does not move yet.

At the moment, the creature was simply standing in place, continuing with it's sounds as it looks around the room, trying to get some concept of where it is; after all it had just come back from the dead and was no longer the pony that had died in that room hours before. This allowed Divine to finally move herself, though now she wasn't sure if she should simply bolt for the door, as this creature was not aware that she was living yet, however if she moved then it would see, and her education gave away that the teeth that this creature bore were exclusively that of a predator leading her to not want it to know that she was there. Though there was no doubt in her mind that she had to leave this room, the only question was how to proceed with it. She decided that slow would be the best option, as if she was slow enough the change in her position may be too subtle for a creature such as this to notice, as it's mind was not functioning at it's maximum capacity. Though she did feel that she needed to be careful; she'd need a backup to fall back on if it did notice her and ergo her mind quickly jumped to magic being the best option for that, her only real problems would be presented by her own mind, as she was perfectly capable of neutralizing this threat physically, but she had become uncomfortable simply sitting in a room with it when it was just a limp body on the ground. Now it had become a semi-conscious creature; one that upon death it could very well be debated whether or not Divine was a murderer after she took it's life, though in the same way that she would for killing a large intelligent animal. Though ponies like Fluttershy have shone that some ponies view the murder of animals equal and if not, more evil than that of another pony. She decided however that if it came to that then she could at the very least argue that she would have died had she not done so; he was no longer a pony and was easily qualified as a predator, so if he lunged at her then she could argue it was in self defense. If she could persuade herself of the same in the few seconds it would take him to reach her that is.

Ever so slowly, Divine brought her horn to a subtle glow, a dim gentle shine that would make her capable of producing a spell capable of knocking him back long enough to prepare a finishing blow. However, the predator before her quickly took notice to this; it's head whipping back to her, the center of his face positioned so that under normal circumstances she would be in center view, though his eyes seemed out of place, empty, and unfocused; almost as if he was blind. She managed to stop herself from flinching or running from his sudden movement and surprisingly intimidating gaze, considering it's lack of focus, managing to freeze herself in the same way that her body did for her when this creature was first reawakening. This however was as far as she could go at the moment; the magic that surrounds a Unicorn's horn when she is ready to cast a spell is not a consistent glow, flickering and resonating with his or her potential in the art of magic. While normally this is an added bonus for them, adding to their gracefulness and style and whatnot, here is was obviously a down side, as the constant change kept the predator in front of her interested in it's source, and it was obviously focusing on her. If she were to lower her magic then it would notice a second change and pounce, and if she tried to step away then it would notice another change in her position, and she could not bring herself to kill him, even if he was no longer a pony. And so she stood, motionless, the only change in the room being the gentle change in the glow of her magic as she tried to keep herself still enough that it would once again believe her to be a simple product of the environment. She tightened her muscles, trying to freeze herself in place and stiffen her body so that not even the slightest movement would come from her. The predator before her remained silent for some time, though eventually it began to inhale and exhale loudly, the low gurgling still somewhere among the large cold breaths. Once again, it's breath hit Divine's fur and began to weave it's cold touch in between each hair, almost freezing the nerves below her skin. She managed to catch another shiver before it shook her body just enough to alert the predator of her presence, though her facial expression slowly and subtly changed to display her struggle. Similar to the last time it's breath hit her, she began to hear her heart pound in her head, her ears filling with the sounds of her own body and the low quiet sounds that would often escape the creature's mouth. She had noticed the change in her facial expression herself, and now expected the predator to notice as well and waste no time pouncing on her and bite into her neck. While it did take notice to the change, it was not sure what it meant; it had just begun to think that the light of her horn was as much a product of the environment as it believed her to be and wondered if this too was natural; after all this creature was new to this world, and knew little of facial expressions and hospitals and nurses and scents and everything, only that it was a hunter that needed something to hunt. It seemed to make a different noise at the notice of this; acknowledging the change and showing it's curiosity towards it.

