The trotting dead

Chapters

Awake
A night out
Reality
The woods
Screams
Streets and roads.

Awake

"Twilight?" The sound of the beeping from the monitors were her only reply. "I know yah can't hear this but, we really miss yah." Applejack said as she laid over Twilights's bed. "It's been hell after you....you know, had the accident. I knew you were up for new things, but attempting the sonic rain boom? That was insane. The good news is, your not dead. The bad news..." Applejack choked as she tried to hold back the tears that dribbled down her cheek. There was a moment where applejack tried to hold back her tears, but to no avail. "We really miss you Twi, please come back to us. I know what I said was harsh, saying you couldn't do it.... I...I...was just jealous that's all. You being an alicorn, I never really could take that in. Ok maybe not jealous, nah you know me better then that. To tell you the truth I really had no idea why I said what I did. I wish I didn't." Twilight heard Applejack's words and struggled to reply. Except the impending force of pain envolopped her only allowing her to listen. "I'm sorry twi....I'm just so *sob* sorry..."

Twilight then tried to respond," Its ok Applejack, I forgive you. It's not like it was actually your fault, I was the one who.....Applejack?" Twilight coughed, confused.

Twilight woke up. She felt around for Applejack, but couldn't feel her. She opened her eyes. She looked around the room. She was in the ponyville hospital room number 4. The light was broken, the window was shattered, and everything around her seemed old and dusty. "Whaa..." Was all she could manage.Twilight became more and more scared as she started to process the things around her. The smell of rotten flesh, the dried blood on the floor, it wasn't making any sense, nor was she able to make any logical conclusions.

"Maybe.....it was...." She said aloud while still thinking of a logical explanation. None came to mind. She wasn't able to finish her sentence. She struggled to get off her bed but found herself tied from hoof to hoof to the bed with some belts. She tried to get herself free but failed in her attempt.

What happened here? Was the only thought coursing through her brain. Then she thought, the nurse would tell her. Yes she would clear things up. She screamed, "Nurse! Nurse! I...I...I'm stuck to my bed, and there's blood on the floor, and...and...nurse!?" There was only cold silence. Followed by snarling. "What, hello! Is someone there?" More snarling, getting louder.

"Oh this is ridiculous," she then tried to use her magic to release herself, but the connection with her magic was cut off. She couldn't use her magic. She started to panic. Maybe it was a side affect of one of her medications.

"Nurse! Why isn't my magic working?" The snarling grew very loud. "Nurse, is that you?" Half dazed, she expected the snarling to stop and one of the nurses to clear her throat or something. Instead the door started banging and the snarling grew extremely loud. The door started breaking. Twilight knew something was not right here. And what was happening she had no clue. She struggled to break free from her bonds. Twisting and wiggling her way out but nothing. The door lock broke and only the chain was there to keep the door locked. Why there was a chain there twilight did not know.

Twilight finally got a glimpse of what was trying to get her. She thought it would be some weird stupid monster she could take care of. No, these were ponies. Real ponies trying to get her. They weren't ponies however, they were....somthing more, different and evil. There eyes, they were....just different. Twilight couldn't describe it but....it was definitely noticeable. They were moaning and snarling and...twilights brain then clicked. These weren't ponies. These were.......zombies. They had to be dead, but yet they were alive, how could they be alive if there dead? It had to be zombies.

After closer inspection, she noticed things about them. She staretd to see things that would later aid in her theory. It was obvious now they were dead because there body parts were chopped off. You couldn't survive that. Nopony could. Unless you were a zombie. But what were they trying to do? They were reaching out, hungry for somthing....we're they trying to....no. That can't be true. From what zecora told her from the old legends in zebrica, zombies were just reanimations from dead bodies, just mindless slaves, they couldn't behave, or act on there own, and could only complete the most simplistic of tasks, not rage out and....and...celestia knows what the zombies were trying to do. If they truly were zombies, where was there master? In zebrican folklore, the zombies always had a master. But they seem mindless, and don't seem to be under any influence...just mindless creeps.

Twilight's train of thought was broken when the very wall was starting to crack and more ponies started to pile up on the door. The snarling became almost deafening. Twilight had to get out of there. But she was stuck to the bed. She was going to die. She didnt know what the zombies would do. Maul her, rip her, shred her, whatever they were going to do, but she knew they weren't here to give her flowers. She struggled and twitched and jumped around but couldn't get the blasted thing off. Her wings she thought. She could use her wings. She stuck them out and used them like one of spikes claws or somthing. Unclipping the latch from the leather with her feathers, she started to panic as the wall started to crack even more as the chain attached to a nail in the wall started to break. One of her hoofs were free. She used it to quickly untie the other three belts that were attached to her. This was sluggish however because of waking up after staying in bed for who knows how long. With one more belt left to unlatch, the wall gave way.

The flood of zombies was unlike anything she had experienced before. It was like fate coming to get her. She quickly untied her self and looked for an exit. With about a few metres from the bed to the door, she had about 5 seconds before they got her. An opening, somewhere, but where? The window.

With half a second to spare she opened the window, but it was too late. They got her. It seemed like the zombies were trying to, naw at her, trying to eat her. In the split second between life and death, she bucked one of the zombies head off and used the faces of the two ponies in front of her to kick her self out the window. Unlucky for her, she was on the top floor.

She fell onto the ground. She didn't experience to much free fall, but it was still quite a long drop. She fell in a bush, which softened her landing, but didnt protect her from the force of falling. She then noticed a sharp pain in her back, but what was more disturbing was a lack of pain from her her wings, she could only very numbly feel them. The roots of her wings however were in a lot of pain. That equal to a killer bee's sting. It was like a bite, not a injury you would get from a fall. This was bad. That could mean, she took somthing that really screwed her up, or her brain is playing tricks on her, and she is creating illusions. Or maybe the force of the fall really did injure her the way it did. Either way, she had no time to think of any of that, she had to survive this world, this cruel cruel world. She looked around and saw the horrifying sight. Charred buildings, abandoned fire trucks, garbage everywhere, body parts everywhere, but worst of all, those things. Those dreadful bucking things, everywhere. They crowded the streets, they crowed the buildings, hell they even crowded on top of each other.

Twilight couldn't know for sure if this was reality or just some sick dream. Whatever it was, she was going to survive it. She was going to live. She was going to find her friends and family and beat this thing. Find a solution and fight these monsters.. She was going to do it. She was going to survive the dead. The Trotting dead.

A night out

"Spike!" Immediately after Twilights's call, Spike came rushing down to Twilight in a heart beat, being the loyal little dragon he was.

"What is it? What's wrong? Are you hurt? Possibly injured? Or even damaged?" Twilight laughed at what she interpreted as a joke. Spike looked at her confused.

"Oh Spike, your redundancy would usually tick me off, but I feel so well that it doesn't bother me. And you don't have to be so jumpy. I'm completely fine," Spike clawpalmed himself.

Ignoring the fact that Spike didn't know what redundancy meant, he replied with, "Sorry, it's just that, when It's the morning and somepony suddenly interrupts my sleep, I assume something is wrong. You know, what did you call it....the flight or bite response?" Twilight chuckled again.

"Close, it's called the fight or flight response. When your body pumps adrenaline into your system causing you to react to the situation with full attention, and having your muscles stimulated so you can either fight off the danger, or run away from it. Almost every animal has this instinct."

"Oh..."said spike not fully comprehending what she just said.

"Now spike I have called you down here to ask you if you want some pancakes." Spike smiled with glee.

"Is that even a question? Its more like a sentence that has only one reply." Said spike jumping for joy.

"So is that a yes?" Twilight asked expecting an obvious response.

Spike pretended to paunder the thought, then simply said, "Uhh, duh!".

Spike rushed to the kitchen and saw the food displayed before him. He dumped almost half the bottle of syrup on it and ate all 5 pancakes whole. It took on average 0.8 seconds for Spike to finish his serving, this took him 1.4 seconds. Twilight thought he was starting to get slower. She had thought that this would have no implications really on spike as a whole, but Spike still ate at lightning speeds so he was still normal. Twilight sat down and helped finish the rest of the pancakes.

Ah yes this was the life of Twilight Sparkle. Being a princess, she thought that her life would get more complicated. Despite some regal duties, like attending stuff, her life had changed very little if not at all. Her life was really quite simple, and well, if Twilight were to be honest with herself, she found it quite boring. Well despite some adventures, she still thought her tasks were boring and tedious. She just wished for somthing to happen, maybe another weird adventure, or a threat to equestria, something that would really test her skills. But then she thought, knowing this place, somthing would eventaully turn up.

"All done?" After Spike had his 3rd plateful (which was almost 13 pancakes) spike simply replied with a stuffed nod. Twilight was still eating when she heard a knock at the door. She trotted over and opened the door. As soon as she opened it, Pinkie screamed in Twilight's face. "Do you know what day it is!?" Twilight looked at Pinkie in confusion. Pinkie started frantically jumping about in excitment.

"Oh wait that's right!" Twilight said as she finally remembered about the monthly meetup, where Twilight and her friends would go out, forget about there responsibilities and just have some fun.

Pinkie got a slip of paper from out of her hair with her mouth and said, "Meef aft dish wocation." Her words were muffled because of the paper in her mouth. Despite this, Twilight understood what Pinkie had said. Pinkie spat out the slightly saliva drenched paper out and it landed on Twilight's nose. She used her magic to take it off and read the contents of the paper.

