Author's Note

Aaand here's another story, this time with a Zombie Apocalypse AU! I got a bit lazy at the end, I will admit, but I hope you all enjoy it nonetheless!

{AU} How these Days Grow Long

It had been a week now. It might’ve been - it might’ve been more or less. Fluttershy wasn’t certain anymore. Life had turned into a cycle- light, then darkness. Day, then night; the hours could pass by painfully slowly or lightning fast.

She knows she should’ve died by now. She’d seen countless ponies in need, and yet had done nothing. That fact weighed on her conscience like a brick. Still, she remembers the day it all started – the day everypony’s lives had either gone downhill or simply ended.

The sun had been shining, as per the usual. It felt like a perfectly normal day - the calm before the storm. Fluttershy hadn’t been awake for ten minutes when Applejack ran in the cottage, yelling seemingly crazed nonsense about “undead”, “their brains”, and “we need to go now”. There was a splatter of crimson on her hooves, staining her orange coat. Her eyes were bloodshot, her expression desperate. “Please, Fluttershy. Ya’ have to trust me on this, Ah’-ah’ got most of them around the barn but…-” her voice broke off, tears threatening to cascade down her cheeks.

A hoarse groan interrupted the question on Fluttershy’s tongue. Applejack turned, her expression turning from despair to fear as the small figure limped towards them, her once life-filled eyes now devoid and dead, her bright red mane now a darker shade and messy.

“Apple Bloom…wha-” Fluttershy questioned, eyes widened in shock. AppleJack’s fearful expression melted, replaced by a cold, stoic mask of her face.

“Fluttershy, get behind me.”

“Wha- Why? What’s going on? Why is Apple Blo-?”

“Ah’ll explain to ya’ later!” Applejack grabbed the closest thing to her left – a butter knife. Keeping her eyes focused on her sister, she trotted slowly towards her.

“Applejack, what are you-?”

As she closed the distance between her and her little sister, Applejack’s expression softened. Whispering one last apology, she readied the knife, stabbing it straight into Apple Bloom’s forehead. As the filly was downed, she quickly finished her off with a few swift kicks to the head, her dark maroon blood adding a new shade to the crimson on Applejack’s stained hooves.

Fluttershy looked at the scene in pure, unaltered horror. “What… What in Tartarus did you do that for?! You KILLED your sister!” She screamed at the other mare as soon as her vocal cords could work properly.

“No, Ah’ didn’t. She was already dead.” Applejack stated bluntly. “She was one of them, like…”

“…Like what you were yelling about earlier?” Fluttershy finished, starting to grasp the reality of this predicament.

Applejack nodded. “We should go. It’s safe here for now, but it won’t be for long. Get what supplies we’ll need as quickly as ya’ can.” She ordered, handing Fluttershy her saddlebag.

“But…what about my animal friends? I-I can’t just leave them behind!”

“Ah’m afraid ya’ have to, sugarcube. Ya’ can say any last goodbyes to them if ya’ want, but please, just be quick. We probably don’t have much time.”

It took an hour. An hour filled with heartfelt goodbyes, with scouring the cottage for anything they needed, and finally they left.

Trotting into the Everfree Forest by the cottage, Fluttershy looked to her companion. Hoping to strike up a conversation, Fluttershy offered, “Well…h-how’d you, you know, find out about the whole…undead rising situation?”

“It started off in Ponyville. Sweet Apple Acres was the next place to be hit with it. Ah’ wasn’t even awake when the first dead one broke into the house.”

“Oh…” After a few moments of silence, Fluttershy asked, “H-how’d you…?”

“Ah’ woke up ta’ screamin’. Ah’ ran out the door ta’ see…Granny. She was…she…-”

“It’s alright. You don’t have to say it.” Fluttershy paused the questions for a moment, pondering how to ask them without getting her companion too upset. “Did you try finding the others?”

AppleJack nodded, expression somber. “Yeah. Ah’ tried goin’ through Ponyville, but Ah’ ended up in Sugarcube Corner. The store was ransacked; cash register on the floor, glass cabinets broken into. The second floor was wrecked, anything of value taken or destroyed. Pinkie’s room was the only one that had a closed door, so Ah’ tried seeing if she was in there, and…Ah’ found her lyin’ on the floor – dead.”

Fluttershy gasped. “Oh my… I-I’m sorry for asking…”

“It’s alright, sugarcube. Ah’ can understand your curiosity. It’s not every day that somethin’ like this happens.”

“So…do we have any plans? Any safe places to go?”

