Equestria: The Last Of Us

Chapter 1: Welcome to Manehattan!

Soft light poured in through the stained window. The sounds of ponies moving out and about had begun to gradually fill the air. A cool breeze flew in through the open bedroom window. Curled up in my bed, I dreamt of delicious, fluffy pancakes, covered in delicious syrup. Granted, the pancake box was WAY past its expiration date, and the syrup was acquired through a pretty amount of ration cards, but that breakfast seemed to always sneak into my dreams, even if it was on a single day, many years back. I hummed as I slipped deeper into slumber, the light seeming to fade off of my eyelids.

That was when I felt a nudge. How dare someone interrupts my pancake filled slumber. I growled and turned to my side, squeezing my eyes shut when I realized I turned towards the window. I heard a soft flutter of wings before something heavy landed on me, making me release a breath that I somehow been holding.

"Come on now Sky, it's time to get up. We need to get moving soon." I heard a voice that I registered as a mare's, pour into my ears. I folded my ears shut and flailed about, trying to knock the unknown sleep assailant off my bed. I heard a soft thud as I realized my task was completed, before there was shuffling of hooves on the floor, and the pony had plopped itself back on top of me. "Skyyyliiiighhhhtt...Geeeettt uuuuppp." The mare said in a singsong voice.

"No, go away. Give me five more minutes of pancakes..." I mumbled back, fidgeting to get comfortable. There was a soft chuckle, before I felt the weight lift off of my body.

"Still dreaming about those stale pancakes Sky? Maybe if you would get your lazy flank out of bed, we can get an early spot in the ration line." She voice said in a promising tone.

My ears perked at the mention of pancakes...but I stopped myself. This was one of her tricks, and Celestia damn it, I was not going to fall for it this time. "Go away..." I mumbled some more. "Let me sleep."

My ear felt warm as I realized she leaned in. "Mmmmm..." She cooed. "I can just taste the pancakes. So fluffy, with a side of staleness, covered in sticky, maple syrup...and topped with-" She gasped "-what's this, butter you say? Yummmm, so good." She began to make chewing noises in my ear, to which my stomach growled violently in response. I immediately turned over to face her, opening my eyes as I was blinded by the sudden light.

When my vision came to, I saw a well aged, light blue pegasus with a black mane, looking at me with a smile. A quick glance to her backside and there, adorned on her flank was a cutie mark of a raincloud sporting a happy face, and a assortment of colored raindrops raining down. I glared at her.

"Raiiiiiinnnnnnn" I moaned at her. "How dare you use my one and only weakness to get my out of bed. It's probably not even ration day." I pouted.

Rain laughed again. "Sky, its Thursday, of course its ration day." She said, tapping my head with her foreleg. "Now come on, if we leave now, we might get a good spot in the line." She said, turning around and heading for the door.

I groaned. "Yeah, that is if the line is open this week..." I said back. Rain just looked behind her as she walked out.

"You will only know if you go...." And with that, she was out the door.

"Ughhhhhh" I moaned, pushing the covers off of me. Stumbling over to the mirror, I rubbed the sleepy out of my eyes. Once they were open, I came face to face with a mare in the mirror. Staring back at me was a silver colored unicorn, with a violet blue mane. Her mane was a decent size, but was somehow styled in a upwards fashion. Her emerald green eyes stared back at me, where they drifted to my flank. Turning to the side, I stared at her cutie mark. The cutie mark, to put it bluntly, was a solar eclipse. The sun was there, but it had been shaded in on the inside, as if something was blocking it. Sighing, I thought back to the day I got my cutie mark.

/ * * * * \

Coincidentally, this solar eclipse happened on the day I got my cutie mark. I had a special skill that allowed me to enhance my hearing, as you will. This, along with a little bit of unicorn magic, I could sit in a room, up against the wall, focus my hearing and close my eyes, and I could actually pinpoint somepony's location exactly. It were almost as if I could see them with my eyes shut, being outlined by the sound they were making.

So here I was, in the middle of the center, during the Solar Eclipse, or the Sunlight's Shadow as they first called it. I had somehow lost Rain when it all happened, and no pony around me looked familiar. I began to freak out, to say at the least. Remembering what I could do, I managed to focus my hearing, and listen for Rain's voice. After a few minutes of searching, I had found her walking around, asking ponies if they had seen me. Weaving through the crowd, I found her. I was all teary eyed and everything, you know...since I were just a filly and all. After Rain managed to calm me down, she asked me how I found her. I told her all about my hearing ability, and she said that was some talent I had. I nodded my head, and hugged her. That's when the cutie mark appeared on my flank. According to Rain, I was so awestruck by the Solar Eclipse, i didn't notice it till I was home.

/ * * * * \

I laughed to myself, thinking of how irrelevant my cutie mark was. It had nothing to do with my special talent, and yet...it turns out to be this. All because the Princesses forgot to mess with the sun and moon one day.

Grabbing my brush, I quickly ran it through my mane and tail, making sure it was still nice and kempt. Setting it back down, I made my way into the living room where my pancake-less breakfast awaited.

I trotted over to where Rain was, sighing. "I hate you, you know that?" I asked jokingly.