"Were meeting at a bar tonight? But Pinkie, I..." When she looked up it was already too late. Pinkie was off in the distance shouting, "See you there!". Twilight whispered to herself, "I don't drink...".

Twilight's life had changed very little, which was true. It changed a little, it hadn't not changed at all. She was a public figure now among equestrians, she had to be a good role model. If she drank alcohol, what would the citizens think of her? And if she got drunk, who knows what unpredictable things she would do? She thought that she would go, but she would be careful of what she consumed.

Later that day, she had arrived at the bar. She arrived quite early, not wanting to be tardy. She sat down at the counter. The bartender glanced in her direction, joyful for his new costumer.

"What can I get for you," he stared at Twilight's features and simply said, "Princess?" Twilight looked up. "Oh uhm..." She took a while, trying not to choose anything with alcohol. "I'll have some milk if you would..." Just then a familiar voice came from behind, " We'll have two Buckington's beers please!" The bartender nodded and went to get the beverages.

"Twilight were you just about to order milk? I know your a princess and all but that's no excuse! Alicorn or not, there is no excuse to be so lame." Said Rainbow.

"Darling, I agree with rainbow. Being regal is no excuse to embarrass yourself." Said Rarity.

"Rarity? Rainbow? When did you girls get here?" Twilight saw as the rest of the gang started coming in.

"We came with them." Said Rainbow.

As the bartender came to deliver the drinks, he was taken aback when he saw the new group of ponies that had formed in front of him. He set down the two beers down on the counter, and took everyone's orders. Everyone ordered somthing different. Rarity ordered wine, Pinkie ordered some weird drink that was pink, and extremely fizzy. Surprisingly Fluttershy ordered three shots of whiskey, and even more suprisingly Applejack ordered some vodka.

"Vodka!?" Rainbow exclaimed. "You never order vodka! Usually it's just cider!"

"Well I've decided that I want to try somthing different. You can't keep eating apples your whole life..." Everyone was astonished. "Said no sensible pony ever!" Applejack cried. Everyone in the group of friends giggled and resumed to there drinks. It was a terrible joke. However when with friends, everything is heightened to appear joyous. She still had the vodka, which didn't make sense after her statement, but Applejack was not going to be a sensible pony tonight.

"Here Twilight, drink up." Rainbow handed Twilight the beer. "Oh, rainbow, no thanks, I just..." Rainbow grabbed the glass and said, "Fine," She drank half of the beer and gave it to twilight. "That's all you have to drink."

Twilight thought about drinking the beverage. She finally reached her conclusion and decided, " I guess a little can't hurt," Everyone hoorayed in unison. Of course, as drinks go, you can't just have one.

The night continued, they all talked and laughed, Fluttershy eventaully drank almost 16 shots of whiskey, the gang was being hit on by some boys, but got rejected as Rarity ranted about how there fashion choice was a crime against pony kind. The night continued as the transition between sober and drunk began to unfold.

Somehow they all ended up drinking cider. Except for Fluttershy who was muttering about somthing and was half conscious. She wasn't allowed to be given anymore alcohol.

"Hey Applekack," said Rainbow, her speech smudged by the alcohol. "Did you know, that just before you came in here, Twilight was going to order milk? Insane right!"

"Is that so? What, she thinks that just because she is a princess she has to keep up an image? This is girls night for celestia's sake!" Applejack turned towards Twilight, "It don't matter, wings or no wings, you should have the time of your life. Even if it means you gotta take down you image, especially when your with your friends."

"Oh your right AJ, I just....I dunno what I was thinking. I mean like, I really do like milk." Applejack laughed.

"You know, I thought things between us would change after the coronation, but you ain't so different Twilight, your still the same old you, just somone put some usless wings on the back of you." Twilight was offended by Applejack's use for the term useless.

"Useless!?" Applejack smirked. "Well yah, I mean face it Twi, your not a very good flyer, and people don't exactly recognize you for your princess hood to much. They haven't done anything for you but weigh you down." What Applejack said was partially true, people didn't exactly respect her more for her wings, not like they did the other princesses as much, but Twilight knew she was a good flyer.

"I am an amazing flyer! Heck, I bet you that I can do my very own sonic rain boom!" Applejack laughed at Twilight.

"Ah don't think that a nitty pretty sissy little princess like you has got the guts to even attempt one!" Twilight flustered in anger.

"You don't think so huh!? Well I'll show you! How dare a peasant like yourself, not to mention an earth pony! Question my princess hood!"

"Uh girls, I think you should, take it down a notch," Rainbow intervened. "Stay the buck out of this!" Applejack yelled, before finally turning to Twilight. "How dare you mock my stature, not to mention my race! Just cause you've got a crown, don't mean you can say whatever you want!" Fluttershy then muttered in the background, "That escalated quickly..."

"Well sorry, but you should be bowing down to me right now! Who are you to adress me as such? I never did like farm folk, just picking things for us is all there good for," Applejack looked like she was about to explode.

"I wish you had never come to ponyville! I wish that everything would change! I wish that I lived in a world where I never had to see your stupid face again! You don't even deserve those wings of yours! You don't deserve your title! You don't deserve us as friends! Your just a snouty pony who cares nothing but herself! You are not worthy of my time!" Harsh and hurtful words kept spewing out of Applejack until she just tried to put Twilight down.

"Not worthy eh? Tsk." Twilight walked outside. She looked up at the dark sky, only a few stars had come out. She flew up onto the highest cloud she could find. "Watch this! I'll show you not worthy!" Twilight jumped off, not even in a good position to perform the sonic rainboom.

"Silly princess, your just gonna fail and get hurt! Probably die! Your just a..." Suddenly at that moment Applejack snapped out of her drunken stupor. "Twilight! Stop! Pull up! Your going to hit the ground!" After those words Twilight also snapped out. But it was too late. Twilight was meters from the ground. There was no turning back.

"Oh Celestia....what have I.....". A loud snap and the sound of broken cement filled the air. The last sound, of Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Reality

Twilight walked, and walked, and walked, she would not stop until those things were out of sight, and she was some where safe. Food, water, shelter, these were the thoughts alongside many questions that were crammed in the half conscious mind of Twilight Sparkle. She kept asking questions out loud to nopony in particular. "Why...how...how did this happen? How can they walk if...if there dead? There...just...no...this isn't real..." She was simply wandering, she wasn't fully conscious of where she was going, or what her goal was, her mind was in her own world while her body walked aimlessly. Perhaps in this way, it would help ease the fluctuating pain from her back, her head, her shoulder, and a number of other areas that she couldn't keep track of.

"Where are my friends? Where is my family? Why me?" She dropped, basically crawling now. Her eyes started to cry. She had no idea where she was going, only that she was moving. She made a horrid moan, it sounded weak, full of confusion, as if it was her last cry for help before descending away from the cruel grip of reality. With her willpower fading, she decided not to ask anymore usless questions, only reassuring herself that this was a false reality.

"I am not here, this isn't real, they aren't real, none of this is real, I am...dreaming, that has to be it." Looking up at the sky, she tried to scream, "This isn't real!" She closed her eyes, expecting for the landscape around her to change into her comfy bed. That was not the case. She didn't care any more. She dropped even further. Now her face feeling the cool ground. It felt nice. She glanced up to see her surroundings once more. She was at the edge of ponyville, she had no idea how she was able to dodge all of the zombies, but she managed. She saw a doll. She crawled over to better analyze its features and could see it was a pegasus with a brown coat and orange fur. Quite dirty, yet comforting. She hugged it, gave up and waited for death.

She heard snarling from in front of her and looked, it was one of those things, it too was crawling like she was. It lost its legs and half of its jaw. It crawled, closer and closer. Twilight did not flinch, nor tried to get away. She simply hugged the doll and waited. She heard snarling coming up from behind aswell. So there was no escape now. She closed her eyes. She was relieved in a way, death couldn't be all that bad. No one to really bother you, no responsibilities, the world would rot , and she wouldn't have to live to see it die.

The zombie behind her caught up first, going down to consume its meal. It took a bite of Twilight's wing, and ripped it off clean, as if it were a professional butcher. It wiggled it back and fourth and it flew into the air. The wing now off to the side, it walked over to consume the treat. Twilight felt the pain more minutely then she had first thought the pain would feel. It was nice and quick. But it did not kill her. Disappointing. The little bud that once held the wing was now bleeding all over her back, she did not mind, the pain would end eventually. She heard a rustle in the bushes beside her, Another zombie to consume her so she thought, but it was actually a little filly. It disheartend twilight to think that this filly would have to see a pony get consumed by this monster. She had wings, a gold mane and fur that would create debates on whether or not it was either pink, or red. She had a bow and arrow for her cutie mark, and her expression was that of being terrified. She stared and watched as the monster came closer and closer to Twilight. Twilight couldn't help but look back at her and smile,

"It's....ok little filly...I'll be...fine..." She attempted to motion her to go away, but was paralyzed from the shock of her wing being detached. The filly was petrified and could not move. The zombie came closer and closer, until it was in arms reach of Twilight's head. It grabbed a hold of Twilight, right as it was about to devour her, the filly grabbed an army dagger out from her saddle bag and threw it at the zombie. It became lifeless instantly. Twilight was both sad and relieved. Sad, because her suffering didn't end, but happy that the girl did not have to watch a gruesome event. Twilight saw as the filly came over to tend to Twilight's wounds. She smiled again, then blacked out from blood loss.

