The Trotting Dead Ep. 5: Remnants

by IwuvWoona

Rating: teen
Tags: Tragedy, Dark, Sad
Length: 6602

I would keep the twins safe. No matter the cost, no matter what I might go through, too many are dead, and I won't let them fall to that fate.

Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie!

We were all just fine in a nice little camp for survivors, the twins were safe, I was safe.

It was happy.

But now…Maud is gone…

And Inkie

And Blinkie.

And Rainbow Dash was doing terrible things, we needed to escape.

But the foals were left behind.

I made a promise to keep them safe, and no matter the cost, I WILL keep that promise.
________________________________________________________
Little note, there will be quite a bit of swearing.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-11-03 05:30:05 UTC

Promises

Pinkie groaned, her head hurt like Tartarus, and vomit crept up her throat.

The world was black, she felt as though her head would explode if she opened her eyes.

The world still felt like it was spinning, begging her to remember something.

Something important...

Was she knocked unconscious?

Gritting her teeth, the mare allowed one of her eyes to creak open.

When her headache and nausea didn't intensify, she opened both of them.

While her vision adjusted to the dark, purple-tinted surroundings, she became vaguely aware that she was moving.

Then it all came back to her.

Rainbow Dash,

The Capitol,

Inkie...

It was blurry after that, she needed to get the foals to escape.

But then the world turned black.

Pinkie shrieked, but a feathery wing covered her mouth.

"Shhh! You'll attract trotters!" Fluttershy whispered.

Rarity grunted from where she slept. "I think she was the right to be scared with what we did to her." she muttered, her voice bitter.

Twilight, her horn providing a slight glow, rubbed her neck under her mane, guilty eyes hiding something.

"I regret it. We shouldn't have done it," she whimpered.

"We escaped, where are the foals?" Pinkie questioned. She tried to get to her hooves, though she found herself unable to do so.

Not one pony matched her eyes.

???, There were no words to her thoughts, but the confusion began to sink.

No sign of the foals, knocked out, guilt.

Pinkie grit her teeth, panic and anger began to settle in where her questionability was.

"WHERE...are the foals?" she asked again shaking.

Twilight looked at her, eyes shimmering with tears, and shook her head.

Forgetting her headache, Pinkie bolted to Twilight, and threw her hoof into the side of her face.

"You damn LEFT them behind!?"

Twilight tried getting up, only to be thrown back down by Pinkie.

The pink mare retracted her hoof, ready to punch again, only to find it torn back by Fluttershy.

The pegasus grabbed her other hoof, struggling to keep her from the alicorn.

"PINKIE! Calm down!" she ordered, tightening her grip on the mare that she'd captured.

Rarity stood up, scowled at Twilight, and set her hoof on Pinkie's shoulder.

"Pinkie Pie, darling, in your position, I'd be right where you are; trying to kick that mare's skinny, little flank. But you have to listen; not now, not here!"

Pinkie went limp, sweat mingling with the tears dribbling down her muzzle.

She looked to Rarity, eyes shrunken and quivering. Her heart sped up, she could feel it in the tips of her hooves and pounding in her head. Black spots flashed before her eyes.

Fluttershy's eyes went wide. "Somepony catch her! She's gonna fa-"

Blackness.

SugarCube corner

"Well, try this one on for size!"

Pinkie hid her face, before unveiling a new one to her foals. One with eyes crossed, puffed out cheeks, and a tongue hanging from her muzzle.

Not even a smile from her foals, who stared blankly at her.

She groaned. "What is with you foals?"

Pinkie turned to Mr. Cake. "What is with these foals?"

"They just woke up, Pinkie Pie. I sure wouldn't be in a happy mood right after I got up."

She brushed it off. "Eh, they're probably just worried about their mother. You think she's feeling better?"

"Pinkie, she got sick a few hours ago, I doubt she's "better"."

"Don't you think it's a good idea to at least check on her?"

The stallion set down a tray of cupcakes. "Probably." He set off towards the staircase.

"Alright, my little ponies, auntie Pinkie will be back in a few moments!" Pinkie galloped after him.

Mr. Cake knocked on the Guest Room door. "Honey bun, you alright?"

Pinkie zoomed behind him. "I made a special tray of mini Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madnesseseses!"

The stallion flashed an off look at her. "How did you make those so fast?"

"Eh, I'm a mare of many talents, my friend."

Oddly enough, no pony answered the door.

Mr. Cake creaked the door open, "Sweetie?"

Mrs. Cake was sitting straight up in her bed, staring blankly at the ponies with white-flecked, dead eyes.