Rain just laughed as he handed me a bar. "Yeah, sure you do. Now hurry and eat, it's good stuff." She said as she bit into her granola bar.

I opened the package and bit into mine. "You and your granola bars Rain, what are you going to do when they run out?" I asked her.

Rain just smiled at me. "Oh I'll just go postal and lose my shit, killing everypony in my way to find a granola bar." She said sarcastically. We both laughed.

"Hey, are those cupcakes still around?" I asked her. Rain just nodded, pointing to a cabinet.

"Yeah, still in that plastic wrap and everything. They might be stale though..." She said as I rushed over and grabbed one from the cabinet. "...not that you care of course." Rain muttered afterwards.

"Of course-" crumbs sprayed out of my mouth "-when it comes to living off of food, you tend to look past the staleness. Now mold on the other hand, that's only if absolutely necessary. I would rather not have to deal with an upset stomach for a week." I said, before swallowing the last of my cupcake. Wiping off the extra crumbs, I made my way to the door.

"Sky, where are you going?" Rain called after me.

"Well, you were so eager to leave...so lets go!" I called back as I grabbed my saddle bags. Rain trotted up beside me, grabbing hers as well. "You know..." She began. "For some pony who didn't want to get out of bed earlier, you sure are eager to go outside now."

I turned to glare at her. But of course, she just stood there with that sickeningly sweet smile of hers, staring right back at me. "You know what...just...just shut up!" I stammered, before walking outside into the fresh morning air.

Rain followed me outside, shutting the door behind her as she just laughed. Rolling my eyes, I began to trot down the street. Ponies moved about around me, heading back and forth doing their own thing. Occasionally a soldier or two would walk by, their keen eyes watching for anypony suspicious. Although the city of Manehattan was large, the quarantine zone was small, only housing around 3,000 ponies. The zone itself was divided into three sections; East side, West side, and Central. Ponies had to walk through checkpoints to reach each division. Rain and I lived in Central, although we have been in the other two zones for a short period of time in our lives. Of all the places to live, Central was the best area.

As we turned the corner for the ration line, we came across a commotion in front of one of the nearby apartment buildings. There happened to be a squad of armed soldiers, and two CDC ponies there. They had a group of ponies lined up in front of them. two of them were earth ponies, male and female, along with a pegasus mare and a unicorn stallion. The area was barricaded off with two guards standing in between the barriers. The other two were trained on the ponies. There were also two Guard wagons nearby.

The two unicorn CDC ponies were checking the citizens for infection. One would hold up the device to the back of the ponies head, and it would scan for cordyceps. If they were there, the pony was put down. I personally never saw one of these, as most of them happened in the East or West side. I had only been checked once, and that was before we moved into our building inside central.

The pony holding the scanner scanned the two earth ponies. "Clean" He called out, before moving onto the pegasus. She looked over to the unicorn before the scanner pony jerked her head back forward. "Keep your eyes forward." The gruff pony said before scanning her. "Clean..." He said again before moving to the last pony, the unicorn.

"I'm getting tired of this..." The scanner pony's partner mumbled, before the scanner beeped. This beep was different from the last three. "Wait, we got a live one." The scanner said. His partner nodded, as he turned to reach a box. The unicorn stallion began to fidget, and squeezed his eyes shut. "Just keep still, and don't make any movements." The scanner said, as he used his magic to grab the needle from his partner. The stallion began to move more, before I noticed a faint glow come from his horn.

His eyes shot open, as a knife came out from under his saddle bags. "Fuck this shit!" He said, stabbing the scanner pony in his Foreleg. He got up and began to rush the closest soldier, lunging at him. The stallion was able to stab the soldier before the second one turned and shot his rifle. The bullet tore clean through his head. The stallion immediately hit the ground, dead before the bullet even left his head. "Man down!" The soldier yelled into a radio, as the others rushed to the injured soldier.

I didn't move. I felt frozen as the scene replayed in my head over and over. I didn't even flinch as a soldier ran up to me, telling me to move on. My eyes were just glued to the stallion, the gaping hole in his head oozing blood, as it began to pool on the pavement. My body finally responded, and I began to move away, but my mind only thought one thing...

...I'm going to lose my breakfast.

/ * * * * \

We were walking back down the street as I recalled what I saw to Rain. She had a sad look in her eyes as she paid attention. "He was dead Rain, that bullet just tore through his head. I've never seen a pony die Rain, and I don't think I want to anymore..." I said to her, images of the dead stallion flashing through my mind. Rose sighed.

"Sky, this world isn't like it used to be. Not everything is in harmony like the Equestrian Story. Ever since the Elements failed 25 years ago, this place has gone down the hole. I tried to keep you from experiencing something like that ever since you was a filly, but it would seem this had snuck up on me." We stopped, and she placed a foreleg on me. "I can't protect you forever Sky, you're an adult now. You are going to be exposed to some things you might not be used to, like death. You just got to keep on going...never let it overcome you." She said, before embracing me.

"Thanks Rain" I sniffed. "I'm glad you are here for me." I said, returning the hug. Looking up, I noticed we were at our building.

Rain smiled, as she broke the hug. "Come on, lets go see what we got in the rations bag." She said, turning and heading inside. I smiled, following her in.