Consciously, Twilight was awake. But she did not open her eyes. She could not recall the events that led her here, but she didn't try to anyways. She felt bags, clothes, and bottles lying on top of her. She could also feel herself bumping about as if she were on a wagon. She heard heavy panting. The wagon went over a deep hole and this jolted Twilight up, making her the most awake she had ever been since waking up at the hospital. This was unfortunate for Twilight, because now she could feel all the pain that was inflicted on her. She gave out a glass shattering scream.

"Shhhhh! You'll attract the walkers!" Twilight looked in the direction of the voice. It was the filly from before. It appeared that she showed little struggle in pulling the cart. Twilight could assume that she was stronger then herself, perhaps.

"What are...walkers?" Twilight questioned. Half way from asking the question she already knew the answer. But she allowed the filly to continue.

"They were the things that were trying to eat you. They were once ponies, like you and me, but then they got bit, by others like them. They die...and then come back to life, eating everything until they rot." The attitude of the filly was almost anything but innocent. The way she talked was equal to that of an extremist badass.

Realizing that Twilight was hungry, she looked to see that the bags contained loads and loads of food. Bread, cans of food, and candy bars.

"You can eat all the canned spinach, that stuff is disgusting," Twilight obliged and ate half the cans of spinach, and one candy bar. This girl seemed to have a lot of sweets In her wagon. "Hand me a captain cocoa, would yah?" Said the filly. Twilight obliged once more and grabbed the candy bar with her teeth and threw it at the filly. The filly looked back and caught it with her mouth. She unraveled it and squealed in delight.

Twilight took a bottle of water and began to drink, ignoring whether or not the filly was going to allow her to drink it or not. It tasted like gold to Twilight. It felt amazing as the liquid went through her system. She consumed the entire bottle. She layed back down feeling much better then from when she got up. She looked up to see the branches overhead cover up the sunlight creating a dark yet somewhat bright path. She had so many questions. She started whispering to herself, "When did this happen? How did it happen? Is it zebrican? Equestrian? From outer space?" Twilight was clueless as to what was happening. Why they craved flesh, nor why they weren't intelligent. Like mindless robots.

"Aw shit, now look what you've done." Said the little filly. Twilight got up to see what had stopped the cart. There were three walkers on the path. "How did those zom...I mean walkers get on the path?" Said Twilight.

"Because of your big noisy mouth that's why! Don't you know walkers are attracted to sound? Your scream earlier tipped them off. There's probably more heading this way!" The little filly sighed. She took a bow and a quiver containing more then enough arrows to take the herd down.

"Here, take this." She handed Twilight a small army pistol. "Use this only in an emergency. If you waste one bullet, I promise you it will not end well for you." She looked adorable yapping off the way she did, but Twilight managed to keep her thoughts inside.

The filly went over to the herd of walkers and used a combination of her wings and her two front hooves to take the arrows out and shoot them. Twilight watched shocked at the skills the little filly was demonstrating and of the sheer concentration and passion of her shots. She was almost enjoying it. Twilight wasn't able to watch for long. A walker came out of the bush off the dirt path they were on. The scare made Twilight fumble over her gun trying to shoot the creature. She dropped it, but managed to recover and sat upright. When she looked back at the zombie it started to proceed to climb on the cart and almost tip it over. Twilight again tried to shoot it. Despite the fact that the walker was in point blank range of Twilight, Twilight having never shot a gun in her life was struggling to get a good shot. It reached out its arms trying to grab Twilight so it could sink its jaws into the live flesh of the poor alicorn. As the walker was trying to reach out to Twilight he started to shake the wagon while doing so. This made Twilight fall on her back. The walker grabbed a hold of Twilight's leg slowly pulling it towards its black teeth and crimson gums.

"No, no no no no no go away go away," Twilight did her best to not scream, not wanting to attract anymore of those things. Twilight's leg was now in biting distance of the walker. It's brown teeth and crimson gums were snapping open and close constantly. As it was about to sink its teeth into Twilight's leg, an arrow was shot and instead of hitting it's intended target (the walker) it hit Twilight's leg. This gave Twilight another loud scream that was heard throughout the entire forest.

"Shit," said the little filly. The zombie then tried to bite Twilight's leg once more, but then another arrow was immediately shot and finally it hit its target. An arrow was stuck right in the head of the walker.

"You ok? You look a little beaten up," Twilight wanted to scream at the little girl, but instead just gave her an annoyed look. "We better keep that there until we get back to the cabin, it's not far from here. We'll patch you up there. We better hurry too. That scream was louder then the other one." She hoisted the saddle on her back and proceeded to pull the wagon towards the cabin.

"Well, here we are." Upon arriving, Twilight saw a circle of land that was not engulfed by the forest. In the middle, there was a big cabin. The windows were boarded up and the there was a trench surrounding the building. There seemed to be a small planck that acted as a bridge so that anypony could walk over the trench and into the door. There was also a shack, and an out house over to the side.

The filly parked the cart and asked Twilight, "Think you can get up on your own?" Twilight motioned to her hoof which had an arrow in it. "Oh c'mon, it's just a few meters from here, you can manage. Whether or not your coming inside will depend on whether you can get down from there." Twilight stared at her. She wasn't going to be able to get down from there without feeling an immense amount of pain. "Oh well," the filly then proceeded to walk over to the cabin.

"No wait!" Twilight called out. The little filly was testing her, perhaps to some how make her stronger, what ever it was she was going to pass this test. But if one of those walkers came, she was going to need help. The filly returned impatiently waiting for the extremely wounded Twilight to get down off of the cart. Twilight should be extremely thankful at this point. This filly saved her life, protected her from walkers, gave her food, and apparently is giving her a place to stay, but she doesn't feel too thankful because for one, she got shot in the leg because of her. Secondly, the filly didn't really seem like the type who would really care if somone thanked her or not. In fact she probably just felt bad for Twilight, and will eventually make Twilight go off on her own after she's been patched up. Either way, Twilight was indeed some what thankful. She still had a nagging feeling that this false reality would somhow end if she just ended herself. Whether it was real, or not. She couldn't describe it to herself, but it felt as if her subconscious wasn't registering if this was a reality or not. As if she were in a lucid nightmare that would never end and she had no control of.

Twilight proceeded to get off of the cart. She descended as slowly as possible, so that the distance between her and the ground would be reduced. This attempt failed and she fell painfully to the ground. Spikes of pain shot through her body like long thin needles bursting out of her skeletal structure. She looked at the filly again, still simply looking impatient. Twilight got up and tried to walk, but to no avail. She tried to lift the hoof that had an arrow in it so it was not to touch the ground, but the three hoofs just wouldn't be able to hold her. This now was becoming horrid, and immoral. The filly watched, as if Twilight was just being lazy, when clearly she was damaged severely and was not even supposed to be out of a bed. Eventually this led Twilight to resort to crawling on the floor in order to to get to the cabin. The filly remembered when the walker was crawling towards Twilight, and the state she was in. Eventually seeing Twilight like this became unbearable.

"Oh my...you are as slow as a tortoise! If not slower," The filly helped Twilight up, and walked her over to the cabin.

When they finally went inside the cabin, the room looked very messy. Furniture was sprawled everywhere, clothes were hanging off fallen bookshelves, and picture frames were crooked on the walls. She glanced over to see a black and white picture of a family of three. A father holding a big axe, a mother, and a small colt who was wearing a small cap that had a picture of a river on it.

"This is the block room, the room that's supposed to slow the walkers down if they ever get in." It didn't seem like a good method for slowing them down Twilight thought. However she could see patterns that might make a walker trip here and there. She concluded that this wasn't originally her home. Perhaps she and her parents moved here when this whole ordeal started. Her train of thought was interupted by the little filly when she was presented with a door. Behind the door there were some some stairs.

"Think you can manage?" Twilight shook her head. The filly sighed and proceeded to help Twilight go down the stairs. At the bottom, there seemed to be some sort of big room. It pretty much looked like a living room, combined with a kitchen. However, presumably it used to be a laundry room, for there was a washing machine tipped over in the corner, now acting as a table that had a bunch of weapons stacked on top. The room had loads upon loads of resources. From food, to supplies, to medical kits. It seems that this girl was holding out pretty well. If she was on her own or not was a nagging question she had.

"Do you have anyone else with you?" The filly ignored her and said, "Lay down." She was pointing to an ironing table.

"You mean this?" Twilight asked to confirm that it was indeed the ironing table.

"If you want to lay on the floor, then I suppose you could do that, but I suggest you get your flank down somewhere if you want to get patched up." Twilight then proceeded to lay on the ironing table. She did it slowly so as to not injure herself to much.

When's he got on the filly said," Hold your breath," Twilight did as she was told. The filly wasn't a medical doctor, but she knew some things. Pain relief was not one of them. She took the arrow out as fast as possible, this brought out a chuck of flesh out. Maybe half a tea cup full. Twilight was about to scream when the filly put a knife sheath in her mouth so she wouldn't create another ear piercing scream. Immediately, she but a bondage around it. The bleeding was intense and she lost a lot of blood. However in the end, she still survived so it wasn't all that bad. She then proceeded to inspect any other injuries Twilight might have.

"Tell me what's broken." The filly asked.

"I think my wing, and my front elbow." The filly went to get more medical supplies. As she tended to her wounds, the little filly decided to bring up a conversation.

