The C̸̞̙̭̽̌̀̈́̽̕̕ȗ̵̧̨̢̻̩̞̘͙̉̋̊͂͘ŕ̷͖̦̍͝s̵̫̪̋̍͂̆̆͆̄é̶̡̧̺͖d̸͎͒̒̿̈̀ Apocalypse

After an hour of rest and talking with Dash, I threw off the covers and slowly moved my legs over the side. Somehow I was able to stand up on my two feet, but still needed Dash's assistance to avoid falling on my face. AJ had gone downstairs in the meantime, but Dash couldn't leave my side. We'd formed a good friendship in my stay, and we'd be there for each other now. I'd be there for her.

"You good?" she asked.

"I'm fine. Just gotta stretch a lil' bit."

"Are you sure you want to walk already?"

"If you can help me, I'll be fine."

After a while of standing, we started out of the room. Dash was on my right, helping me balance. It was a rough start, but eventually I started walking normally ... sort of. Starting out the door, I felt a whiff of cold air. It was a fairly small whiff, but it threw off my thinking cells apparently. My left eye watered and I could barely see anything for a few seconds. There was also a quick ring in my ears that went away in a few short seconds. I tried to walk it off as if nothing happened, but Dash had noticed. I didn't want to frighten her, because we had all clearly been frightened enough already.

"Devan?" Dash looked concerned.

"I'm fine. Just trying to recover.”

After a few moments of rest, we continued walking through the hallway. My strength was back up now, and I walked normal for the most part. Pinkie's death managed to plug itself back into my mind. It played a great role in strengthening me so that I could protect the others. I didn't want them to suffer the way Pinkie had. I felt like that would be Pinkie's request as well.

"May I use the restroom before we go?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's back there to the left." She pointed at a blue door towards the end of the hall.

"Thanks."

I left Dash by my door and wobbled towards it. Most ponies heights averaged around my neck, excluding Celestia and Luna, so I had to duck a little bit when entering. I was quite tall though, standing at six foot one. The light in the restroom wouldn't go on, but there were candles lit on the sink and against the wall opposite of it and the toilet. I was careful to avoid them while taking a quick piss, but what I really wanted was to see myself in the mirror. After flushing, I leaned in to see my messed up eye.

The bandage over my eye went around my head like a pirate. It was was clean, but stitches ran outside of it on both ends. Pete had cut from just above my right eyebrow to halfway through my cheek. The other side of my face looked rough, so I ran cold water over it, careful not to get in on the bandage.

After I got out, we started down the stairs. The hospital seemed bigger on the inside than it did on the outside. Even the single bedrooms were pretty large.

"Devan."

"Yes?"

She let out a hefty sigh. "We really thought ... that you ..."

"Oh." I already knew what she was talking about. "I don't blame you. It was a pretty close call." The reality of the attack came to my mind again. I'd lost consciousness from blood loss and shock so quickly. But I needed to start thinking about the present now.

"Well, I'm fine."

"That's good."

We neared the bottom of the closed stairwell when I heard voices outside. I remembered seeing lots of ponies at Twi's castle when I was nearly killed.

"How many ponies are out there?"

"Around twenty I guess. Twi's about to do a role call to get people situated."

We reached the ground floor and opened the door. Another small whiff of air knocked my senses again. I really need to stop doing that, I thought. For a second, I had forgotten about the ponies I saw before I went temporarily blind. Now most of them were staring at me. The air seemed tense, and everypony was gathering around and waiting for further instruction while a few rested. I could feel stress permeate the air. Some of the ponies came forward to shake hands - or, hands and hooves with me. One of them went for a shake, but we ended up hugging. We came across Twi behind a lobby reception desk.

"Hey Twi. Look who's up."

"Hey Devan. You doing alright?" Twi examined my eye.

"I'm fine. What's going on?"

"We're forming a small group to head to Canterlot to get in touch with Celestia and Luna," Twi informed.

"I'm in, right?" I asked. There was a quick silence between the group.

"We aren't leaving this instant, but we thought you could use some rest, so we thought you'd stay here," Twi said.

