The Dead Trot

The group landed on the front steps of the castle with an audible thud. The stone steps did little to cushion their landing. One by one, the ponies stood back up and dusted themselves off. Their attention quickly turned to the ruined citadel before them. What once was the most glorious structure in all of Equestria was now reduced to nothing more than eroding bricks and chipping paint. Rarity would have made a comment about how it was a crime against fabulousness, but she knew that now was not exactly the best time.

"Everypony know the plan?" asked Shining Armor. The rest of the group nodded.

"Let's do this!" Tail Spin exclaimed, charging through the front doors of the palace. Everypony just stared, awestruck at the fact that the pegasus had rushed in so carelessly.

"Let's git a move on, then," Applejack declared.

The other ponies followed suit of their reckless comrade, charging down the long corridor towards Celestia's throne room. When they came to an intersection, however, Shining Armor and Fletcher took a sharp right -- towards the Royal Armory. Twilight, AJ, Gizmo, and Rarity stayed their course, bursting into the throne room just in time to see Celestia send Tail Spin flying towards them like a speeding bullet. Before hitting the others, Tail Spin crashed into the stone floor, sliding several feet before coming to a stop in front of Rarity.

"You idiot! What the hay were you thinking?" Rarity asked, a look of anger and concern on her face.

"That's a good question," the battered pegasus admitted while wiping away the blood now streaming out of his mouth, "Let me get back to you on that one." With that, he collapsed on the floor.

"Is he going to be alright?" inquired Rarity, picking up the pegasus with her magic and dropping him behind the others.

"He'll be fine," Gear Head assured her, "It wasn't a fast or far enough fall to cause that much damage."

Twilight was able to take this opportunity to survey her surroundings. Celestia was perched on her royal throne. Located by her sides were multitudes of undead ponies; they were just standing there, as if waiting for a command.

"Your time has come, Celestia!" Twilight proudly declared.

"My once-prized pupil, did you honestly believe you and your friends would be enough to defeat me? Without the Elements of Harmony, you're nothing! NOTHING!"

The princess spat her venomous words at the lavender unicorn in a fit of rage that would have caused even the most hardened stallion to cower. Every fiber of her seething anger and hatred that had built up since her defeat at the hooves of Queen Chrysalis became disturbingly visible to the group of renegade equines standing before her.

"Enough of this foolishness! It's time you all paid the price for your insolence!" The princess raised her hoof skyward, then redirected it in the direction of of the living ponies. "KILL THEM!"

"Are you sure you know where the armory is?" Fletcher asked as the duo galloped to where Shining Armor believed the Captain's Sword was located.

"I'm the captain of the Royal Guard. I think I would know where the armory is," the unicorn huffed. The two stallions stopped in their tracks once they came across the a door that read, "Royal Armory: Authorized Members Only."

After they both caught their breath after galloping for so long, Fletcher opened the door. He couldn't believe what he saw! Sitting before him was smorgasbord for weapons and armor of all shapes and sizes (most of which had had made himself).

"Take what you want, just make it quick," Shining Armor said flatly.

Fletcher knew that something wasn't right with the other stallion. He hadn't shown any emotion in anything he said the entire day. "Okay, what's wrong?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You've been acting really weird today. I just want to know what your problem is." As he spoke, Fletcher rummaged around, looking for the Captain's Sword.

"I...I just don't think that using Twilight as a distraction was a good idea."

"I like it about as much as you do, but she insisted. Listen, I love her as much as you do. If something happened to her, I would never forgive myself, and I'm sure you could say the same." Fletcher said as he pulled a set of armor out of the pile of arms and armaments.

"You're right," Shining Armor confessed, "So if we don't want her to get hurt, we need to get our tails in gear and hury up!"

"Trying," Fletcher said as he scoured the room for the blade he was searching for.

"Looking for this?" Shining Armor asked, pointing his hoof at the sword that was sitting on a pedestal near the armor racks. With a small blush, Fletcher trotted over and picked up the sword in his mouth. He attempted to hand it over to the unicorn stallion, but he was pushed away. "You take it. I'm not sure how to use swords; I mostly carry them just for show."