Her husband approached her. "Swee-AH!"

Mrs. Cake lurched forward, biting him with a sudden savagery that made Pinkie wretch in disgust.

The stallion pulled away, his wrist bleeding profusely, swearing under his breath.

The mare, shook her head and groaned. "You alright, dear. I had a dream tha-" she paused, shocked at his bite. Did she remember that it was her that bit him?

Pinkie galloped over to a phone beside the bed, quick to dial for emergency services for the couple.

In waiting for the emergency carriage to arrive, Mr. Cake, his bite still bleeding, turned to Pinkie.

"I'm really sorry, Pinkie, but can you please make sure the foals are safe while we're gone?"

She smiled, ear to ear, before setting her hoof upon her open eye. "I Pinkie Promise!"

How much was that promise worth now?

"Pinkie?" Mr. Cake said.

"Yes?"

"Pinkie!" His voice twinged with Twilight's.

"Pinkie!" The mare's voice grew louder.

"Pinkie!"

"Pinkie Pie!"

Pinkie snapped back into the realm of the awake and alive.

Cushioning her head was Fluttershy's wing.

"Oh, thank Celestia you're okay!" Twilight called. Her snout was bleeding, and her smile missed a tooth. Pinkie regretted her blow to her.

"With honesty, you shouldn't really worry that much, she wasn't even out two minutes. That barely classified as passing out." Rarity pointed out.

Pinkie was silent, and angry.

No, not angry.

That was far too much of an understatement.

"My foals..." Her heart rate rose again, rage filling her body.

"You're all bitches, you know that!? I'd lost everything. Every. Damn. Thing. My parents, the Cakes, my sister, even half my friends. EVERYTHING. The ONLY thing I had left, hell, the only reason I didn't end it all, was because of those two foals. And now?" She laughed nervously, running her hoof through her mane, "They could be dead, o-or alone with Rainbow Dash! And frankly, I don't know which is worse!"

Twilight rubbed her neck again, and Pinkie Pie swore she saw that it was raw.

"How long. How long was I out that first time?"

"An hour," Twilight said, with much reluctance.

Pinkie rummaged through a bag of supplies, Pulling out a hatchet, a saddlebag, and several bottles of water. "Then there might still be time."

"Time? Time for what?" Rarity tilted her head.

Pinkie secured the saddlebag, grabbing a bottle of kerosine and a lantern. "I think you know."

"Woah, woah, woah. You're not actually considering going back, are you?" Twilight was clearly perturbed.

Pinkie pulled a pocket knife from the bag, testing its sharpness by gently tapping it against her hoof. "That's funny, because I was thinking of doing exactly that."

She trudged over to the end of the covered wagon, and then it stopped. Twilight's aura faded, replaced with Rarity's.

The unicorn walked over to Pinkie. "Do you remember when you became suspicious to why we'd think you wouldn't come? Twilight wouldn't have taken the foals with us, that was the reason. She didn't want them to give us away, or swallow too many resources."

"You don't think I found that out?"

"I don't believe so, darling."

Pinkie turned, her interest caught. "Why tell me?"

"I want you to trust me. I spent hours arguing with Twilight about that arrangement. Going to take the foals back-" Rarity pulled her revolver from the ground, "Is something I won't let my closest friend do alone."

It was touching, surprisingly so.

Fluttershy, bit her lip. "I guess...I guess I have to go too. Rainbow Dash isn't the mare who would stand up to bullies anymore. She's just a piece of crap that would kill them with a smile."

Pinkie paused, staring at Twilight. "You. You're the reason my foals are with a monster. You can...redeem yourself, but this is your only chance. Twilight, you're the only princess in Equestria left. The only one who can keep our stars effectively lighting the night."

Twilight looked guilty, dead...almost.

"But in my eyes, you're a scared, little filly. You can change that, right now. Or, I'll leave you alone. I'll make sure you never see me again."

Twilight stared at Pinkie.

"Well?"

"You, Pinkamena Diane Pie, You stood by me in a lot of situations other mares wouldn't have done. Now, you need me. I'm sorry for what I did, I checked so many variables, all the twins did was look like a liability."

"If we boil the merciful decisions down to logic, we're no better Rainbow Dash."

Twilight snickered, giving Pinkie Pie that awkward wing hug that was always too formal for a friend to give a friend. Pinkie didn't get it, she was being serious, but she accepted the hug. "You took the words out of my muzzle. I'm with you, Pinkamena."

Hatchet in hoof, Pinkie crawled out of the covered wagon, and into the bone-gnawing cold. Winter was here, even without unicorns to bring it.