Divine stifled a sigh of relief, tightening her chest out of fear and anticipation of what else she would end up doing that would give her away. Her hope that she would make it out of here and away from this being with her health intact was dwindling by the second, and she more and more bean to believe that something she does would be what gave her away to the creature. Her mind began to frantically run through her options again, despite having already done so and realizing that the only thing she could do was remain still. She could not run, she could not fight, and she could not change hat she was doing to be less noticeable. Her eyes were locked on that of the predator, keeping a careful eye on it to see when it lost interest in her and when it would finally give her another chance to escape. She had no such luck. She eyed the creature carefully for a long long while, perhaps nearly ten minutes hoping desperately that it would give her another chance to run, give her another chance to be done with this pony, to warn others that she has seen the undead, to spread her story across the world. She began to let her mind focus on that, the outcome of this event where she escapes; lives to tell her story across Equestria, perhaps even write a book about what had happened and how it changed her life, to get to the Princess so that she could stop this from getting to the public, and maybe even meet the Ex-Elements of Harmony sometime. But there was a part of her that refused to even ponder such a preposterous idea; a part of her in the back of her mind that kept screaming at her of her inevitable failure, and her unavoidable death from this event. As part of her began to view this outcome, the probability of it grew, becoming more and more apparent to the terrified filly that she would not escape, that she would be only the first victim of the thousands that would fruitlessly try to stop these creatures. This feeling of dread grew over her body, enveloping her and nearly bringing her not her knees, but the part of her that wanted to survive managed to keep herself up, trying to keep herself in place like a statue in the hardly visible glimmer of hope that she would live to see the next day's dawn.

The next day's dawn... She thought to herself, imagining it in her head as her eyes slowly drifted to the ground. The creature before her let out another growl at the more noticeable action than a subtle change of a facial expression, and she finally managed to ignore it, as she knew what would happen in the next few moments. The next day's dawn... She repeated once more in her head. She looked back up to this creature weakly; her muscles exhausted from holding her position for so long, her chest hurting form being so tightly clenched o a to silence herself, her flanks aching from remaining on the hard floor next to his corpse for so long, her eyes under the pressure of the tears of fear that are desperately fighting to escape her body, and her mouth jaw aching; trying to resist the vomit from the stench of the corpse, the fear of the undead, and the sorrow of not only this colt being used as a simple host for an unknown virus, but the future that she knew lied beyond the next day's dawn. She thought of what exactly would lie beyond that door if she lived through this; more of them would come, they would only increase in numbers the more time passed, they would tear away at Equestria's society and infect it's citizens to be more of them, the Princess would not be alerted in time, the Elements of Harmony were no longer in Equestria; Equestria's would not last a day. She thought forward once more, envisioning the next day's dawn, though this time seeing it for what it would truly be; infested with these creatures, their kind roaming Equestria's fields and plains, standing in alleys hunched over the corpse of another pony as they tear their teeth into their skin an muscles and bones, leaving them only a smelly pile of red tissue in the back of an alley, not even proper enough to come back. She looked on into the creatures eyes, seeing the next day's dawn beyond them... And she made her choice...

"I don't want to live to see it..." She says aloud, as her personal way to alert the creature to her presence. Most ponies would accuses the stench getting to her for this, or perhaps speculate that she had some reason to not be thinking clearly; however those who are skilled in analyzing psychology would have no problem deforming why she made such a drastic choice. Equestria was always a happy place; Celestial had done everything in her power to make her kingdom perfect, hiding her subjects from all the wrongs this world would produce for them; death, greed, violence, and the very few wars that Equestria had nearly gotten in we're taken care of covertly, not alerting the public that there was any chance of many deaths coming to Equestria, and many subsequent generations became more and more accustomed to the near perfection (places such as Manehatten and Las Pegasus excluded, of course). When a pony is confronted with a practical apocalypse after a life of no life and death conflict, and never being taught of that sort of conflict occurring in Equestria's history, they are faced with an incredibly difficult choice. They were never taught of anything such as this; what could happen, what likely will happen, and especially how to deal with it. Self defense was only taught to ponies who went out of their way to teach themselves such skills; ponies who study weapons, martial arts, or simply taught themselves to fight through experience. Divine was none of these; a simple medical student who had stopped when she had become a nurse, being satisfied with simply that; any knowledge of fighting or self defense was as far from her mind, completely clueless on the matter. She could not deal with death, she could not deal with loss, she could not deal with combat; she had no place in the world that these creatures would create and now way to escape this room if she did. She was well aware that she would only be faced by another one of these if she escaped and another and another, and the only skills she had to survive was the ability to run and the ability to hide.