"So, were you born yesterday? Because well first of all your wearing a hospital gown, and second, it seems like you have no idea what's happening." Twilight looked down at her body. She tried to remember. It came back little by little, but she managed to piece it together and remembered the night which she made her drunken reckless mistake.

"I think I just woke up from a coma," the filly was shocked.

"You mean before this all started?" Twilight nodded. "Wow, you were gone out for a long time then."

"When did this start happening? And if I could also ask, how?" The filly smirked.

"It must have been almost a year. All I know is that a winter has gone by, it must be spring time now. As for your second question, the cause, where it came from, how it happend, how it works, nobody knows. It's just a mystery. Some say its a plague from Tartarus, others say it's the apocalypse or a punishment for not worshipping our original Greek gods from long ago, and started using our monarchy method. Whatever the cause, it just sort of happened. It was ominous, it just sort of happened. Wait, were you here when that crazy guy made that spell, that cut off all the magic?" Twilight was stunned. Ponies werent able to use there magic? It sounded like a horror movie. But then again, she was already kind of living one.

Simply by reading the expression of Twilight's face, the little filly already knew that she would have some explaining to do. The filly sighed and began.

"It started when a unicorn was projected on the sky for all of equestria to be seen. He talked about revolutionizing our way of living, and creating a better tomorrow. He said that he was going to cut off the connection between ponies and magic forever. This wouldn't effect earth ponies as much, but he said that unicorns can't use magic, and that the Pegasi can't control weather, nor could they climb on clouds. He tried to complete the spell, but it seemed like it failed, because there was a huge explosion afterwards, and ponies still used magic. This caused an explosion of panic for equestrian citizens. The royal guard searched everywhere for this pony, and we were all worried. Then a few weeks later, he was projected on the sky again. He attempted the spell, and it worked. However his magic still worked, because he still used his magic to project the image of himself. He laughed, and whispered, 'a new age,'."

This explained why she wasn't able to do her magic earlier, quite an apocalypse alone having no magic, but to have this..." How did this all happen then?" Asked Twilight.

"I....I don't know. It sort of just....did. I wasn't there when it happened here in ponyville, I was on a flight from manehatten, and then we saw it like this," said the filly in reply,

"We?" Twilight asked. The filly ignored her and continued.

"The plane landed and immediately we got swarmed by them. Most of us made it out alive, thanks to a sacrifice from the captain..." Her eyes were beginning to well up. She shook her head, and wiped her face.

"Anyways, you've heard enough from me. You can come up to eat or sleep in the room next to us. I don't really care. But rest up. If your going to defend yourself, your going to need to heal a lot quicker." Twilight was feeling pretty hungry, but she wasn't going to be able to get up on her own. She looked over to the stairs and sort of cringed at what seems. Like a fantastical feat. The filly saw this and sighed once more. "Fine, I'll help you up again, god your so helpless."

They proceeded to climb up the stairs and entered the kitchen which was beside the block room. The little filly rummaged through the cupboards and she took out a loaf of bread alongside it some beans. Twilight and the filly consumed the meal with what can be described as awkward silence. Twilight was thinking about how this living hell came to be, but decided that the information she wanted was far from available. She decided to bring up a normal conversation.

"So uhh...I'm Twilight Sparkle, and you are." The filly glared at her.

"What's up with the horn and the wings?" Said the filly, not responding to Twilight.

"Oh uhm, before this all happened, I was a princess." The filly smirked.

"I remembered how all the girls were intrested in that stuff, what an outcast I was. Oh and it's mini."

"Pardon?" Twilight asked.

"You deaf? My name is mini." Said the filly. Twilight was pretty sure that her name did not match up with her attitude.

"So uhm, do you live alone? I haveng seen anypony else here." Asked Twilight. Mini began to stop eating. She looked down. Twilight couldn't see it properly, but somthing fell from her face which she presumed was a tear. However when she lifted her face it was expressionless.

"I guess. It's been a while now, but yah." Twilight was shocked. A little filly like her, survived out here all this time, by herself? It sounded insane.

"Wow, I can't believe that." An then another question popped into her head. "Where is your fam..." She was interupted by mini.

"Just don't. I'm not a little filly anymore. At least that's not what I am anymore because of this living hell hole, I don't need your charity, or your sympathy, or to feel bad for me. I've seen people die. I've seen gruesome things. People that were close to me are now gone. Perhaps I don't except that entirely, but that doesn't mean I'm helpless. Got it?" Twilight was astonished, but understood what she was trying to say. Twilight knew that this was to avoid talking about, what potentially might be the death of her family.

They resumed eating, and then after a while somthing unexpected happend. Twilight's body stopped moving, she started to have rapid eye movements. She fell to the floor and her body started shaking. Parts of her brain were being stimulated and others repressed. Twilight could not comprehend at all what was happening, only that she felt as if ideas were being shoved into her head. Voices from all directions kept telling her, "Release yourself from here, this is a false world, end this nightmare now. It's not real, it never was..." They all seemed to be statements telling her to kill herself in essence, telling her that this tragedy is all just some weird dream. It was working. Twilight opened her eyes fully and screamed at the top of lungs. "No! This isn't true, this isn't real! Release me, release me! I don't want to be here, I don't... I don't!!!"

She rolled around on the floor for a while panting heavily, until finally getting up to try and find somthing to end her existence. Mini tackled her to the ground, trying to keep her in place. Twilight was hitting her hard, trying to break free. But the filly continued to hold on strong. Twilight looked around frantically trying to find something to free herself. Mini continued to hold on strong, eventually she punched Twilight in the face trying to snap her out.

"Wake up god damn it! Wake up!" Twilight was spazzing out like an animal crying, "I want to go, I want to go away, I....let me go!!"

Mini then looked Twilight directly in the eye, she was crying. "Don't go! Don't go away! Your the only one I have seen who isn't trying to kill me, or kidnapp me, or eat me. Snap out of it, snap the buck out of it! Snap out of it and finish your god damn toast and beans!"

Twilight stopped. Her vision went back to normal, and her brain was back to normal. She looked around, a little clueless as to what just happend. It was like somone had went inside her mind and tried to rip her apart, putting emotions and ideas into her that weren't hers. It was originally hers, however it's as if somone had amplified it, or modified it the extreme.

Suddenly there was a loud collective moaning from outside. As Mini went to go investigate, she looked through a crack and saw that the trench outside the house, was filled to the brim, as if the trench was a cup and the walkers are water, in which case, the cup is overflowing like mad. Swarms of walkers were approaching from different directions, all targeting the same house. Twilight managed to get up and see the same. The constant screaming and the action caused the walkers to come here. Twilight realized that this was a very delicate system. One loud crack and they come swarming.

Twilight thought that this world had to be real. Whether it was some trick, or simply a dream, or if indeed was reality. She was going to have to pick herself up if she was going live. Any ideas of a false reality were out of the way now. She had to except the fact that the world she knew, is now gone, and that this was the new world. If she was going to find her friends, her family, or possibly even protect mini, she was going to have to survive long enough.

"I will survive, no matter the stakes." Twilight said to herself. The mob outside grew and grew until, one of the boards broke and a walker arm was bulging out. And then the door broke, and then the swarm came in, ready to devour the living that were inside.

The woods

Twilight sprung to action. The pain, her thoughts, they were all pushed away. Only one thought remained in her head. Survive. She tried to simplify her situation. What was the problem? A herd of walkers were coming in. How to solve it? No quick solution. Long term solution? Go back in the basement. That block room should slow them down a bit. She grabbed mini and sprinted to the door that lead to the basement. Any variables? Opening the door and the stairs. Very unnoticeable variables. She locked the door behind her and went down the stairs. Twilight then tried to think of a new plan given her current circumstance. To mini, Twilight was moving like a blur, but to Twilight time was slowed down and her thoughts were crystal clear. This was the state of Twilight when she needed to be at her best. With the information that she knew about the walkers, and given the limited resources they had...but they didn't have limited resources. Twilight looked over to the tipped over washing machine, where the pile of weapons were. There were a variety of different guns, knifes, and explosives. Only a hand grenade and some dynamite explosive wise.

Twilight knew that the walkers were attracted to sound, but given the fact that animals are more attracted to food then random stimuli, she knew that just throwing a big explosion wouldn't really avert there attention towards here. She asked herself the properties in which these creatures had attention wise. Asking questions won't get her anywhere she thought. She could just throw the grenade at the mob, but the size of the explosion was undeterminable, she couldn't risk that, she was too scared of the consequences. Perhaps if she were to get on the roof some how, then she could throw it down at the herd and destroy most of them, then they could just shoot the rest. But how was she to get on the roof? The plans she conquered were getting her nowhere and time was running out. Perhaps Mini had some ideas of her own.

"Now what do we do?" Asked Twilight. Mini was scared, panting loudly.

"Beats the buck out of me." Time well wasted Twilight thought.

It was hopeless, the chances of getting out of here was next to zero, but that didn't mean it was zero. She thought that since they were underground, she could use her digging spell and they could drill out of here.

"I've got a plan, follow me." Said Twilight. Mini did so. Twilight went over to the wall and was about to cast her spell. It didn't work.