It was half-an hour, maybe a little longer.

The mares galloped, even though their lungs begged them to stop, even though their hearts thumped wildly.

They galloped, because Pinkie wouldn't go any slower.

A pinkie promise was so much, she'd keep it.

No matter the cost.

It was so long before they could hear the gunfire, the shrieks of ponies being eaten.

It was longer before they saw the horde of trotters.

Rarity gasped, and done near fainted. Before she could, however, Pinkie grabbed her hoof, tugging her attention towards an abandoned house.

"Stick to the rooftops," she whispered.

The mares crept over to the door of the cottage, but it was locked.

They were too close to the trotters to try another route, so Pinkie turned to Twilight and Fluttershy.

Fly us up, she mouthed silently.

Fluttershy grabbed Rarity, and Twilight with Pinkie.

Fluttershy and Rarity got to the top with little issue, but Twilight was slow, even in her takeoff.

"You alright?" She asked when she was sure they were out of Trotter earshot.

"Yeah! Yeah, I'm fine, just tired."

She breathed hard, sweating more than what was natural for somepony who was slightly fatigued.

Pinkie gave her a questioning stare. "Twilight, the last mare that said that to me turned out to be pregnant."

"Are you insinuating that I'm hiding a pregnancy!?" She asked, offended.

"No! But I AM saying that you're hiding something."

The alicorn sighed. "I'll tell you later, it can be put off while we're doing this. Okay?"

"Alright."

With some effort, Twilight manned up, pulling Pinkie to the rooftop where their friends waited. Just in time, it seemed, as the herd was beginning to spread out into the streets.

Rarity glanced nervously at the many trotters. "Th-they haven't learned how to climb yet, right?"

"I don't think so." Fluttershy reassured her.

Pinkie starred at the trotters, chills flying down her spine. "My foals are out there, in that mess."

The princess comforted her. "Why did I leave them behind?...We'll get them back, Pinkie. I promise."

"Uh girls? I'm not sure we can make that leap." Rarity bit her muzzle.

Twas' true, the scale between where they were and the next rooftop was larger than Pinkie expected.

"Me and Twilight could fly you both over." Fluttershy offered.

"With whatever is wrong with Twilight, that would leave you as our only flier, it would be too time consuming." The pink mare said, "We can still scale it, we just have to get a running start."

Pinkie took a few steps backward, then bolted full speed towards the edge, barely landing on the other side.

Rarity followed, and the two winged mares flew over.

The next homes were at a comfortable distance, and the mares easily made their way to the Capitol.

That was, until Rarity fell.

The roof of an older home was weakened by Pinkie when she jumped up on it.

It creaked beneath her.

"Be careful, I don't think this one is too terribly stable." She warned the unicorn.

Cautious not to put too much weight onto the roof, the pink mare crept over to the edges of the roof, allowing Rarity some room for error.

The marshmallowy mare gathered herself, and hopped over the small gap, with more force than she intended.

As she landed on the roof, it collapsed beneath her.

Rarity shrieked as she fell, pinned by rubble, and frozen in shock.

The dust settled, Rarity groaned in pain. Old mascara stained her face when she began crying. "My leg! Oh Celestia, my leg! I think it's broken!. shit, SHIT!"

The earth pony turned to the pegasus. "We have to help her! Fluttershy?"

She was staring, mortified, into the gaping hole in the roof.

Pinkie squinted, and in the darkness, there were trotters.

And who just made a bunch of noise?

Rarity looked desperately at her friends, but right then, in the corner of her eye, she saw the undead mass of ponies.

They were countless. Over a dozen poor souls who likely died hiding out up there.

The unicorn was unable to bear the stress she felt. She shrieked louder than gunfire.

With little thought, Twilight hopped down, with nothing but her little pistol to protect her..

"Keep yourself quiet, I got this." She told her calmly. The princess levitated the rubble off Rarity, before jettisoning it all into the heads of a few of a few trotters.

Rarity limped at an incredibly slow pace, screaming whenever she sped up. Undead began pooling around the house, and with some effort, the door crashed down, allowing them access to the living flesh within.

At last, the unicorn was close enough for Pinkie and Fluttershy to help her up.

Pinkie encircled her front hooves around Fluttershy's abdomen, giving her room to bend over and stretch her wing down for Rarity to grab.

Trotters were close. Twilight packed a magazine into her pistol, and opened fire.

"Hurry up!" she yelled, panicked.

Rarity gripped the pegasus's wing tightly, with the two rooftop mares struggling to pull her up. At last she made it to the top, and Fluttershy began to tend to her mangled leg.