“Ah’ heard that Canterlot an’ Manehatten were offerin’ protection from all this. We’re goin’ through the Everfree ‘cause nearly anypony goes here, so there wouldn’t be many of the dead ones here.”

“Oh, that makes sense.”

“Ah’ just hope that the Princesses are already comin’ up with a solution.”

They tried Manehatten first, and were greeted with screaming and death. Dead ones were everywhere, and those still alive didn’t remain that way for long. Fluttershy and AppleJack barely got out alive, reluctantly pushing others away whom tried to stop them or push them to the dead. They fled back to the Everfree, planning to go through Ponyville again to Canterlot. This point was where this started.

They had been living nearly like animals, scrounging up any supplies they could, staying warm using more body heat than using the ratty old, worn out blankets they took from the home of some faceless individual.

Neither of them really slept much, the screams starting to plague their dreams, the crimson droplets they’ve seen so much of following. One would just close their eyelids to assure their partner on watch that they’d be alright. Especially when it was Applejack on watch. Since a near-death scare for Fluttershy in Manehatten, AJ had been more protective of her, watching out for her with nearly any step she took.

“Ah’ just want ya’ to be safe, ‘Shy. You’re all Ah’ have now, sugarcube.” AppleJack had reasoned with her when she asked about AJ’s overprotectiveness.

Though the safety assured her, it had made Fluttershy feel like dead weight on AppleJack. She’d rarely do anything, since AppleJack would do most of it. She hated the thought of it. It made her feel useless – purposeless.

A week or so later, that all changed.

They had been traveling to Canterlot, through Ponyville. The town had felt like a ghost – like nopony had set hoof on its soil in years. With no undead in sight, they marched ahead. As Fluttershy soared upwards to check down the street for any mobs, she heard a scream. Looking down, she dived for Applejack, currently fighting off a zombie, a bit of red on her left back leg.

Fluttershy closed her eyes as she aimed her front hooves at its head. Hearing a CRUNCH as she landed, she opened them, looking to her companion. “Are you okay?”

“Fluttershy, do ya’ have something sharp?”

She nodded. “Why?”

AJ sighed, showing her the bite on her left hind leg. “Ah’ need ya’ to cut it off.”

“Wh-What if it doesn’t work? You could die from blood loss, o-or infection…or-”

AJ held up a hoof, silencing her. “Yes, that could happen, but if it works, Ah’ won’t leave ya’ alone. Fly me onto a rooftop or somethin’. We need somewhere safe to do this, and quick.”

Fluttershy nodded, putting her hooves underneath the other mare’s more muscled frame. Flying up slowly, she put AppleJack down gently as she could, quickly going to get the medical supplies they had scrounged from a hospital they passed.

Holding a bonesaw shakily, she prepared the gauze to patch the wound up, and needles to sterilize the wound should an infection spread. “AppleJack…are you ready?”

Applejack nodded, “As ready as Ah’ll ever be.”

“Okay…This is going to hurt, so I-I’m sorry.” Taking in a breath, Fluttershy calmed down, the bonesaw in her hooves not shaking as much. As she steadied her hooves, she moved the bonesaw to Applejack’s left hind leg, at the skin just above the bite.

It was a bloody time, with Fluttershy forcing herself to keep going, and with AppleJack trying to stay quiet. When the leg was finally off, Fluttershy went to work, quickly but carefully wrapping the wound. Due to this, AppleJack was still conscious, but very weak.

“Let’s stay here for a little bit. Give your leg some time to heal. I’ll get you some water.” Fluttershy said grabbing a small, damaged canteen they managed to clean out. Flying to the water tower, she barely heard Applejack’s croaked “Thank you.”

For those next few days, Applejack was barely awake. She’d slip in and out of consciousness, staying awake for some food or water. Those days, Fluttershy started to understand AppleJack’s earlier protectiveness. It wasn’t that she was weak, or couldn’t take care of herself, it was fear of abandonment. The fear of being left alone without knowing if anyone you loved or cared about was still alive.

After a while, AppleJack recovered. She’d stay awake longer; drink more water or eat more food. She’d fall asleep and not wake up in an instant, especially whenever Fluttershy was around.

“Ah’ think Ah’ can do this now, but let’s just go slowly.” Applejack mumbled one morning as Fluttershy was waking up. As her companion struggled to her feet, Fluttershy extended her wing underneath her stomach, helping lift her a bit more.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Fluttershy smiled, supporting her. “To Canterlot we go, then?”

Applejack nodded. “Eeyup, to Canterlot we go.” As they slowly but surely moved amongst the roofs of Ponyville to Canterlot.