The Dead Trot

"Wakey wakey, my little prisoners!"

Fletcher's eyes shot open as a stern voice boomed in his ears. He awoke to find himself and his other companions all locked in cages barely large enough to contain them.

"Ah, good. I hope you all had a pleasant nap."

"Who are you? Where the hay are we?" Fletcher asked angrily.

A bright light flickered on as the perpetrator flipped the switch. It was the princess. Her pupils the size of needle-points and her face contorted into a devilish grin. The room surrounding their cells wasn't much to look at. All there was were some sharp looking instruments on a crude wooden table accompanied with multiple veils of various liquids. The walls were solid concrete with pictures of ponies plastered everywhere; various parts of said pictures were cut out.

"I'll check on you all tomorrow morning. In the meantime, my protege will fill you in on any questions you may have. Don't go anywhere. Hahaha!" Princess Celestia roared with laughter as she exited the room, shutting the door behind her.

Fletcher leaned back against the cage bars. Dammit, he thought to himself, How didn't I see it? She played me like a sucker the whole time. How could I be so stupid?!

He punched the bars with his hoof, sending a wave of pain shooting up his leg. He grimaced, sucking air in through clenched teeth as not to let out a scream.

"Hey, Fletch, you alright?" Tail Spin asked from his cage just to the right of Fletcher's. Noticing this, the blacksmith pony revealed a small smile; at least he had a friend nearby to talk to.

"Yeah. I'm fine. You?"

"Fine, I guess," the pegasus replied, "I may be in a cage, but at least I can still flap my wings."

"Okay, so if we're both here, then the others must be, too," said Fletcher, "HEY APPLEJACK, GIZMO! YOU HERE?"

"Yes. I'm here," answered the bronze unicorn technician.

"Right as rain over here," Applejack called.

"Well, I guess we're all okay then," Fletcher declared, halfheartedly. He was about to continue when a soft voice came from across the dimly-lit room.

"Applejack? Is that you?" The voice sounded quite hoarse, but with that accent there was no mistaking who it was.

"RARITY?! What in the hay are you doin' here? We saw ya zombified back in Ponyville," Applejack said, skeptical that the voice came from her long-time friend.

"Oh no, darling. That wasn't me. I was just minding my own business during my fashion tour in Clopenhagen, when those flesh-eating ruffians tried to kill me. I was able to barely escape with my life, and after that incident, I knew that it was time to go home. I arrived back in Ponyville only to find it in shambles. When I went to ask Twilight what was going on, a note on the door said that you had all departed for Canterlot. I wanted to make sure that little Sweetie Belle was okay, but when I got home I.....I..."

Rarity broke into uncontrollable sobs and cries as she recalled finding her sister's corpse: mutilated almost beyond recognition. She attempted to regain her composure and continue her story.

"After...after I realized that she had to be d-dead, I buried her outside the tree house that she and her friends liked to...to meet and socialize in. I said my painful goodbyes and...left for Canterlot. After about a day of traveling, my hooves were just too tired to go on, anymore. I stopped for a quick spot of water in a nearby brook, and the next thing I know, I'm stuck in this ugly cage in this tacky room."

"If that wasn't you, then...who was it?" Fletcher pondered.

"Cadence." A soft voice spoke from the doorway.

Everypony turned to look at Twilight Sparkle slowly striding into the room with a smirk on her muzzle.

"Ya mean the princess?" Applejack asked sounding a little concerned.

"No, the sandwich. OF COURSE THE PRINCESS YOU HILLFILLY REDFLANK TRASH!" Twilight yelled at the apple farmer. Applejack cowered in fear, even though Twilight was a good ten feet away.

"What are you saying?" Gizmo inquired, fear obvious in his expression, as well.

"I'm SAYING that Luna wasn't the only one who got transformed by the princess and infected with the virus. Of course, my brother found out and tried to stop Celestia. After he refused her offer at immortality with her and myself, we had no choice but to throw him into the underground caverns beneath Canterlot, where he will wander aimlessly to his death."

"You won't get away with this, Twi," Fletcher seethed.

"Oh yeah? And who's going to stop us? Everypony who could have stopped us is now dead. Nopony can save you, and nopony will. Accept that."

With a flick of her tail, the purple unicorn turned around and walked out of the room, giggling to herself. The room was silent. After what everypony had just heard from their once-friend, not a single word was spoken. After all, what could they have said?

Fletcher's eyes burst open as agonizing pain shot through his skull like a bolt of lightning. Compared to the headaches that he had endured in the past few days, this was the worst one yet. He was groaning in torment as the pain became worse by the second. His head felt like it was about to explode; he began writhing on the floor of his cage, causing the wound in his chest to reopen and begin to bleed once more.

He knew who was causing this. With the combination of pain from his headache and reopened laceration, he screamed at the top of his lungs, "JUST KILL ME YOU SICK, TWISTED UNICORN!"

Just as suddenly as the pain in his head had arrived, it departed entirely. With the departure of the headache, however, came a soft, calm voice that he knew all too well.

"Fletcher. I need to talk to you."

"I have nothing to say to you, Twilight."

Twilight's voice continued to plead in his mind, "I can explain everything. Just listen to me!"