Pinkie bent over, watching Twilight kill trotter after trotter. There were too many for her! What was she still doing?

"Twilight, get up!" She called, but Twilight ignored her.

"Twilight!" She screamed again.

"Sparkle! Up here, now!" Fluttershy screamed from where Rarity was.

The mare closed her eyes, huffing. "No."

It was soft, but forceful.

Pinkie was taken aback. Shaking her head, she reached out her hoof. "There are dozens of those things down there. You'll die if you don't get back up!"

The mares took turns screaming at her to get up.

"Twilight Sparkle, I don't know what you're thinking, but we don't need Equestria's last princess, our closest friend, dead!" Rarity called.

The alicorn popped another magazine into the pistol, but the dead ponies were closing in.

She wouldn't listen. She knew she wouldn't last long, and that was what she wanted of this situation.

They needed to know.

She turned to Pinkie. "I'm Bit..."

"What?"

"I'M BIT!" she screamed, hot tears stinging her eyes.

Pinkie froze.

"Back at the Capitol, when we were escaping, I was careless. A trotter snuck up behind me." Twilight brushed he rmane back, revealing a gnarly bite, still bleeding a bit.

"I wanted to tell you, but I didn't know how long I had. I hoped, prayed, that I would last long enough to get your foals back. When fatigue settled in, I knew I didn't have long. Now go! Those foals need you, go rescue them."

A trotter got too close, Twilight dropped her gun, proceeding to wrestle herself away from it.

Rarity's wound was spliced and bandaged, though she needed to lean against Fluttershy.

"We're done. We need to go now, Pinkie!" Fluttershy called.

"Twilight! We'll figure something out, w-we can find a cure! Just co-"

"GO!" The trotter's weight pinned Twilight to the floor, biting her leg. She screamed, grasped her pistol, and shot it. Getting to her hooves, she stared at Pinkie, eyes begging them to leave her behind.

Pinkie felt numb, leaving the job of tearing the mare away from her perch easy for Fluttershy and Rarity to perform.

The trio trudged on, Rarity leaning against Fluttershy.

They didn't go far before a shock-ridden pony sat herself on the top of a chimney.

Her eyes were turned towards the duct, longing for the slight bits of warmth that smoke provided.

She shivered. "She's gone..." she muttered, "Our last princess. I can't believe she's dead."

Rarity stared into the clear night sky. With her hoof, she traced the outline of a constellation with a very vague mare shape.

"Virgo," she said, saddened. "The sign I was born under. Hard to believe it may be the last of the stars I'll ever see."

"What do you mean? Oh!...right..." Pinkie resisted the urge to cry in remembrance that Twilight kept the stars lit up.

"Hope we got nothing less than a ton of kerosine for that lamp." Fluttershy pointed out.

Just like that, the Pleiades (Seven Sisters) cluster Pinkie was watching flickered away from existence. She mourned Twilight, but she needed to keep going. The mare forced herself to stand, unpleased with the urgency.

Then an image of the foals flashed across her mind, a breeze carrying their laughter.

It got colder, and many of the night stars flickered out.

Twilight really was dead.

Leaving behind her inhibitions, Pinkie made a leap to get to the next rooftop.

Only to realize there was no building next to the one they were on.

All that was there was a long drop into an ice-covered river that split Ponyville in two. The mare braced for an icy death, when Fluttershy caught her by the tail.

She pulled her back up onto the rooftop.

"Appreciate the enthusiasm, but I think we'd prefer to keep you alive for now." She told her.

With some aid from the pegasus, they slowed their descent to the ground a considerable amount, settling down in front of the creak.

Fluttershy weakly stretched her wings. Her bones groaned with the overtime of flight they'd put in. "End of the line," she informed her friends.

Rarity stomped on the ice. "On the bright side, the ice looks thick enough to cross!"

"Can't we use a bridge?" Pinkie asked.

"The last bridge was accidentally broken after we crossed it with the wagon," Fluttershy said. "Right now? I wish you woke up WAY sooner than when you did."

Pinkie set her front hooves on the ice, humorously slipping and falling.

"So many things happen nowadays. I have a list of things I don't worry about anymore. On the top of that list? The laws of physics even I can't override." She groaned in pain. An image of her long-forgotten self-conscience appeared, laughing hysterically at her predicament.

Pinkie stood. "You two, stay here, I'll go first."

The unicorn and the pegasus stayed behind while Pinkie edged herself onto the slick, thin ice.

The world seemed to hold its breath as she creeped along the river. Even the mares behind her stood completely still as she walked.