There was a brief pause in her mind when the sounds of her own words flooded her ears, just barely sounding over the pounding of her nervous heart; the sounds beyond her now closed eyes seeming to take eternities to reach her ears, and even longer to sound as if they are approaching her. She announced her choice aloud because it seemed the easiest way out for her; she wouldn't have to struggle to get out of here, or see the death of her friends and or family, and she wouldn't see the horrors of her newest nightmares realized. Her eyes were closed, knowing the fate that awaited only a few feet from her now; however because she knew it was coming, and because she viewed her death to some extent as a way out of the future beyond the door behind her she managed to keep them gently shut; not squeezing them tightly to prevent from seeing anything of her end. Tears were pushing on her eyes again, her mind having time to slowly flood with the sadness of what she was leaving behind due to the world around her seeming to slow, and the world that was beyond that door before she closed it over an hour ago. Behind her closed eyelids, the dark world she had created for herself in her last moments of consciousness began to glow with images of the beauty of the world that lay beyond the seemingly isolated, claustrophobic hospital room she stood in with one of the first denizens of the new Equestria.

Canterlot Castle; tall, elegant, smooth, a cool, somewhat soothing and undeniably beautiful shade of pale grey concrete, numbers of golden pieces of architecture such as stairs, window linings, bridges and roofs. Brilliantly shaded red cloth used as carpets and curtains across the interior of the beautiful castle. The many hills of Applewood and Las Pegasus; stretching miles out across the hill-obscured landscape, many thin long curvy dirt roads running up and around the various mountains, leading ponies up and down and all around them. The cloud composed architecture similar to that of Cloudsdale, yet low enough for Earth Ponies and Unicorns to enjoy and snow ever so slightly capping the very top of the mountains during colder portions of the year, the occasional wagon or coach slowly being pulled up one of the many roads, only appearing as a small speck of a shadow to anypony far away enough to see the entirety of the mountain, let alone the entire landscape. The Crystal Empire; a city always shimmering in the light that reflects through every solitary crystal and gem in the entire kingdom, illuminating miles beyond it's boarders with the light reflected and refracted by the many gemstones that compose the many buildings of the bustling kingdom. It's castle, a siring tower of diamonds, stretching to much greater heights than even the Canterlot Castle meets, despite the elevation it gains from the mountain that the city if placed on. Structures from the castle reaching out to cover the boarders of the empire in an elegant shade of violet. The open country of Ponyville; a small hill amongst the mostly flat fields, only covered by tall, thin, and plentiful blades of healthy bright green grass, ever so slightly dancing and leaning with the wind, as the wind sends clouds of pollen floating in the air above for only a few seconds before it is blown away again, ready to greet the next wary traveler who happens upon the humble village. Peeking over the hill, a number of quaint little homes and buildings dotting the plains over the next hill, their color a somewhat pale shade of tan, brown and the occasionally pink bit of texture lining the structure of the many small buildings, and weak yet somehow reliable hay roofs lightly planted on top of each, aside from special buildings such as town hall, the clocktower, and the library. A smile crept up Divine Sunrise's cheeks.

Divine took a deep breath in through her nostrils, trying to place herself on the calm hill that she had pictured for herself; looking on to the small town and letting the smells of the country carry her away from any worry that the Elements of Harmony, having been living there, could dispel. Though to no avail. Her nose was only given the scents of decay and death; a think heavy atmosphere generated from the scents only leaving way for fear and nausea. She could feel it's humid breath coming from closer now, finally opening her eyes she placed one final gaze on the excuse for a new life form. It looked no different than before, which briefly took Divine off guard after how long it had seemed to have been since she had drifted of, began dreaming of the world that this night would steal from her. She felt like she was seeing a childhood nightmare for the first time in decades, it finally deciding to end the story that she had always managed to wake herself up before it ended. However with another slow breath she readjusted, gazing at the creature as it slipped it's forehooves under it's body once more, stumbling towards her one final time before it was within distance to end her. And it wasted no time in the manner that she had.

