The Dead Trot

Fletcher awoke to the sound of clanging metal. His eyes shot open to find Applejack running around a campfire with pots and pans. It seemed as though she was preparing breakfast. The smell of cinnamon and apples was prominent throughout the entire cavern, rousing everypony else from their restless slumbers. Fletcher's head was pounding. He rubbed his temples with his hooves, trying to make the intense throbbing go away, but with no luck. Defeated, he fell back and groaned as his head hit the hard cave floor like a ton of bricks. The black colt felt something moving steadily next to him. Turning his head to the side, he saw a still-sleeping Twilight. Then, the events from the night prior came back to him in a flash. He and Twilight, they'd...they'd...

"Oh sweet Celestia," he murmured, "what have I done?"

His whispers were apparently enough to wake up the sleeping purple mare. How the pots and pans clanging together didn't wake her, he would never know.

"Good morning," Twilight sighed, blinking herself awake.

"Twi'," Fletcher said, "do you have any idea what happened last night?"

"Well, now that you mention it..." the lavender unicorn pondered, her hoof rubbing her chin as she thought, "Oh yeah, didn't we-"

"So, you remember?" the colt asked in an urgent but hushed voice, so as not to let Applejack or the other ponies hear them.

"How could I not? That was crazy! I had no idea that...that...could be that good!" she whispered excitedly.

"No, it's not about that, it's about what happens now." His eyes were emotionless as he stared into Twilight's eyes with a worried yet cold look.

"What do you mean?" she asked him, her head tilting slightly to the side in confusion.

"I mean, what if you get pregnant. What then?" he asked, unsure of why Twilight wasn't taking this seriously.

,

"How can you get pregnant from playing chess?"

"Wait. What?" Fletcher was confused beyond words, now.

"Don't you remember? We had a few nice kisses, then I offered that we put ourselves to sleep by playing a nice, wholesome game of chess before bed," she explained, baffled at why Fletcher was asking.

"Oh," said the black pony, realizing that that was what happened the night prior.

"That's right. After thirty-seven straight losses, I guess I just needed a good dream,," he chuckled.

"A good dream, you say?" Twilight inquired, putting her hooves under her chin, like an eager child awaiting the moment that their parents begin reading them a bedtime story.

Fletcher opened his mouth, but was interrupted by a certain rancher calling out, "SOUPS ON, EVERYPONY!"

This immediately awakened Rainbow Dash and Tail Spin, causing them to jump from their sleeping bags. Once both of them realized that nopony was trying to murder them in their sleep, Tail Spin spoke.

"Well, you certainly got our attention. You could have just tapped us, though."

"That wouldn't 've been as dern near fun," Applejack smiled. She had clearly set out to scare the two awake, and as funny as it was at the time, it did seem a little cruel.

"That aside," Twilight said, standing up to seem a little more orderly, "we leave for Fillydelphia today."

"So soon?" Tail Spin yawned, still not fully awake.

"Of course, by the time we get to Canterlot, they may not be taking in civilians from the outside."

"We can't even mourn our losses?" Fletcher interrogated, suspicious of Twilight's haste to get to Canterlot.

"NO! WE NEED TO LEAVE, NOW!" Twilight shrieked, her voice echoed off the walls of the small cave, amplifying it's volume ten-fold.

"Okay, fine. But can we at least eat breakfast first?" Fletcher asked, a little shocked at Twilight's determination to leave as soon as they could.

"Fine," she caved in, "but as soon as we're done, we leave."

After quite the delicious breakfast of dried figs and Applejack's famous "Apple Brown Betty", the group packed their things and forged onward towards Fillydelphia.

After what seemed like hours, they came across what appeared to be a welcome sign. It said, "Welcome to Fillydelphia: Home of the Filly Cheese-Flower Sandwich!", but where it advertised the scrumptious sounding sandwich, a sloppy message was written in blood. Instead of the original message, it now said, "Welcome to Hell: Home of the Dead!"

This warning brought back memories of the dream Fletcher had had only nights before. His headache returned, this one more painful than the last. He groaned and rubbed his head with his hoof.

"Somethin' wrong, Fletch?" Applejack raised a brow at the blacksmith.

"No. Everything's alright," he lied through his teeth.

"Come on, everypony," Twilight ordered, "we don't have much time."

"Time for what?" Tail Spin asked suspiciously.

"Oh, uh, never mind," Twilight replied.

This was enough for the pegasus to believe, so with a shrug, he paid no more mind to the unicorn's odd comment.

"Well, better not keep those cannibals waiting," Fletcher took a step forward.

The rest of the group followed suit, walking into Celestia-knows-what kind of dangers and obstacles. The party trekked into the empty streets of Fillydelphia, surprised to find that it was worse off than Ponyville. Carts were turned over, houses were barred shut, and every single place of business seemed to be abandoned.

"Hey guys, check it out," Tail Spin said, pointing at a nearby building. It was a bar by the looks of it. A large sign was held above the front entrance that read, "The Trough".

"Could we maybe quick swing in and see if we can find any booze?" Tail Spin asked, his lips curling into a large grin.

"No. We need to keep moving!" Twilight declared.

"One drink couldn't hurt," Rainbow Dash chimed in.

"Well, I guess we could find something." Twilight wasn't feeling very assertive today, so, once again, she gave in to her friends' requests.

With sword in mouth, Fletcher stepped into the seemingly empty bar first. The others followed behind him, remembering to be cautious of their surroundings. The inside of the bar looked even worse than it did outside. Bar-stools were broken on the floor, panes of glass were shattered, and the jukebox lay in the corner of the main room, accumulating dust as time went by.