"Of course it wouldn't work! God I'm so stupid and forgetful!" Time was running out, and little mistakes like these were going to be the cost of her life. The door was starting to give way, time was of the essence. She thought and thought until her head was about to burst. She thought about a way out, a way that wouldn't involve risk, or immanent death. Through the ceiling? Can't break through. It was like a cage. The stone cold laundry room that once filled the sounds of noisy machinery, is now going to be filled with the sounds of dead ponies and terrifying screams. Twilight didn't understand it. It was usually moments like these that she would always pull through and find a solution. Why didn't that happen? Things were supposed to get better now. Twilight started to cry once more.

"I...I...I'm so sorry..." Twilight looked to Mini.

"It's all my fault. You saved my life, and this is what you get. You should have just left me there. They tell you to treat other ponies well and be nice. I would have just been better off if you just left me there!" Twilight cried and cried. She just couldn't believe that her last act would be the one to kill an innocent young girl, after surviving all this time, a good deed is what kills Mini.

"Oh my...you are so whiny you know that?" Twilight looked at Mini confused.

"P...pardon?" Mini said a slight tsk.

"You sound like this the end of it all. But I have learned now that it never ends. And it's ponies like me who survive. The ponies that hate it here, the ponies who don't want to survive the most, the ponies who survive while they see everypony die. If we truly die here then I'm more then glad that I brought you here. Living.....this way...is just...not cut out for me. The ones who die are the lucky ones, but those who live must see the world burn alone and miserable. I'm tired of it." Twilight looked up at Mini.

"But..." Mini slapped her across the face.

"You idiot, the reason I helped you wasn't out of pity, not because I felt bad for you, but because I was tired of it all. I was tired of being alone, I was tired of being miserable, I was tired of living like this. I'm not going to let you die. And even if you want to or not, ponies like me...ponies like you, are going to survive. Not because they want to, not because they need to, but because this thing is like a phsyco path. It needs to have somepony see its work. And it's ponies like you and me who are usually picked. I don't know why, or how, or even if there's a driving force behind it. But you are going to live, and suffer. But the good news is you're going to suffer it with somepony."

Twilight took in those words. They felt comforting in a morbid way. But that wasn't enough to get her to start moving again.

Mini herself tried to think of a way to get out of here. There was no back door or anything. Next to the laundry room there was a hallway that led to six different rooms. Mini was only living here for a week or so, so she didn't really know the architecture to well. Perhaps there was some way out, but the door was just about to break so she couldn't check all the rooms in time. She thought in her head, retracing her steps when rummaging through the rooms inside her head.

"Bingo," she said outloud.

"Grab everything you can! Food, tents, weapons, anything you can." Twilight got up, and proceeded to do so. It was unclear as to where she got her motivation from. It was a feeling that was a cross between the need to be alive, and to simply continue existing because there is not really much you can do other then that. As she was rummaging through the various things she acquired to put in her big saddle bag, she looked to the ground and found a button. The same button that was used as the eyes of the doll she found from the first time she got out of the hospital earlier that day. She decided to keep it. Perhaps as a reminder. For what she wasn't quite sure.

"Alright c'mon follow me!" They ran into one of the rooms. There were boxes piled on top of each other that lead up to a small window that lead outside to the back of the house. Mini hopped from box to box and was at the top.

"Hurry! Oh my fu...just hurry girl! Your so slow!" Twilight was doing the best she could but it was one of the greatest fitness struggles she has ever had to endure. Her willpower was fading and the pain from her many injuries were not helping. She heard the door crack, finally giving way to the flood of zombies that would devour the ponies like savage animals. Twilight had to hurry. She quickened her climbing to the best of her ability, but she was advancing towards the window at a considerably slow rate. Finally she was in hoofs reach of Mini's hoof and they clung on to each other.

As she was being pulled up, unfortunately for them, Twilight had forgoten to close the door that lead to this room. They barged in hungry for pony flesh. Mini eventaully hoisted Twilight up just fast enough so that the walkers couldn't get to her. The walkers were bumping into the boxes about to make the tower fall.

"Go through the window," Mini demanded. Twilight was hesitant.

"Now!" Twilight finally obliged and jumped through the window. She looked behind her to see Mini take out her bow and arrow and shoot the walkers below as if it was rapid fire. Using a combination of her wings and hoofs, to make the firing and loading 5x more efficient. Twilight looked out and saw a swarm of them entering the house. It was terrifying. A lot of walkers were also coming back towards the house from behind. Mini finally got out and told Twilight, "Run."

They ran off into the forest, not going on any path, just going straight and trying to avoid any walkers. There were many walkers ahead but Mini easily took them down with her arrows. Shooting them and doing her best to retrieve them again. They ran, and kept going. Twilight had no true goal in mind, she was just following Mini. They finally rested and settled down when no walkers were in sight. They threw themselves on the ground. And rested for a while. About a few minutes went by of simply just resting in silence.

"Alright the, let's see what you got." Mini asked Twilight wondering how many things Twilight had grabbed.

"Oh wow, you carried a lot of stuff, I mean for a babby old princess." As Mini went on to count all the things that they had, Twilight came across some intriguing thoughts. She asked herself, where is princess Celestia and Luna? Are they gone? Have they turned? Why hadn't they made an evacuation? She looked up to the sky, it was almost dark out now. If the princesses truly were gone, then who is raising the sun and the moon? Quite Intresting questions, that really, nopony could answer.

Another thought popped into her head, what about Equestria's allies? Surely the other kingdoms would have came to rescue Equestria, unless...has it plagued the entire earth? No...it's only been a year, that's impossible...but it could have been a possibility, but it was too absurd. Her train of thought was interrupted by Mini. She was now announcing the various items that they now had to live off.

"Alright, by combining the resources we both picked up, we have, loads of food. And I mean loads. We have sadly, only one tent, lots of knifes, three flash lights, and...ohh yah. Lots of arrows. Thirty seven baby. A medical kit, six bottles of water, some...I dunno what that is, and...oh man we got a lot of guns. Now I'm no gun expert, but I would say that we have some pretty good guns. We have, a rifle, a rapid fire thingy, two handguns, and some ammo, I dunno which goes into which, but, we'll figure to out later." It was a bit scary, how a little filly was so enthusiastic about dangerous things like arrows, and guns. When she said that she wasn't really like the other girls, she really meant it.

"So, how come you got so many guns and knifes? An army camp I presume, because there all army coloured." Mini nodded.

"Me and some....uh...others, went to a camp and got loads of stuff." Predictable Twilight thought. Twilight had gone through so many different emotions and felt so much pain in one day. It was nice to now finally be able to relax. The constant running and the pushing of her limits made her wounds worse and made her feel terrible. But it wasn't enough to keep her awake. Twilight laid back down, spacing out. Mini was now setting up the tent. It was pitch black now. She wasn't happy nor sad, or even really feeling any emotions as of now. She was just extremely tired. There was however one emotion that went through her system and was a constant. Fear. Who wouldn't be scared at a time like this? She decided that she just wanted sleep, not to think of anything, just sleep.

The tent was set up. "I'll go set up the perimeter, you stay in the tent until I come back ok?" Twilight didn't even try to go with her. She knew that she could take care of herself, and that she would just be another pony to take care of. Twilight then nodded. Twilight brought the stuff inside the tent. She looked back to see that Mini only had a bow and some arrows.

"Why aren't you bringing any guns?" Asked Twilight. Mini took a look at her bow and smiled.

"It's the best weapon I've got. Besides we don't want to waste any bullets. Now rest, and I'll be there shortly." It was so weird. The relationship between Twilight and Mini was off putting. In a normal zombie apocalypse, it would have been Twilight's job to take care of Mini, but it would seem that the roles have some how been reversed. Not that it was a problem to Twilight, but it sort of felt wrong. It should be Twilight caring for Mini. But then again, in Twilight's current state, she wasn't even able to help herself. Twilight set her sleeping bag down. She also prepared one for Mini. She was about to put the pillows down, when suddenly a scream echoed through the forest. It wasn't much of a scream, but more like a loud sound that would indicate struggle.

Twilight got out of her tent, trying to find the source of the sound. She tripped while turning around on her own tail, making her wounds open up even more. She wasnt even in walking condition, but she managed to get up, pick up a sub machine gun and walked into the direction of the struggle. She went as fast as she could in her condition. When she finally arrived at the scene, sh had thought that she was too late. She heard a cry for help from right behind her. She saw a hord of walkers surrounding Mini. Even Mini's rapid fire arrow movements weren't enough to stop the herd from getting closer.

Twilight then proceeded to shout," Duck!" Some of the walkers turned to her direction. She then proceeded to shoot them all rather carelessly, just barely managing to even shoot straight. She eventually ran out of bullets and the walkers were in biting distance of Mini. One could simply just reload it, but Twilight didn't want to have to go through the trouble of figuring it out herself right now. She grabbed what seemed to be a machete from her bag and used it to stab the walkers. They did not die.

"Why isn't it...." Mini then Interrupted her and screamed in frustration.

"Oh my fu...old hag you have to get there heads!" Twilight then tried to chop there heads. She killed at least 4 of them before having the blade get stuck, but this was enough to allow mini to get the rest of the walkers. The herd was then eventually exterminated.

"Are you okay?" Twilight asked Mini.

"I guess." Mini answered.

"Let's head back to home base then." Said Twilight only having sleep in her mind.

"Fine you go back, I'll continue to set up the perimeter." Twilight looked back her and gave her a suprised glance.

"Are you serious? After what just happened, your just going to go out alone again? C'mon we'll do it tomorrow, for now we should get some sleep." Mini refused to give up.