Time continued when a large crack formed under her. Adrenaline pumped through her skin, preparing her for a dash to the shore.

Pinkie finally mustered the courage to look downward, only to find that the crack had not formed throughout the layers of ice, only on the bare surface. She sighed in relief.

At last, she reached the opposite shore. In the distance, she could see the outline of the trotter barrier.

"I think it's okay to cross! But I don't think it's a good idea to stand together..." She yelled.

"Why not?" Rarity asked.

"It's not like Rarity can really walk without someone to lean on, Pinkie."

"I know, I know, but the ice isn't that thick and to have your weights combined right there doesn't seem too wise..."

The mares talked amongst themselves for a moment before Fluttershy crept onto the ice. After a few yards of distance was achieved, Rarity limped forward.

Pinkie shivered in the cold, more stars faded from the sky. They provided no warmth to the chilled Earth, but they almost seemed to cool it more as they vanished from existence.

The mare watched her friends, waiting for them to finish their crossing.

And then the ice cracked below Rarity.

Fluttershy was almost clear of the frozen river, but the cracked area weakened as she passed by.

When the marshmallow mare stepped on the crack Pinkie caused, the ice beneath her shattered.

The mare froze, her eyes shrunk in fear.

She looked up at her friends as the ice caved below her. "Girls! Help!"

"Shit!" Fluttershy bolted over to Rarity, ignoring Pinkie's warning about the weight capacity of the ice.

Groaning, the pink mare bolted after her, praying the ice wouldn't break.

Pinkie stopped for a breath when she reached the field of cracks and splits, and Fluttershy gave her careful instructions on how to get away.

"I can't, I can't! I-I-I-"

"Rarity, you'll be okay. You CAN do it, jus-"

"No! I literally CAN'T! M-my damned broken hoof is caught!"

"Could this day get ANY WORSE!?" Fluttershy looked like she was about to explode. "Pinkie, can you-Pinkie!"

She was staring into the distance. "Trotters..." she mumbled.

Along the horizon lay a thick group of the undead.

Rarity shrieked. "Don't let them get to me! Don't let them!"

Pinkie had the urge to come over and smack her. "You're attracting them TO us!" she screamed at her.

Fluttershy fluttered her wings enough to severely lighten how much weight she was putting on the ice.

She hovered around Rarity, reaching down to pull her hoof from the ice. Rarity shrieked in agony.

Throwing caution to the wind, the pegasus set herself down to pry her hoof away in a less rough way.

The trotters were close. Pinkie pulled her gun away from its holster.

"Fluttershy, I'm lighter. Let me do it!" The mare tossed the pistol to Fluttershy, who loaded it and opened fire.

It was no easy task with Rarity's panic. Her constant whimper, which intensified whenever she touched her hoof, no matter how careful she was.

Despite the odds and advancing trotters, Pinkie eventually freed her trapped friend. Just as the ice caved below her.

The earth pony grabbed the unicorn by her front hoof.

Rarity screamed in the freezing torrent of water, to be swept under the river ice was a death sentence. And it wasn't easy pulling her to safety, it actually seemed like she just put on a hundred pounds.

The mare yelped. "My hoof is caught on some kelp!" She shuddered, "It feels disgusting!"

"Wait, seaweed doesn't grow in this river..." Fluttershy said suspiciously, beginning to be pushed back by the immense number of trotters.

Pinkie pulled Rarity up further, only to see a decayed, bloated hoof ensnaring hers. Vomit filled her mouth, and it took a lot of strength to swallow it.

The unicorn, seeing the trotter grabbing her, panicked, screamed, and tremendously loosened her grip.

Between the water and the extra weight, Pinkie couldn't hold on. No matter how hard she tried, how badly she wanted her to live, she couldn't hold on.

Rarity's hoof slicked away.

Pinkie watched, bubbled flooding from her mouth, muffled screams, eyes filled with terror, flailing hooves.

She could only watch Rarity's be bitten by the bloated trotters as she was swept under the river's ice.

"No!" she shrieked. Pinkie dived into the water, only to be pulled back onto land by Fluttershy.

Hacking up water, Pinkie was gripped by the hoof and the two bolted as far as their legs would carry her.

They were lucky, as the herd tried crossing the river to get to the flesh their kind craved, the entire section of the river collapsed.

Pinkie didn't feel lucky though, the cold and grief was getting to her. Chilling her bones and biting at her skin. She became mesmerized in the pale bluish tint of her her leg.

"Shit, you're gonna freeze!" Fluttershy bolted around the area, collecting kindling and wood.