The team looked around for at least twenty minutes before Applejack came across the liquor cabinet. The ponies crowded around the large cabinet as Applejack bucked the door open. As the contents of the container came into view, everypony gasped. There, sitting in front of them, was the mother-load of alcohol. Liquors, wines, spirits, beers, ciders, ales - you name it, it was in there.

"Jackpot!" Rainbow Dash squealed, her tongue lolling out of her mouth at the sight of so much alcohol.

Before the team could dig into the massive assortment of liquor, they heard a clicking sound. They turned around to find a tan unicorn staring at them. His horn emanating a red aura that surrounded a peculiar metallic object floating in the air.

"Are you one of those things?" he asked the other ponies in a typical Fillydelphian accent.

"No. We're from Ponyville," Fletcher informed the unicorn.

"Well, you can talk. That's a good sign," he chuckled, "Who are you all, anyway?"

"I'm Twilight Sparkle," the lavender unicorn chirped, "and this is Applejack, Rainbow Dash,Tail Spin, and Fletcher." She pointed to each pony as she called their names.

"Gizmo's my name, and machines are my game!" he proudly proclaimed. His enthusiasm was, to say the least, a bit startling for the group. He quickly realized this and apologized.

"So you work with machines?" Dash inquired, her interest clearly peaked at the unicorn's claim.

"Follow me," Gizmo replied, motioning for the party to follow him. Since they didn't know anything else to do, they followed the new pony. As they trotted behind Gizmo across the bar, Fletcher studied him. His coat was a light tan, he had a long, straight blonde mane, and his cutie mark appeared to be a golden gear. I guess that's where he gets the name, he thought.

He approached a vault-type door. After entering a combination, the door opened. Gizmo took a few steps forward and flipped a switch that turned on the lights. Before the ponies lay a humongous chrome-colored room, containing several odd devices and many complicated mechanisms and machinery. With the new-found light, everypony now noticed that both of Gizmo's left-front leg and right-hind leg were mechanical.

"Welcome to my laboratory!" Gear Head exclaimed.

"Dude, what happened to your legs?" Tail Spin questioned, not taking even the slightest notice of the massive lab before him.

"Oh yeah. I lost them when I was just a foal. The doctors said that I would never walk again. But this mechanic in town said otherwise. He crafted me a pair of mechanical legs, and that's when I knew that I wanted to work with machines the rest of my life, my cutie mark proves it," he proudly lectured, showing off his cutie mark to the other ponies.

"This is huge!" Applejack exclaimed, her eyes wide with amazement, "how were ya able to fit this in a bar?"

"I was the manager; I was able to do whatever I pleased," he answered with a sly grin, "Anyway, I was going to ask you all what kind of protection you have against those undead ponies out there."

Fletcher pulled the swords out of his saddlebag and placed them on the floor.

"Swords. I see. A good weapon choice, indeed. Although a sword could not compare to my creations," the unicorn boasted.

"And what in the hay is that supposed ta mean?" Applejack interogated.

"Allow me to demonstrate." He strolled over to one of the pieces of metal sitting on a stand. His aura surrounded the object as it floated into the air.

"Observe." A load bang! erupted from the tiny piece of metal as a smaller piece of metal flew out and hit a sack of rice on the other side of the room. A small hole materialized as the projectile impacted and flew straight through.

"Whoa! What was that?!" Rainbow Dash asked, her face showing a mixture of awe and fear.

"I call it a gun!" Gizmo declared, "it's stronger than a crossbow, yet has at least twice the range!"

"How can non-unicorns use it?" Applejack asked, clearly intrigued by the idea.

He showed the group how to hold the handle in their mouths and pull back the trigger with their tongues. He also showed them different designs that had as his disposal; such as a large, back-mounted mechanism he called 'The Vulcan'. It had two rotating cylinders, and each cylinder had eight barrels. This weapon, according to Gizmo, was able to fire at a rate of 6,000 RPM. Applejack knew that this was the weapon for her. So, with much convincing, she received it from Gizmo. Tail Spin and Rainbow Dash both chose wing-mounted sub-machine guns; they we're relatively light weight, yet deadly. Twilight chose nothing, believing that she could defend herself with only her magic. Fletcher also chose nothing. The guns may have been deadlier, but taking a firearm over a good-old-fashioned sword would've been against his trade.

Once their weapons of war were selected, Rainbow Dash suggested that they finally dig into they large supply of alcohol. Twilight countered, but it was six against one, so Twi' lost by default. Spike was about to open a bottle of Applejack Daniels, when Twilight's magic surrounded him and cast him far away from the source of the liquor.

"Spike, you're a baby dragon. Babies can't drink," she stated matter-of-fact like.

"Fine," Spike huffed. He grabbed his blanket from Twilight's saddlebag, threw it in a corner away from the others, and fell asleep instantly.

"Let's get this party started!" Tail Spin exclaimed while popping open a bottle of champagne. Everypony but Twilight howled in agreement. Everypony was downing alcohol like a madmare - all except Twilight, who sat on a bar stool reading a book.

"Come on, Twi'," Fletcher said. He wasn't as wasted as the others, but he was beginning to slur his words, "jusht live a little. One drink, and you can call it quitsh."

"Oh, alright," Twilight said, defeated. She grabbed a mug of what appeared to be white dandelion wine and brought it to her lips. The cool liquid ran down her throat as she tilted the cup upwards. Once she had finished, she knew immediately that something was wrong. Wine didn't ever make her feel this tipsy. She picked up the bottle that the substance had came from to find that it wasn't wine, it was 140 proof apple vodka. Her head began to spin. Her thoughts raced. After this point she had no recollection of what happened until the next morning.