As it's forehooves began to move under it's torso, it applied rapid pressure to it's hind legs, propelling it's self forward towards it's prey. Another terror inducing gurgle noise escaping it's maw as it threw it's self at Divine, it's saliva flying all about the room as it did so. The saliva hit Divine's fur on her face, and another shiver froze her in her spot, preventing her from moving in the event that she would want to change her mind; to try to escape from her fate. However she did not; she remained in her spot, now unwavered from the image of the creature flying at her; the shiver only running down her spine as an irresistable reaction of her personality. The creature's snout hit her neck and it's body followed suit, knocking Divine to the floor, and through the door behind her. She landed hard on her head, the dark wood floor sending waves of pain through the back of her skull as she hit it. The creature raised it's head once more, letting out one final cry before it bit into it's prey.

With a single thrust, and little to no effort the creature's teeth pierced Divine's skin, bitting into her warm rich muscles. Pain once again shot through her body, resonating from her neck and channeling down through her nerves up to her head and down to her hooves. She attempted to remain calm; to accept her fate as her mind already had, however she was not prepared for the feeling of death. She could feel her nervous system burning, feeling every blood cell in her veins as the predator's bite began to infect her blood stream, preparing to turn her into the second in this new race. She was hoping that it would prevent that; that this creature would take away whatever it needs to to prevent her coming back. She could feel every singular cell as they were each poisoned and continued to flow through her system, focusing too much on her pain to realize that the corpse was beginning to bite into different areas, obviously preferring to actually eat it's prey rather than simply kill it with a single bite. As the cells branched out through her veins she could feel each burning nerve that was attached to them, feeling how her system branched out to maintain the blood flow trough her entire body. It would have been an enlightening experience; feeling all of your systems, if her body was not collapsing on it's self. She let out a scream, instinctively forcing her head up as she tried to push the creature off of her, but to no avail. Tears began to stream from her eyes as she felt another bite in her abdomen, which the creature soon moved it's head away from.

At this point there was no doubt to her, that she would not only not escape from here but that no pony would; that this would be the end of Equestria, and that she would not want to live to see another day. Not after this; with these gaps in her form, this burning sensation in her body, her vocal cords tearing themselves apart as they tried to raise her volume to the point where she could all but feel them break. Her throat rough, her nerves on fire, her eyes too moist to see out of, and her body now too exhausted to hold her head up any longer the creature finally gave her the release that she had been pining for. She felt it's muzzle connect with her body once more; felt it's cold saliva drip onto her chest before it's breath sunk below the skin above her rib cage, and it's teeth sunk into her lung and heart. While it did only remove a portion of both, seeing as it was in between, she did not feel it; only the pressure pushing on her organs in the nano-seconds before her final escape.

It's teeth pushed into the riches and warmest portion of her body, and with an explosion of the warms sensations flooding into it's mouth from her living blood the screams stopped and were only folioed by a loud thud, leaving the only sounds being the creature tearing to Divine's meat, and the many frantic cloppings of hoof-steps from the many doctors and nurses that attempted to sprint away now that Divine had been pushed into the hall. Divine now simply lay on the ground; dark moist and warm blood seeping out from gaps all across her body and creating a large puddle below her on the ground, staining the otherwise perfect floor. Her neck was bent at an odd angle, as she had fallen limp while her head was still in the air and she did not have the ability to correct it's angling; now doomed to be contorted and unnatural until some pony passes by and decides that she deserved better. Her eyes were bloodshot, small red lines tainting the otherwise perfect whiteness of her shimmering green eyes, and trails of moistness trickling down from them and dampening her fur from the tears that had escaped her eyes moments ago. Her mouth hung open and her eyes were pointed at nothing as the creature continued to dig it's way into her chest; hollowing out her body leaving only a few weak muscles and of course bones.

Divine, like most ponies never knew what to expect when death finally claimed her. There wasn't much in Equestria in terms of religion, the closest things to religious figures in Equestria were their Monarchs; Princess Celestia and Luna, so they had no idea what to expect would happen to their consciousness when their body stopped supporting it. It was nothing; silence. It did not go to a cloud filled paradise, or a burning inferno meant to punish those who did not obey. No multi colored bridge to a paradise that she had worked to deserve, and no ice filled wasteland of nothingness, emptiness and bitterness. Not even a realm of eternal darkness, of silence and fear; not even a void where it could be left alone, comforted by only it's screaming thoughts and the occasional shadow moving across the desert of darkness. The consciousness that was once Divine Sunrise was not transported to another realm where she could be left for eternity; it was simply gone. No possibilities for resurrection and no way to get her back. No where for her to go and nothing for her to do.

Emptiness...

Silence...