She was quick to make a fire, and sat Pinkie right next to it.

The mare revelled in its warmth, but the loss she felt outdid the happiness she found in the flame.

"Two lives for two lives... Is this even worth it anymore?" She fought back tears, half fearing they'd freeze to her cheeks.

"I think it will be. When we get to the Capitol, I going to fucking cut Rainbow Dash's wings off and slit her throat. Then leave her to become a trotter."

Pinkie shivered, not from the cold, but from the hostility in Fluttershy's voice. Rainbow may have been corrupt, but she was still such an old friend.

"You don't think that's harsh?"

"Pinkamena, you were with Rainbow for two weeks. I can tell you from experience that she can't be saved."

Twelve more stars faded. Virgo was completely gone.

Ten minutes later, the numbness within Pinkie faded, and the final two mares were moving again.

They were close to the capitol, the trotter barrier was barely two miles away.

The mares were more careful, barely stopping to make up for lost time and to keep warm.

They stuck to the shadows, where the living couldn't see them and where trotters were few.

The Capitol was within reach.

Fluttershy sluggishly flew onto the rooftop of an old cottage.

Mustering every bit of strength within her, Pinkie hopped from the dumpster next to the home, to the balcony, and finally she was aided to the top by her pegasus friend.

The yellow pony walked over the roof edge, staring at the trotter herd overwhelming the Capitol.

"Pinkie, I need to know, how much would you give up to protect your foals?"

"I'd die if it meant they'd be safe."

"I hope that's true. It looks like we'll need to fight our way through to get to Rainbow. It looks like a lot tried that. Don't think there are many ponies left in the capitol."

Squinting, Pinkie saw what she was talking about. There were dozens of newly transformed trotters. In the yard were the most.

The mare took the hatchet from her pack. "We've come so far. We've lost so much. If I give up now, I'm worse than dead. Say the word and I'm with you."

Fluttershy gave her that warm smile that reminded her of the mare she once knew. "Pinkie, this was your quest. You don't have to say a word to me. If anything, I should pledge my allegiance to you."

Pinkie sat down, getting her supplies in order, and Fluttershy saw it.

In the corner of her eye, on the balcony of City hall, the cyan pegasus she'd come to hate. In her hooves was a rifle, an M25 model. Aimed right at Pinkie.

She subtly gestured for Pinkie to move, she didn't notice.

Rainbow looked through the scope.

What Pinkie remembered was being shoved against the roof, before a single shot rang through the air.

Fluttershy was on top of her, limp and cold.

She pushed the heavy mare off her and stood up, taking a look at what happened.

Her blue eyes stared upwards in terror.

And through her head, a bullet hole that created quite a splatter against her muzzle.

When Pinkie saw it, Fluttershy's blood splattered on her, saliva welled her mouth.

Vomit spewed from her muzzle.

She felt faint, and darkness surrounded her again.

Ponyville was on fire.

The cries and shrieks of the foals echoed throughout Sugarcube corner.

Pinkie needed to save them.

She ran towards the stairs, but she couldn't go fast.

Barely fast enough to classify as moving.

She reached the stairs, and they collapsed under her.

Twilight's voice entered her ear, banging within her head. "i'M BiT!"

"Now gO! THOse fOAlS neEd yoU! Go reScUE THeM!" her voice was distorted.

A faint outline of a lavender alicorn appeared, shooting away at trotters. They quickly overwhelmed her, biting and scratching. The outline's cries filled the air as it disappeared under the mass of undead.

Water filled the basement, chilling her to the bone.

It was everywhere, in her nose, her mouth, stinging her eyes.

The outline of Rarity appeared, kicking and screaming. Trotters pulling her downward as an invisible force pulled her away.

She couldn't be saved.

The outline disappeared as Pinkie swam up through hole, up the store, and onto the second floor.

The hallway stretched before her, and the water did not quench the flame.

Fluttershy ran beside her, before a bullet took her out.

Her outline faded, and Pinkie Pie was right before the nursery.

She kicked the door open, only to find the foals dead.

Rainbow dash was standing in front of them, M25 beside her.

Her grin was wider than what was biologically possible for a pony to do. Her eyes were black, and bleeding. Little cyan fur poked through the crimson blood she was covered in.

She cackled.

Pinkie screamed, and realized she was on fire.

The mare jolted upward.

Flutttershy's carcass was growing pale.

Pinkie shuddered.

At least Rainbow was gone.

Fighting tears, Pinkie shut Fluttershy's wide eyes.

"You owed me nothing, and you just sacrificed the only thing you had left." she sniffed.