Without a question, Fletcher sheathed the sword on his front leg and dawned the set of leather armor he had found. Shining Armor, however, put on his Guard Master's armor that was hanging on the largest of the armor racks.

"Alright, let's go help Twilight!" Fletcher declared.

Shining Armor nodded in agreement as the two of them dashed out of the room and down the coridor towards the throne room.

"There's so many of them!" Twilight shouted as she incinerated two undead in a magical inferno.

"Yer tellin' me!" Applejack exclaimed in agreement, bucking and undead marauder's jaw clean off.

Whenever one of the ponies took out of of the zombies, Celestia would poof up two more to take it's place. For every step forward they took, they got sent two steps back. Celestia sat on her throne, laughing maniacally as this spectacle unfolded before her.

Shining Armor and Fletcher burst through the doors, ready for battle. This provided a slight morale boost for the others,  giving them just a sliver of hope that they might actually succeed.

"Fletcher," Shining Armor said, "I can cast a spell that will send all of these things flying. I just need time to charge it. Can you keep them off me for a few minutes?"

"Got it!" Fletcher exclaimed, drawing his sword from it's sheath. A violet aura began to form around Shining Armor's horn as he began to charge his spell. Some of the undead seemed to notice this and bolted in his direction, taking some of the load off the other ponies. Fletcher intercepted their attacks with a flurry of slashes and swipes of his sword. The attackers dropped dead, their bodies ridden with lacerations and cuts.

This continued for several minutes until Shining Armor shouted, "It's ready when everypony else is."

"Let 'er rip!" Fletcher exclaimed, dicing another trotter to pieces.

For a moment, the aura around the unicorn's horn disappeared. This void was soon filled with the sound of a massive explosion and a giant violet bubble beginning to expand from his horn. The bubble grew larger with every passing second, sparing the ponies, but flinging the undead into the grey Equestrian sky. Soon, the entire castle was surrounded in a magical force-field.

Celestia was fuming. She sprang out of her chair like a frog and attempted to summon more of her minions, but nothing happened. The expression on her face turned from one of anger to one of almost demonic evil. She knew that within this shield, she was unable to conjure more of her minions, and she was sure that Shining Armor was smart enough to add a little something to the field to prevent her from escaping.

Celestia bounded towards Twilight, knocking her over. She firmly placed a hoof on Twilight's temple, as if to squash her head like a grape. The others dashed to her rescue, only to be struck by a bolt of lightning from the princess' horn. Fletcher was the first to recover. After regaining his vigor, the blacksmith galloped toward the princess, sword raised and eyes ablaze.

"Now my prized pupil," Celestia cooed, tightening her squeeze on the unicorn's head, "It's time for you to meet your friends in Tartarus!"

Fletcher raced towards the princess. He had only one shot at killing her once and for all. He leaped into the air, ready to strike Celestia down. The princess felt a presence from behind her. A murderous grin crossed her face as she spun around just in time to impale the earth pony on her horn. Fletcher's yellow eyes grew wide with shock and horror as he looked down at the horn now piercing through his body. Celestia lowered her head so that the blacksmith slid off and plopped onto the floor. Blood began to flow like water from the gaping hole in Fletcher's torso.

"NO!" Twilight cried, her eyes not believing the horror she had just witnessed. Celetia began to cackle maniacally at the bleeding earth pony and the crying unicorn; their agony and suffering gave her sick pleasure.

"You..." Twilight mumbled.

"Pardon, worm?" Celestia asked.

"...you heartless, motherless, cowardly, sick, twisted, BITCH!"

Twilight turned to look Celestia dead in the face. The unicorn's eyes began to glow white as they did whenever she had used the Elements of Harmony. Suddenly, the white light from Twilight's eyes burst from their sockets, slamming against the tyrant princess. At this, Celestia let go of Twilight's head and backed away, staring at herself as she began to disintegrate.