Fletcher let out a huff, and with a scowl on his face, he closed his eyes and spoke to the voice of the unicorn in his head, "I'm listening."

"Okay," Twilight sighed, relieved that she wouldn't have to fight for Fletcher to listen, "First off, the headaches. I'm sorry about those. It's the only way for me to privately communicate with you. If you were a unicorn, it wouldn't hurt you."

"But why did you need to talk to me through telepathy? Why not in a secluded area?"

"Celestia is a GOD, remember? She hears all and sees all. The only way for me to communicate with you without the princess snooping on us was through telepathy."

"Then why have you never spoken to me through my thoughts before? All of the other times I just got a migraine."

"Before all of this started, Celestia was a wreck. After Queen Chrysalis defeated her, she began to feel that everypony was doubting her divinity and leadership, including me. A week or two ago, she called me to Canterlot for what she said was "royal business". She stripped me of most of my powers, and refused to give them back until I aided her in her nefarious plot. I did have enough power to send you that dream, however. It wasn't coincidence, Fletch, it was a warning."

It took Fletcher a minute to absorb this before he broke the silence, "So, you caused me to have that dream?"

Twilight's voice continued, "Yes. I was trying to warn you of Celestia's plot to end all living creatures in Equestria."

"Why would she do that, though?" Fletcher asked, finally realizing the severity of the situation.

"After Shining Armor and Cadence were wed, Celestia became...unstable. She couldn't accept the fact that she wasn't the mightiest being in all of existence. She knew that with her defeat at the hooves of Queen Chrysalis, came talk of rebellion and revolt to overthrow her for no longer being a strong, fit ruler. She told me that if her subjects wouldn't love her, then she'd make them love her. Apparently, that meant killing them and brainwashing them to become mindless zombies unconditionally loyal to her."

This was a revelation to the blacksmith pony. He knew that there was definitely something wrong with the princess, but this was just insane.

"How do we stop her?" Fletcher asked.

"Don't worry. I have a plan," Twilight's voice replied, "but I'm going to need everypony's help on this one."

"You can't use the Elements of Harmony, though. Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow are dead. How can we stop her without the Elements?"

"Trust me. I have everything under--Oh no!"

"Twilight? What's wrong?" Fletcher asked.

"She found me. Please, Celestia...No! I can explain!"

From some place far beyond the cell room, Fletcher heard a scream that sounded like it came from Twilight. Since he didn't hear the scream in his thoughts, he figured his telecommunication with Twilight must have been cut off by the princess. Fletcher cursed under his breath, and waited eagerly for Twilight to contact him again.

Moments later, he was contacted again, but not by Twilight. Celestia burst through the door, seething with rage.

"It seems as though my subjects are attempting to undermine my authority. Well..." she paused as she promptly opened Fletcher's cage and threw him out onto the concrete floor, "...I WON'T HAVE IT!"

The goddess began to mercilessly beat the helpless blacksmith into the floor. By this time, all of the other inmates were well awake, forced to watch in horror as their friend was decimated before them. The flurry of blows from the princess lasted for what seemed like hours, but was most likely only a few minutes. She noticed the wound in Fletcher's chest, and a demonic grin crept slowly across her muzzle.

Picking up the battered stallion with her magic, she plopped him onto the table next to all of the sharp instruments. Fletcher convulsed and began to hack up blood as the princess levitated a scalpel over him. She sliced through the bandages that concealed the laceration, then she chucked the knife aside.

"Now then," Celestia said, glaring at her victim, "Let's see how you like this!"

She grabbed some embalming salt from across the table and hovered it over Fletcher's wound. With a few quick shakes, the salt fell onto the cut. Fletcher gritted his teeth as Celestia's magic began to reopen the wound and shake in more salt, not only causing it to bleed again, but it added to the constant sting of the salt.

"Before I send you to your certain demise like your marefriend and her brother, allow me to fix this for you."

Celestia grabbed a small metal pole from across the room. She concentrated her magic on the pole, causing it to heat up from grey to white hot.

"Please no," Fletcher whimpered, coughing up more blood to his right.

"This is only part of your punishment, knave!" Celestia raged as she lowered the blazing-hot pipe to Fletcher's wound. Fletcher couln't help but to scream in anguish as the hot metal burned his coat and skin. He began to squirm, wriggling to get away, but Celestia's magic held him in place. Once the wound was seared shut, the goddess threw the blacksmith off the table and back onto the floor.

"Now for the grand finale," Celestia smirked.

Her horn began to glow once more, and circles of green flame surrounded everypony in the group. One by one, the circles of green flames became domes of fiery magic that dragged them beneath the ground.

"What the hay have you done to them you monster?!" Fletcher managed to hoarsely whisper, despite his condition.

"Why, I've sent them to the caves beneath Canterlot, of course, "Celestia chuckled, "The same place I sent Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle for betraying me."

Fletcher managed to barely stand up on his feet and raised a hoof in the princesses direction, "Before I die, I WILL see you dead. That's not a wish, that's a promise."

"We'll see about that," the princess snickered, "Nopony can escape the Canterlot Caverns."

With that, the magical fire surrounding Fletcher formed a dome and slowly pulled him beneath the floor.