"I agree that you should go back, your usless unless you heal up." Twilight in turn reacted in retaliation also.

"I'm not going unless your coming with me. It's dangerous out here." Mini rolled her eyes and just proceeded to walk. Twilight was frustrated but still went and followed Mini.

It appereared that Mini was setting up some sort of indicator by tying a string from tree to tree. Perhaps to show where there base started and where it ended, and to help show where the base was when they went out searching for supplies. Twilight stared at Mini and decided to finally thank her for saving her life and apologizing for making her lose her home.

"Hey Mini, I'm sorry that...you know, I made you lose your house... It must be a pain to have to take..." Mini interupted but still kept walking.

"You don't really have to apologize. It wasn't a matter of how I was going to have to get going again, but when." Twilight sighed. She thought about how it must have been so hard for Mini to survive out here by herself for a considerable amount of time, and how the effects of an apocalypse could traumatize a little girl. She probably got seperated from her family a while ago. But it was amazing how this girl had built herself up so much to the point where she just shrugs things off and just keeps going. All on her own nonetheless.

"Hey I also just want to say, thank you for..." Before Twilight could finish a walker that was from behind Twilight came up and pulled her to the ground. Mini looked around shocked and scared half to death. She tried to help, but couldn't move.

"No, no, no, not again, not again! Please no! No!" Mini tried to go and help Twilight, but memories of an almost uncanny similar occurrence that happened long ago flushed into her mind. These memories petrified her and wouldn't allow her to move. Only to stare and watch as Twilightt was to be devoured by the walker.

The walker's teeth kept on biting and biting, trying to grip onto Twilight's face. Twilight met the monster eye to eye. The walker showed no emotion. It only stared back at her. It was only hungry. Any signs of the pony it used to be was gone. A battle between Twilight's hoofs and the walkers mouth was like the most intense game of some sort of reverse tug of war. She was losing. Twilight had to go and get her knife from her saddle bag, but if she did that then there would be less strength to keep the face away, she wasn't going to take that risk. It was just a constant battle. Twilight it seemed was losing her stamina, her energy and her will to fight. The walker it appeared was using an incredible amount of force and seemed to not even show any signs of slowing down. It was a fight that was already predetermined for Twilight to lose. In her last moments of having any energy, she noticed how the body had degraded and decomposed. She then put her hoofs in between the walkers mouth and rip open the jaw in opposite directions. The results as Twilight predicted was that the mouth easily gave way and ripped apart more easily then if you were to do it on a pony that was alive. She kept on pushing and pushing until finally the lower half of the jaw snapped off. Twilight didn't what would happen after. Would the walker continue to try and eat Twilight? Even though it didn't have a jaw to do so?

The results were astonishing. It turned out that the walker didn't even try to eat Twilight. It seemed that it no longer had the urge to consume anymore now having removed the ability to eat. Twilight got out her knife and repeatedly stabbed the walker. Over and over and over again trying to make sure that the thing was dead for real.

Twilight looked over to see Mini. She was frozen. She was crying so much that her face almost flooded. She then just ran towards Twilight and hugged her as hard as she could, making sure that she was still intact.

"Please don't go..." Twilight looked down at Mini and smiled. Perhaps the little girl wasn't so built up as she thought she was. In the end, she was still just a fragile little girl just trying to act tough.

"Don't you ever go, ever. Please? I don't want to be alone, I don't want to cry alone, I want somebody to....just please!" Twilight then hugged Mini closely and said to her in a soft voice.

"I will never leave you. We are going to be the ones who survive. I will protect you, and care for you, and make sure everything will be alright. You said it yourself didn't you? It's the ponies like us who survive. Whether we want to or not. We will survive. We may suffer, but we will suffer together." Mini looked up at Twilight and smiled. It was the first time in a long time that Mini was truly happy.

"C'mon, we have to get up early tomorrow." Mini nodded. Then they went off to there tent, and Mini decided that perhaps it was a good thing that they shared a tent. It was good to be with sompony. It was nice not being alone anymore.

Screams

Twilight had struggles sleeping the night, but she at least managed to get some hours in there. She looked beside her to find that Mini had already woken up. She shielded her eyes from the sunlight that was shining through the thin fibers of the tent. She got up. She had realized that she had finally taken off that dreaded hospital gown the night before. She had forgotten where she put it, but she was glad that it was gone. She had smelt a fire coming from outside. Mini presumably. She wanted to get back down and rest some more, but she knew that she wasn't going to be able to do that. The world was a place where at any given moment your flesh could be ripped apart by savage animals after all, and she would have to get ready for when that happened. She put on her saddle bag and went outside to find mini roasting some marshmallows.

"For breakfast?" Asked Twilight.

"Yeah, of course. I have it almost every morning." She looked over to see that she was making some s'mores. Everyday? For breakfast? That couldn't be healthy at all.

"That's a terrible breakfast! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. You should be eating more healthy grains and dairy products for breakfast." Mini laughed as if Twilight had told a terrible pun that was funny not because it was actually funny, but because the joke was so unhumorous that the fact it's so terrible, makes it funny.

"Alright then. Why don't you go grab some milk from the fridge, or some eggs so we can make a nice omelet. Yah, we could have our self a nice delicious cheese and maybe some onion omelet." Mini laughed again.

Twilight smirked and chuckled a little too. "Alright, alright, but at least try to be more healthy? Eating like that isn't going to make you stronger. It may taste good but it wastes your energy." She went over to the saddle bags and grabbed a bunch of cans that were pretty healthy. "I mean look at all this good stuff! Canned celery, canned broccoli, dandy stems, oh my goodness, your missing out on so much! Look at all these untouched goodies. I mean, half of all our food is sugar, you need to make better eating habits." Mini looked back in disgust as she listed the food items.

"Blehh, I ain't eating that stuff, that's gross. I'm sticking to s'mores thank you very much." Twilight shrugged.

"More for me then." Twilight always did have a strict meal plan. But, that was sort of compromised. The least she could do was eat healthy so that she could continue going. Twilight had noticed that her wounds got a lot better over night. She was able to almost walk properly now. She still couldn't feel her wing, and she still had troubles dealing with the pain. But she could manage herself now. The two mares dove into there meals. Twilight having some fruits and vegetables with some bread while Mini had s'mores and bread.

She dove into the bag to get a random can. When she pulled it out she recognized the can. It was canned apples, from the farm of sweet apple acres. She stared at it remembering the night when they had there last drink together, and how much of an idiot she was. She sighed, opening the can and started to eat the contents inside.

After they finished there meals, Twilight had asked, "What now? Do we just stay here?"

"I came to this cabin by following a road, then the road led to a pathway. I think we should go and follow the road, maybe later today, when we get more supplies. Hopefully we can find somewhere safe. I've heard there was a camp up there, probably not anymore, but that's the best we can do right now." Said Mini.

"How do we get supplies?" Asked Twilight.

"I dunno, I'll figure it out when the time comes." Replied Mini.

"Maybe we could go back to the cabin? Wait, no that's insane..." Mini's ear peeked up in interest.

"Quite a bold idea, it's overrun, but we do have the ammunition, we could go in and..." Twilight interupted her.

"No. Forget what I said, were not going to risk our lives again." Ever since she left the cabin, she had always started to take precautions, no matter how small the risk. She was almost starting to develop her anxiety again. After becoming an alicorn, most of her personal mental problems went away. But all her fears, problems, and complexes were starting to come back now that she was put in an extremely stressful situation, you know, with flesh eating monsters hanging around and all, those problems were coming back.

"Well I don't care what you do, but it seems to me that were going to have a long day ahead of us, and we need those supplies if we are to survive it." Said Mini.

"Why bother? We already have plenty of food, weapons and what not. Why bother getting any more? We should be fine, nothing worth risking yourself over." Mini smirked.

"Like I said, whether your coming or not doesn't really matter, I'm going and that's that.." Twilight sighed.

"At least wait it out, it's probably crowded with walkers. Maybe we should go tomorrow, or later today, but from what I'm guessing, it'll be a while."

"Tsk, fine." Answered Mini. To keep things entertaining they had a conversation about what life was like before, the walkers invaded.

"So yah, before this all started, I heard something about a Princess, getting in some incident. It was pretty big, I reckon that was you?" Asked Mini.

"Yah, probably, it's still a little fuzzy but, it was late at night and me and my friends were out drinking, and..." Silence followed for a while. "I...I...we just got so wasted that night, and I was angry, and bored, and I felt I had to prove to myself that I was...I don't really even know. I guess that I wanted to prove my right to be a princess or something stupid like that." It hit Twilight hard when she realized that she might not be able to have another drink with her friends. Never be able to go to any of pinkie pie's parties while drinking Applejack's cider. Then after go have a flight lesson from Rainbow, then have a picnic with Fluttershy and Rarity. She did her best not to cry as these thoughts ran through her head, but just the thought of it was torturing. Never again, was all she could think.

"Well anyways, I guess you can make out the rest, boring old princess doing princess stuff. How about you? I noticed that your good with the bow." Said Twilight trying to switch the conversation around.

"Oh yah, everyday after school my...uhm..father would take me out to the shooting range and I would practice my skills. I was also in the Boy Scouts, which I guess wasn't only for boys, they just called it that. And I guess you could imagine, I kind of got bullied for it at school. I was always into 'guy' things. Like guns, action heroes, and all that stuff. Then this happened, and I guess, in the end it was my interests that saved me."