"No, I'm fine. I'd like to come," that reminded me, "Where's my gun?"

"I've got it." Twi pulled it out of her saddlebag. "You sure you up for this? We thought you'd be out for a while."

"I'm fine, promise."

She glanced me up and down suspiciously before hoofing me the gun. "We'll see how you are tomorrow."

"Thanks Twi." I checked the load, which was still full.

She hoofed me the backpack from the box Celestia had sent. "It's got the extra ammo and supplies in it."

"About that," AJ started, "Celestia sent us other tools of our own when you were out."

"Oh?" I asked.

AJ pulled out some more guns and weapons from Twi's saddlebag. There were sharp combat blades with rubber ends for the ponies to carry. Rarity was also wearing a saddlebag that I assumed was carrying the remaining gear and supplies.

"Are we leaving some weapons here for protecting these ponies while we're gone?" I asked.

"Yes, we're splitting with them," AJ answered.

I went over to ask Rarity if I could look through her saddlebag when I heard a door bang open. It was quiet for a millisecond, followed by the air being filled with screams and confusion. I looked over to see some zombie ponies banging their way through to some in the crowd. I pulled my gun up towards them when I heard Flutters scream over the ruckus. Firing one shot, I only managed to nick the first zombie's ear.

Quickly looking over to Flutters, I saw a zombie pony all over her. She managed to hold off its bite until I cautiously shredded its head open with a bullet. While I was firing, Dash and the others were pulling frantically for a gun.

I looked back to the main doors to see a zombie biting at Cheerilee's throat and another lunging for one of the pegasus sisters. I couldn't remember which one she was at first, but remembered the one with a bow was Flitter, so this was Cloudchaser. I put a swift shot in Cheerilee's attacker, this time not just skimming his ear. Instead, this one hit it's mark, right in the head just as Flutter's attacker. I took a second to transfer to Cloudchaser's attacker when another shot from my left missed its target and ripped through her shoulder. She fell on impact. There was some more screams over the chaos.

Ignoring that misfire, I lunged one into the last zombie pony's chest. I fired another at his head to be safe. He fell, and some of the spectating ponies began backing off. The chaos quieted a bit, but some of the crowd tried to squirm back while others pushed toward the injured ponies. Such a small occurrence had turned into chaos over not being ready.

I started running through the crowd towards Cloudchaser, but Twi and the others had already started for her. Discord and Nurse Redheart had run down just after I fired the last shot. The nurse started for them as well. When I got through, the sight was not pretty at all. Cheerilee wasn't moving, and blood was slowly streaming from her neck. Cloudchaser was down, but twitching. Blood came out of her side, close to her shoulder.

Dash ran up quickly to Cloudchaser's side, crying and apologizing. "I'm so sorry Cloudchaser! I shouldn't have fired in the first place!" she sobbed. Nurse Redheart rushed up to Cheerilee, who still wasn't moving. It didn't look like she was breathing either. The zombie pony who bit her was on her pretty quick back there. I aimed for him first in hopes to save Cheerilee, but I think I'd reacted too slowly.

"Okay! We want everypony upstairs, now!" Twi directed, "Rarity and Spike will assign you rooms to stay in until we clean this up."

Most of the crowd started for the stairwell. Following her orders, Rarity and Spike ran up to figure out who went where. The Cutie Mark Crusaders had also run over to Cheerilee, but AJ was trying to snag them upstairs so they couldn't see her.

Nurse Redheart worked quickly on Cheerilee, sending Discord for more medical supplies. Dash and Cloudchaser were talking to each other. It was good to know she was still alive for the most part, but I wished I could say the same for Cheerilee. I caught Flutters before she got to the stairwell. She was acting kind of strangely.

"You okay, Flutters?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah ... I'm fine," she answered nervously, "Thanks ..."

She walked off. She didn't seem fine, but I had to consider her almost getting chewed up by a zombie pony. I wouldn't be too excited either.

I ran back to Cloudchaser. She was laying on her stomach now. Dash grabbed a towel from Rarity's saddlebag, and covered the injury softly. I ran over and started dragging the zombie pony away. There was blood all over him, and he smelled like crap. The bullets had definitely stopped him, but they also got blood on my clothes. After dragging the zombie over to a corner and away from Cloudchaser, I joined back with her.