"I think it will be. When we get to the Capitol, I going to fucking cut Rainbow Dash's wings off and slit her throat. Then leave her to become a trotter."

"You don't think that's harsh?"

She knew better, it wasn't harsh

Rainbow's gunshot had attracted the herd to the inside of the Capitol.

Whether that was good or bad, she didn't know yet.

She slid down a gutter-pipe that led to the area just before the trotter barrier.

The trek over the barrier wiped away the last bits of her innocence. The moist crunching of dead flesh and bone, the piked undead reaching towards her, it went unnoticed by a desensitized mare.

To save the lives of two foals was her reason to go, revenge was her reason to keep going.

Then she saw the mass of trotters inside the first floor of City  hall.

Twilight. Rarity. Fluttershy.

Twilight. Rarity. Fluttershy.

Twilight. Rarity. Fluttershy.

Not

One

More

With an anger she had never felt before, she sunk the hatchet into the head of trotter.

They all noticed the living mare now, but she was quite underwhelmed by them.

Rainbow Dash, I know where you are

She swung the hatchet into another with enough force to cleanly slice half its head off.

I WILL find you

The mare ducked while a tall one took a swing at her, his response was a hatchet stuck in his face.

I WILL kill you

More approached, and Pinkie's weapon was stuck. Grunting with effort, she eventually bit down on handle, and removed with a backlash that ended up killing the trotter behind her.

Too many have died by your hoof

She moved along slowly, more trotters littered the floor as she killed them one-by-one.

I would stand and fight forever if it meant that I'd have a chance at killing you

How long had it been? A few minutes? A few hours?

At last, she was at the staircase. A final burst of energy sped the living mare up the stairs and through the second-floor door.

She lay there for several minutes, struggling for breath, when a trotter she hadn't quite killed gripped her by the thigh, seeking his teeth into her and pulling her back to the herd.

The mare desperately grasped her gun and shot the trotter.

She scrambled back up and quietly shut the door.

Pinkie stared at the bite.

"No."

She shuddered, the bite was already burning. Her heart thumped and she breathed hard.

"No, no, NO!"

She slammed the floor, eyes searing with tears.

"I was SO close!"

Shaking, she took a look at her hatchet.

"I'd die if it meant they'd be safe."

She had bandages in her saddlebag.

Burning kerosine could cauterize...

a tourniquet was easy to find.

Ka-thunk!

Ka-thunk!

Ka-thunk!

~SQUELCH!

AHHHHHHHHH!

Pinkie woke up after an indeterminable amount of time later.

Vomit crept up her throat (again) as she saw her dismembered, and smelled the coppery scent of old blood. After whispering "Iwontthrowupiwontthrowupiwontthrowup," to herself on loop for a while she felt better, and determined not to lose anymore bodily fluids.

She was pale from the loss of her own blood., her back leg was gone, and so was the bite. Red leaked through her bandages, but she was completely COMPLETELY alive.

She rewrapped the wound, tossing the old, soaked bandages in front of the door, hoping PRAYING that it would distract the walkers should they break down the door.

The mare forced herself to her feet, woozy and unbalanced without the extra leg, it took a few moments before she fully gathered herself.

She heaved herself up to the final floor, bursting through the door, only to find Rainbow Dash sitting calmly on an old chair. Polishing her M25.

The pegasus quickly noticed her.

She snickered. "You look terrible."

Pinkie waggled her leg-stump, and stared at her newly-turned dark crimson coat. "I-I guess I do."

The mare smiled at the earth pony's civil behavior. "Sit with me."

She edged her way over to the faded couch, not risking to even blink away from the rifle.

It was with slight hesitance that she sat onto the couch. "Answer me truthfully, Rainbow. Where. Are. My. Foals."

"Your ankle-biters are safe, in that room right there."

"If you so much as ruffled one little feather, so much as touched one orange hair, I sw-"

"Cut the threats, they're okay. A little terrified without you, but okay."

Pinkie grunted. "You know they're all dead? All the elements of harmony? And you're acting so...careless about. Heh, you even killed one personally."

"Fluttershy knew what betraying me meant. I was going to kill her right after you. Thought the bullet somehow killed both of you. As for the others, they were weak to die the way they did."

Pinkie pulsated with rage. "Twilight went down to SAVE A LIFE! Rarity's only mistake was crossing last. And I don't want some BITCH to think otherwise when I was THERE!"

Rainbow wiped a few flecks of Pinkie's spit off her arm with a highly docile look.

"Pinkie, I bet you're wondering why you're not dead right now."