"I'm sorry for changing the subject so suddenly, but, if I could ask, why didn't you help me when the walker attacked me the other day?" The silence that followed was almost deadly. Mini stared straight at Twilight eyes slightly welling up, but she did not change her expression nor did she really cry. She wiped her face and explained her story. Twilight wasn't expecting a huge stroy, but that's what she got.

"When this all happened, I was in a large group with my dad. My mother had already passed away even before this all began. Anyways, we had stayed with that group for a long time, we had good times, we danced, and really, it felt like that walkers weren't even there. Nobody was hurt or even got bitten except for one causality, others then that it was fine. But then, at our camp, there was some sort of outbreak. One of them had got bitten and didn't tell anypony and, almost everyone got infected. Me and my dad left safely. We traveled for quite awhile. Then we joined another group that we found and, one of them turned crazy and killed almost all of us. My dad went on a supply trip when she snapped. She killed everyone but me and told me... That I would be the one to watch the world crumble or something like that, and then she...she...she slit her own throat and smiled a smile so...it was terrible. Me and my dad were the only ones left. We were just fine on our own for a long time. But then...then..." Mini started to cry now. It wasn't a full out outburst of depression, but it was something.

"The same way you...that you...that it..."

"It's alright, I understand." Said Twilight. Mini wiped the tears off her face, and looked at Twilight and smiled.

"He was a strong pony, never gave up. Every challenge was like a game to him. A pretty irresponsible father, but he always made me smile. When the world grew dark, he became my light. But then it took him, and I was left alone. Nothing made me smile anymore. I joined another group, they were all just a bunch of fools. They all died in the end, and again I was all that was left. I wandered for quite a while after that. Found that cabin and then, found you." Said Mini,

"Huh, well as far as my relationship goes with the walker incident, I just woke up, almost died, then got saved and lived." Said Twilight. Mini chuckled a bit at the simplicity of her situation. The mood got normal again and Mini went back to being her normal self.

"And about last night, after the incident, just forget about it. Think nothing of it." Said Mini.

"You mean when the walker attacked me?"

"No...I mean...when you know...we went back to the camp and I hugged you..." Twilight remembered.

"Oh yah, you hugged me for like half the night." Mini blushed and turned her face.

"Just forget that ok..." Twilight chuckled and nodded.

Afterwards the conversation took them into the after noon where they ate lunch. Mini then felt that it was time to go and clear the house.

"I think it's time we go." Said Mini.

"Should we leave our stuff here? It could get, you know...stolen." Said Twilight.

"Listen. If you do the math, the likelihood of survivors, that just so happens to walk in the same forest, and just so happen to walk upon our camp, is very unlikely. Trust me, I've left stuff hanging around for days, and nobody has come to take it." Said Mini.

"Alright, if you say so." Said Twilight. She still brought some important stuff just in case.

It was getting cloudy, looked like it was about to rain. They trudged through the way they came, following the dead corpses that Mini had killed while running the other way with Twilight. After a while, they had almost reached the cabin, when they then heard voices.

"Shhhh," demanded Mini. They walked slowly until they were at the clearing. They looked out to the cabin to find that there were some colts inside having a conversation and laughing. They sounded as if they were drunk. Mini was looking around to see if there were any walkers, only a few, but none that were so close as to pose an imminent threat.

"What should we do? Should we go back?" Asked Twilight.

"Shhhh, I'm thinking!" Replied Mini while doing the best she could to whisper. However, before she could finish her thoughts the environment of the cabin grew wild.

"Oh shit Johnny! Behind you!" Yelled one of them.

"Wha, AHHHHHHHH! Shit! Get it off! GAHHHH!" The yelling and screaming was horrifying. The sounds of the screaming had built a gruesome image in Twilight's mind of the flesh and blood that was everywhere, and the pain and the sorrows of the men inside. Walkers then started to approach the cabin. One of them had walked across the bridge and went inside. Twilight almost got up and tried to help, but Mini pulled her down and told her to wait.

"No! Johnny! Why would....GAHHHHHH!" It seemed like the second one had got bit as well from the one the had gotten in. It was foolish of them to have left the door open. There was gun fire from what seemed to be like a third party.

"Oh crap I missed! And I ran out..." He then proceeded to run outside only to find that the other side of the walkway was filled with walkers. Twilight now, saw what he looked like and saw the event unfold. He tried to stagger back but then tripped an fell into the deep trench where fallen walkers awaited him.

"Nooooo! No! Whyyy! Ahhhhh!! Son of a blgegrgh..." His voice started to sound like choked up blood as it would have seemed that one of the walkers had pulled out his vocal cord, or bit out his throat. Twilight, trying to cover her ears just couldn't bring herself to do it. She didn't want to hear the colts suffering, but on the other hoof wanted to know what had happened to the colt. She simply stared at where the colt had walked before but then fell to his demise. Stared in complete shock at scene.

"C'mon, we will come back later, when it clears up a bit more, maybe tomorrow." Said Mini as she started to walk back. Twilight looked at the cabin once more, thinking and processing what had just happened. She had never seen anything like it, the walkers hunting down a pony and actually killing one of them. She then started to trot back. She didn't look back another time. Just kept going and tried to forget the whole thing as if it had never happened.

Streets and roads.

It was cool, Twilight could feel the breeze. She had found herself in an open field and dandelions sprouted across it. The peace made silence seem almost more relaxing. A sound more delightful then peace to Twilight was the sound of her friends. She looked up ahead and saw her friends all having a picnic she rushed in to join them. She thought about what they would discuss, what plans they had, and what kind of foods they had brought. She had been so excited to see them. But then the clear sky became cloudy, not a problem Twilight had thought. It was pouring, then lightning. She finally reached the picnic but when she did, she saw all of her friends had turned into walkers. All of them decayed and slouched. Fluttershy crawled, while Rarity staggered, Rainbow and AJ's organs intertwined.

"No...no! Stay away! Stay away! It's my fault! I'm sorry! It shouldn't have been like this! I..." Just then she turned around to see Pinkie just about to bite into her exposed stomach. Her eyes, not the same as her joyful eyes. Never would be, never once more.

To Twilight's relief she had finally woken up. She did not dramatically rise up from her sleeping bag, or panted heavily. She was just shaking and sweating. She slowly got up and saw that it was still dark out, but Mini had not been inside the tent. Her sleeping bag was empty. She had wanted desperately to go back to sleep, but was more curious as to where Mini was. She had unzipped the tent door and went outside to find Mini sitting on the log that they had placed so that they could sit on something while around the fire. She was whittling some sticks to turn into arrows as she was humming a tune.

"Mini," Mini had jumped up and dropped her things when Twilight had called out her name. "What are you doing up? It's the middle of the night." Said Twilight still very influenced by the effects of drowsiness.

"I...I couldn't go to sleep." Said Mini in return. "What about you? Why aren't you up?" Recoiled Mini.

"I had a nightmare." Said Twilight. Mini had picked up her things and resumed whittling. Twilight had noticed that Mini was shaking. It was hard to make out only in the moonlight, but she thought she saw Mini having huge bags under her eyes, as if she hadn't slept the night at all. There was a rustle in the bushes. Mini had pulled out her bow and went up to the bush. Only to find that it was some sort of marsupial that Twilight couldn't really identify under the moonlight. Mini was quite jumpy.

"Aren't you afraid of being out here?" Asked Twilight.

"Not really, I like to think that the darkness somehow shrouds me in a way. Most ponies are afraid of the dark, but I always thought of it as a helpful tool for hiding from other people." Said Mini.

"Have you been getting any sleep? Your showing a lot of signs of insomnia." Asked Twilight.

"I'm fine, I get plenty of sleep." Twilight rolled her eyes.

"Trust me, I know what it's like to have trouble sleeping, nights of studying keep me up all night. C'mon, come back inside and get some sleep. Your going to need it for tomorrow." Mini looked at Twilight's wounds.

"It looks like your going to need it more if you want those to heal up." Twilight looked back at her wounds. They have been healing at an exponential rate every night. Strange, she didn't usually heal so quickly. It hadn't mattered to her.

" Come back to the tent, get some rest, and let's get up in the morning." Mini sighed and did so.

The day after, they had went and collected the rest of the gear from the cabin. Despite having some close calls, they were fine. Other then the cabin, not a lot of activity had happened. They had decided to hit the road soon perhaps after Twilight's wounds healed. Two days after the cabin, they had decided that it was best to finally travel to see where the road would head. Perhaps it was pony nature to follow a guided pathway, even it didn't really lead anywhere. They had walked through the forest to go to what Mini had said was the way to the road.

"Is it much further?" Twilight had asked.

"I'm not entirely sure..." Replied Mini.

"Are you to say that you don't even know where you're going?" Asked Twilight anxiously.

"Oh relax, even if we are going the wrong way, the forest will end eventually, and eventually we will get to some kind of road." Mini's answer was not satisfactory. Twilight, really had no choice. She had already agreed to this and there was no going back. She really wanted to stay at the cabin for the rest of her days, but she knew that would get her no where. She had to know how this happened, what was going on, how that lunatic managed to make every ponies magic stop working, why the moon and the sun were rising and setting without the princesses, or if there even alive. But most of all, she had to find her friends. Find her family. What else were they to do anyways? At least with the road, it would eventually lead them somewhere. At least some sort of progress was happening.