"No. No. NOOOOOOO!" the princess screamed as she began to fade into nothing more than a pile of ash.

"What's happening to me?!"

"Something that should have happened a long time ago," Twilight snickered.

Celestia continued to scream until her entire body had become a giant pile of ash.

The unicorn's festivities would have to wait, however. She rushed to Fletcher's side, tears welling in her eyes like pools, once more.

"T...T...Twilight..." Fletcher managed to utter.

"I'm here, Fletch. It's okay. You're going to be okay."

Fletcher let out a single chuckle, then said, "No. No this is...bad. I'm...not going to...make it, Twiley."

"Don't say that. Don't you dare say that. You're going to live," Twilight tried to say without the oceans in her eyes overflowing, but with no luck. Her tears landed on her dying lovers body like the raindrops of a spring shower. Fletcher reached up and held Twilight's hoof in his own.

"Twi'. I love...you. No matter...what happens, I will...always love...you."

Twilight couldn't control her sobs at this point. "No. Nononono don't you say that! I can help you. I can-."

Fletcher raised his hoof to Twilight's mouth to stop her then whispered, "Twi', you talk to much."

The two came together in a passionate kiss. Whatever feelings were left unsaid or were too unfathomably deep to express through words were shared through that kiss.

After a minute of locking lips, Fletcher broke away and coughed up a sizable amount of blood. "T...Twilight," he said.

"Yes?" the unicorn replied, tears still streaming from her eyes.

"Thanks. For...everything."

With that, Fletcher body went limp. His heart stopped beating. He was dead.

Twilight broke out into uncontrollable shrieks and wails as she hugged the body of her dead lover. By this point, everypony else was awake and by her side, sharing in her sorrow.

The funeral was short. Few words were said about the brave blacksmith. Few words could express the pain and the sadness raging inside of everypony who knew him. Twilight, of course, was the most upset. They buried him in from of his forge in Ponyville, as he would've wanted.

Shortly after the impromptu service, Applejack trotted up to Twilight and put a hoof on her shoulder. "I'm mighty sorry fer yer loss. He'll live on in us all, though."

"More than you know," Twilight replied, wiping a tear from her eye and rubbing her tummy in a gentle manner.

Epilogue

"Mommy, mommy! I got my cutie mark!" exclaimed a colt as he bounded towards his mother.

"That's great, honey!" the lavender unicorn replied, picking up her foal and twirling around with him in her arms.

"What is it?"

"It's a quill and parchment, er, something. At least, that's what Uncle Shining Armor said," explained the colt.

"Well, Arcane, I'm very proud of you. Your father would be proud, too."

Arcane beamed at his mother with his yellow eyes. His blue coat seemed to glisten in the sun, and the wind blew through his purple mane.

"I'm guessing you were blowing off your farm duties to write again. Is that how you earned that?" asked Twilight, raising a brow at her foal.

"I'm sorry, momma. I didn't mean to leave Mrs. Applejack with the farm work, but I just couldn't help it. I-" Twilight placed a hoof over the young ponies mouth to silence him.

"Was it the machine again?"

Shooing his mother's hoof away, the foal regained his voice. "Yes. That harvester that Mr. Gizmo built is just really scary. I know that with their own foal to take care of that they needed a better way to harvest the crops, but does it really need to look so scary?" Arcane asked.

"It's okay, little one," Twilight cooed as she embraced her child in a reassuring hug. "Since the farm doesn't suit you, go help Rarity and Tail Spin with their preparations. Rarity's foal could be born any day now."

With a tiny smile, the little unicorn galloped off to help the expecting parents. After Arcane had left, Twilight stared into the sky and smiled. After everything that had happened - no matter how horrible - nothing could compare to the joy that she now shared with her friends and family. Nothing in the world.

A/N: Okay, I know the ending is quite rushed. I would've tried to rewrite it so as not to be rushed, but I have absolutely no idea how to accomplish this. Frankly, I just wanted to get this project out of the way so I could move on to better stories.