"It doesn't look too severe," Twi said, shuffling through her saddlebag.

I kneeled on the right side of Cloudchaser.

"I'm sorry, Cloudchaser. This is my fault. I should have fired sooner," I apologized.

"No, it's mine," Dash insisted, "I shouldn't have fired. I should've just waited for you."

"Don't knock yourselves out. Just help keep me safe until the nurse looks at me," Cloudchaser requested.

"Right, sorry." Dash moved the towel. There was blood on one side of it already. That really worried me, but I stuck to Cloudchaser's side and kept her calm. It was actually harder to calm myself. I was surprised at how well she was handling this. I hadn't known Cloudchaser too well, but we'd spoken from time to time. Ponyville was a small enough town where you could do that.

"I'm sure this is nothing compared to what you faced," Cloudchaser said.

"Nah. It looks like that wound really hurts," I replied, looking over at the shot.

"I'm just trying to hold in my pain."

"Don't worry. You'll be fine."

I checked to see if the nurse was still working on Cheerilee. She had her on her back and was frantically pushing on her chest. Looking around, I saw that AJ finally managed to sweep the fillies upstairs with everybody else. They had seen enough of Cheerilee already. When I looked back, Cloudchaser was glancing towards her as well. She glanced at me. We both knew what each other was thinking.

This was much different than what I'd seen with Pinkie. Cheerilee was actually bitten alive, and probably suffered a much greater death. I couldn't lift my spirits enough to go over and see her. The nurse would handle her. Hopefully. I couldn't help but feel that Cheerilee's death was my fault. Probably because it was. The first shot I took had only nicked him, and I felt the need to turn my attention to Flutter's attacker. Those five extra seconds I took must have seemed like an eternity to Cheerilee.

Observing her over again, Nurse Redheart was knocking herself out. Cheerilee was gone. She managed to withhold her anger enough to bring her supplies over to work on Cloudchaser.

"She's gone. I tried, but she lost too much blood." She looked at me and frowned.

"Thank you ... for trying," I said.

I got the strength to get up and walk over to her. Her shoulder and neck were bit through. Her neck was drenched in blood. Her breaths didn't come. Her skin was pale. I stroked her clean shoulder.

"Oh Cheerilee. I'm so sorry."

She'd come back after this was over, right?

"I'm sorry, Cheerilee." I held back my emotions, and grabbed onto her limp hoof. "We'll find some way to fix this. We'll find a way to bring you back. Don't worry." There was a pause as I looked over her motionless corpse. The bite in her neck swelled, and blood stopped dripping out. Her skin was getting paler. I remembered how quick Pinkie turned and worried.

"Twilight!" I called. She looked over before coming to meet me.

"What is it?"

"We have to put her down or something. She's go-"

"Put her down ... or something? Are you heartless? We'll restrain her ... or something. Until we find the cure."

"We can bring her back later, can't we? We don't have the time, she's turning ..."

"Devan! Look at her, she's not moving! It's fine. Remember how long Pinkie lasted?"

"A minute!"

"No! I mean after she was bit. At least a few hours, wasn't it?"

"She didn't die on sight though, she was just bit!"

"We're not killing her! I'll get other ponies to lift her in one of the rooms down here."

"We don't have the time!" I looked back at Cheerilee, was was pale green now. I saw her chest lift, as if she started breathing again.

"She's waking up, Twi! I have to do this!" I pulled out the m9 from my holster.

"Stop!" Twi pushed me back. "We can't kill our own!"

The others had heard us arguing, and some of them were looking on worryingly. Cheerilee's body was moving again, but she hadn't sprung up as Pinkie did yet. "Twi! She's moving! We can't save her!"

"We can lure her out! Don't do this!"

Cheerilee lifted her head. Her eyes were white as Pinkie's had been. She had turned, and I couldn't bear seeing her the way she was.

"I'm sorry Twi!" Tears ran down my eyes as I aimed the m9 at Cheerilee's head ... and fired.