Keeping a steeled gaze, the pink mare relaxed. "Alright, I'll bite. You were trying to snipe me earlier, why not kill me now?"

Rainbow gestured to Pinkie's leg stump. "One word, Pinkamena, dedication. You just watched your friends, weak they may have been, die. You  fought through a herd of undead, got bit ONCE, and HACKED your damned leg off. You are strong Pinkie. Not weak like AJ, or Scootaloo."

"What are you getting at?' Pinkie fiddled with a knife in her saddlebag.

Rainbow Dash smiled. "All the Capitol ponies? They're all dead. All in that herd you saw. With honesty, I think that's a good thing. All those ponies were hooked on the past. Rebuilding society as it was. They thought that with one of their princesses still alive, everything would be okay. And now? Twilight's dead. I can build a whole new world. A new society. I can erase the sins that our old Equestria created. Especially the tuba."

Pinkie edged away from Rainbow Dash.

"And I want you to join me. You may be a braver mare than I am, and I'll need somepony to control the others."

She extended her with. "Ya with me?"

Pinkie closed her eyes, listening to the echoing voicing of every pony she's lost.

I should pledge my allegiance to you.

Now go. Those foals need you.

I want you to trust me.

Make sure the foals are safe while we're gone?

Pinkie shook her head, and whipped out her little knife, pressing it against Rainbow's chest.

Her eyes narrowed, betrayal and hate sparkling in her eyes.

The last of the stars were going out, and the room went black.

Pinkie let her final breaths hang in the still night air.

The stars began to dimly light back up. Unicorn survivors struggling to light up the night sky with spells no pony had used ever since Celestia and Luna came into power.

In this dim light, Pinkie could see her victim.

Rainbow gazed upward at the mare, her body littered with stab-wounds.

She reached towards Pinkie, half dead, eyes filled with terror.

A blast of glee ran through Pinkie as she pulled the trigger, sending a bullet through her head.

Rainbow Dash was dead.

She was happy, until two mortified shrieks of terror sounded behind her.

And there were the foals, who had escaped in the mares' struggle.

Their eyes wider than Pinkie thought was physically possible.

They'd seen their beloved aunt murder somepony.

They'd seen death in its worst form.

Pinkie had nothing to say, she was frozen to the ground.

Small Epilogue

Applebloom was with Twilight in a lonesome building.

Hearing her scream.

Watching her be bit.

Feeling her die.

The shrieks continued even as the filly woke up.

She jolted upward, screaming, and inadvertadley shocked her friends.

In a few seconds, the Cutie Mark Crusaders' clubhouse was filled with the paranoid cries of three fillies..

"You just gave me a tiny heart-attack!" Sweetie Belle squeaked.

Scootaloo glared at her friend. "Every lurker for miles probably heard us!"

"We're in the middle of the forest surrounding the apple farm, I don't think a lot of ponies went here..." The unicorn pointed out.

"Not my point! What kind of nightmare makes a filly scream like that?" Scoot asked.

Applebloom couldn't believe what she had seen. She turned to the pegasus. "Twilaght's dead!" She shuddered.

Scoot scoffed. "Sweetie, tell her that she's full of junk!"

But Sweetie Belle was staring sadly towards the window.

The two other fillies approached that window, only to see that the night sky was empty.

Scootaloo's spirit dropped like a stone. "I-I can't believe it. She's gone."

Applebloom sighed. "I-it's alraght... It ain't like there's anything we coulda done. Though...ah'm not sure that the others are alive anymore if she's gone..."

The earth pony set her hoof on her unicorn friend's shoulder. "Think ya' can do it?" she asked.

"I think so..."

Straining with effort, Sweetie Belle's horn sparked up with bright-green energy. After several minutes of effort, the bright light of the North star shone back up.

Dozens of unicorn survivors followed, and many dim stars relit the night.

Scootaloo and Sweetie sat back down onto the chairs in the clubhouse. They looked to the closest thing they had to a leader.

"What do we do?" they asked.

AB glanced at that north star.

She took a breath, and after a few moments, began a bittersweet song for their last princess.

"Atop the crags and cliffs the air is thin. So we'll find a mountain path on down the hill. Meet me where the snow mount floooows. It is their mah dear where we'll begin ...again."

"Skippin' stones," Scoot sang, slightly off-tune.

"Braiding manes," Sweetie tweeted in her melodious singing voice.

"Last year's antleeeers...mark the trail."

The fillies joined in the chorus. "Take us back! Oh, Take us Back! Oh, take uuuuuus, take us back."

"Take us back! Oh, Take us Back! Oh, take uuuuuus, take us back."