"Oh crap," muttered Mini.

Twilight looked up and saw in front of Mini. They were on top of a small cliff at least 6 meters off the ground. The real trouble however were the walkers below. Dozens of them sprawled everywhere.

"The good news is we are on the right track, the bad news..." It was self explanatory.

"So are we supposed to get through here?" Asked Twilight. Mini sighed and nodded. But then she had an epiphany.

"Do we have any dynamite?" Asked Mini.

"Yah.....why?" Replied Twilight suspiciously.

"How much would you say a stick of dynamite can kill? Half of them? Maybe even more?" Said Mini joyfully. Again, it creeped Twilight out how Mini was so intrigued by dangerous tools, it just wasn't proper female etiquette. Perhaps she was being sexist but it wasn't the female norm nonetheless. But she then supposed that there is no such thing as 'the norm' now that there is nopony to say what is or isn't proper but Mini and herself as far as Twilight knew were the only ponies to say so.

"I wouldn't know, it's impossible to determine without knowing the size of the explosion." Mini sneered.

"Well let's find out shall we..."

"No. The outcome is unpredictable and there is no telling what would happen." Said Twilight sternly.

"Your not in charge of me! It's our best bet anyways." Said Mini.

"We can just go around! Or find another route! This is reckless and pointless!" Said Twilight again.

"You are not the boss of me!"

"Well maybe it's about time that I am! I can think more clearly, and is not powered by childish drives!"

"That doesn't give you the right to treat me like a filly! It was me who kept you alive all this time!"

"Yah, and it's you who is going to kill us!" There was a long pause. To Twilight's utter disbelief the little filly started to smile. Almost started laughing. There was a long awkward pause.

"I miss this. I miss this a lot. The bickering, the anger, I miss it a lot. Almost makes me feel normal again." This felt so weird and wrong to Twilight. She had just been pumped up by anger and was just in the heat of an argument only to have it almost immediately turned around. She was now just angry for no logical reason. Her body was cooling down and her emotions were going back to normal. Mini must have been alone for a considerable amount of time if she misses having an argument, misses shouting, missing...normal. It was like Mini had some sort of bipolar episode. It seemed like the happiness of familiarity had overcome her. Mini went and hugged Twilight. Twilight was speechless, she wasn't angry anymore. She didn't know what to do. She eventually just smiled and hugged her back.

Twilight had wanted to experience what non magic explosives were like. She has had a lot of experience with explosives regarding chemicals and magic but never artificial materials. She had supposed that it would be an educational experience to see what pony made materials in the form of dynamite would look like when used. It was a waste, and a safety hazard, but at this point it didn't even matter anymore. They set it off and threw it in the mass jumble of walkers and watched from a far to see many were destroyed in the process

When they checked to there delight only a few remained. Mini had shot them all down and there was a clearing for them to walk through. They walked for almost half a day until they finally reached some kind of highway for automobiles. Twilight had heard that these things had existed, a runway so cars could move smoothly through the terrain for a long distance. These were found only in a few places in equestria, to think that they were this far out.

"Is this the street?" Asked Twilight. Mini shook her head.

"This isn't a street Twilight." Said Mini.

"What do you mean? This was the place you said we were going to." Said Twilight confused.

"No, I don't think you understand. This isn't a street Twilight, this is a road." Twilight looked at her with judgment thinking as if she had said something pointless.

"Streets are roads that you see that lead to neighbourhoods. These neighbourhoods in turn contain ponies. Perhaps families. Happy families, joyous families. We don't have that anymore. Streets can also be described as a pathway that leads you to towns, cities, culture. We don't have that here anymore. Its all gone. We now just have roads. Roads that lead nowhere. Roads that would make green days I walk a lonely road song seem like Disneyland. Streets, are no more. It's even going too far to call them roads. There just lines that you follow now." Twilight knew that Mini had always been vague and not exactly thought out descriptions of describing this new world, or perhaps Mini was just really tired and spouting out cheesy lines for the sake of the moment. Regardless, despite Mini's antics, Twilight always understood it in the end.

For a couple of hours nothing really happened, and nothing was ever going anywhere. Twilight never worried if this road would even lead anywhere or if would go on forever. Right now Twilight didn't really have anything left to go on now. She simply acted because she could. And that it was just some sort if progress.

The road had lead them to a corner that turned leading north. Twilight had heard some sort of low rumbling sound coming from around the corner.

"Do you hear that?" Asked Twilight. Mini stopped and straightened her ears.

"Hear what?" Asked Mini.

"You know, that..." As they turned the corner, to Twilight's utmost disbelief, a car had sped down the road and smacked right into Mini that was in front of her. She went flying almost a few meters. Twilight immediately rushed over to Mini getting out her backpack. She checked to see if Mini had any fatal injuries. Only a forceful hit to the head.

"It's only a concussion..." Twilight said to herself in relief. It was funny how in a normal situation a concussion would have ponies crying at how serious a the issue was. It had been to a point now where concussions were a relief. She finally felt the shock of realizing that a car had just hit Mini. Which meant there was other ponies. She threw Mini over her shoulder and slowly got up. She looked over to the dirty blue car. Three colts got out of the car. One pony was orange and had a beard and a red bandanna while smoking a cigarette. Another was grey and had a black leather jacket and black skull earrings. The other one was a similar grey and had a skull t-shirt and a Mohawk. They were all earth ponies and all carried rapid fire weapons. Twilight had noted that there were two more colts inside.

"Well would yah look it here." Said the orange colt. He walked over jerking as he walked as if he was some sort of pimp. Twilight took a few steps back.

"Don't be shy my little pony. We ain't gonna hurt you." Said the orange colt again with a wicked smile.

"Uhh, sir it looks like we have a unicorn here." Said one of the stallions.

"You would be wrong Mr. Dime, because this here ain't no unicorn," He looked over to the side of Twilight to see the wing that wasn't torn off. "This here is an alicorn. A princess." The group kept walking closer and closer as Twilight kept on walking back farther and farther.

"An alicorn! Still alive? Why sir that's a rare find you've got there! Wings and a horn! More to add to your collection!" Said the other stallion.

"Who gave you the right to talk about my collection?"

The stallion fell silent. "I'm sorry sir I shouldn't have, it's just I thought that..."

"What? That it would be smart? You think that you can just go around talking about other ponies stuff? I trusted you with that information, and now you just treat it as if it's garbage?"

"No sir that's not what I meant at..." The orange stallion took out his machine gun and shot the colt who spoke right in between the eye.

"What a piece of crap. Better off without him anyways. Nobody talks about my collection. Yah here me?" Said the orange stallion to the other stallion who was alive. The other stallion replied with a vigorous nod.

"Now for you miss, would you like to come for a joyride? I heard that it's dangerous out here, other ponies could snatch you up and do who knows what." Twilight wasn't scared. She was just tired. She didn't want to deal with them. In truth her goals were unclear, but she knew that one of them was to avoid this situation and protect Mini.

"I advise that you stay away, we don't want any trouble. Just let us and we will all be fine." Said Twilight.

"Woah there girl, slow down. Just give me a chance. C'mon, you don't want to be wandering the roads your whole life right? Listen, I'm sorry what we did to your precious little girl, but we'll patch her up. She'll be as good as new." Said the orange stallion.

"I'd like to decline, thank you very much." Said Twilight. The stallion just laughed.

"Oh man, you stupid idiot, it's not like you had a choice anyways." At that point Twilight started to run in the other direction.

"No use running!" Said the stallion. "You can't win! It's either you come along or you come along!" Still Twilight ran. She heard the car starting up and coming up from behind. The car zoomed past Twilight and stopped her. She then proceeded to travel the other way only to find that the stallions had come up from behind. Stallions that were from behind came running up front. Twilight was cornered.

The stallion proceeded again to laugh.

"You see stupid alicorn, it's like this. We win, and you lose." Twilight now, was frightened and scared.

"Grab her boys." The henchmen then grabbed Twilight by the arms making her drop Mini and turn into a bipedal stance. The stallion proceeded to laugh like he had just won a game or something. He brought out his knife and swung around like a toy. He grinned like a boy in a candy shop.

"I promise you m'am, this is going to be fun." What was he to do? Cut her up just for fun? Possibly rape? She hadn't known. She struggled to get free from the bonds of the men, but could only manage near to nothing. He brought the knife to Twilight's chest.

"You know what I'll do, I'll slowly go along here, maybe spill some of those juices, or maybe I'll mark my name first and then make three holes along here..." The blade gently went along the fur of Twilight's coat indicating where he would strike and slice. All the while his men were snickering and laughing along with him.

"Just imagine it, an alicorn! What beauty you shall bestow upon me inside of there I can only wonder..."

Twilight closed her eyes and prepared for the worst. Suddenly a blast of shots rang through the air like defeaning minuscule missiles striking the stallions down. She could not see the events that unfolded for they were going by too quickly to process. She dropped to the ground now that the stallions did not have a hold of her. She looked to see Mini and grabbed her tightly. The stallion inside the car were still alive and started to get out. But more shots fired and the car gave out an explosion. This made Twilight fly back along with Mini in her arms and made a loud ringing in her ears. She didn't quitr black out, but mostly all she had was a feeling of hope. Someone had saved her, meaning that there was actually sensible ponies. Ponies that would help her. Ponies that would help her make progress towards finding the truth about the walkers. Finally progress.