The C̸̞̙̭̽̌̀̈́̽̕̕ȗ̵̧̨̢̻̩̞̘͙̉̋̊͂͘ŕ̷͖̦̍͝s̵̫̪̋̍͂̆̆͆̄é̶̡̧̺͖d̸͎͒̒̿̈̀ Apocalypse

The following morning, I awoke when somepony knocked on my door. It opened.

"Devan?"

"Yes?" I sat up and turned to see Dash.

"Good afternoon."

"Wha!" I shot up. Guilt filled my veins. How had I slept through the morning? I checked my watch. It read 8:42. I looked back up to see Dash smirking.

"You devil."

"Don't be so worried. We would have been alright if you'd slept in anyways."

"Really?"

"Yes. If we needed you for something, we'd just wake you up."

"Then why'd you wake me?"

"We're almost there. The station is close."

"Alright." I glanced out the window. "Dash?"

"Yeah?"

"You think we're really ready to see the hospital?"

She sighed and thought for a minute. "I ... I ... really ... I ..."

"It's okay. You don't have to answer. I know it's hard to think of Scootaloo. Just ... stay behind Twi and I when we get in there."

She struggled to keep her tears inside. I went up and hugged her, which squeezed them from her.

After she left, I opened the closet to get equipped. There was a guard's' shield that I clipped to the back of my hoodie, my Beretta, and an m4 carbine provided by Celestia and Trixie. Already dressed in ragged camo pants and beat up sneakers, that's all I needed. I closed the closet door and headed to the main room. My arms were still halfway asleep, so the m4 felt twice as heavy than it actually was. I held on tightly to it as I went through the car doors.

Snow, Luna, the guards, Trixie, and the girls were packed in the roomy car with chairs and sofas against the walls and corners. Rifles and SMGs were scattered around the car. Everybody turned their attention to me.

"Morning," Trixie said.

"Morning."

"Devan," Luna said. "The others are up front if you want to see them."

"Alright. Thanks." I walked past them, including Jen and Abby, who eyed me from the corner before I opened the door to the open car.

I closed the door as the train's brakes activated. The wheels whined as the train began slowing. In the open car was Twi and Celestia.

"Morning!" Twi yelled over the brakes.

"Morning." I said in her ear. I didn't feel like shouting. "Are we there?"

"Yes. We're stopping a little short of the station. We have to keep our eyes open." She had binoculars around her neck and an m4 laying on the seat she stood by.

"I know."

The train's brakes quieted by a lot before Dash came out of the engine. She had a carbine rifle strapped on her back with the end sticking out over her left shoulder. She also had a saddlebag with stuffed pockets.

"Well, it'll take a minute to stop," she said. "I'll turn it off later, in case we need to get back on quick."

Twi and I exchanged glances. We knew. We'd have to be alert now; we'd have to be cautious.

Twi used her binoculars to observe more clearly.

"Go tell the others to get ready. I'll give the plan in a minute," Twi told Dash. She did, and went in the roomy car.

"It looks clear, but you never know."

The train was coming to a quick stop. The brakes were efficient. Before it came to a full stop, Twi gestured us in. Everybody turned their attention to her when she trotted in.

"Alright everypony, gather round."

We all grouped around Twi. The train came to a stop and let off a puff of steam.

"We've been through a lot on our journey, and I know I should have said this on the way, but I'll say it now. It's been good having you all as friends," she glanced at Jen and Abby for a second. "We've been through many unexpected, sudden deaths. It's a shame to see them go, but they'll be back ... hopefully," she mumbled. "Nevertheless, we should all be alert on this mission, as I don't want to have another dead body unsettling my mind. Same for you. So, be cautious and keep your eyes open. All of us will be walking to the hospital. It will be a long walk for some of us, but it's necessary. Dash," she gestured. "Turn the train off. If we need it later, you and Devan will run ahead to get it started."

We nodded along.

"We will, unfortunately, be leaving AJ and Rarity here. We'll be carrying you and Drift on a cart," Twi spoke to Blaze. He nodded in understanding from the couch, where he laid with his entire side taped up and a seemingly motionless leg.

"Is everybody else prepared to walk the distance?"

We looked around after agreeing. Everybody was up to the challenge.

"Okay. Grab your weapons everybody. We're going to the hospital."

Everybody got their guns. Twi and Dash had pulled out a cart like the one before; the one that was destroyed by the train. They hauled it to the front, followed by everybody else.

"Everybody wait here. We're going to look around first. Come, Devan."

I stepped out onto the open car with Twi and Dash. Twi set herself up on one of the seats while Dash checked the engine. I stood watch with my m4 in hand. The train had a peaceful him to it. I glanced at our surroundings.

Twi swiveled around. "Boys!"

"Where?!" I shouted, raising m4.

Dash ran out of the engine, alerted by our yelling. Gunfire erupted abruptly. Twi threw the door to the roomy car open and dove in, followed quickly by Dash and I. Everybody in the car was ducking. The windows were exploding, throwing flying fragments of glass on the others. The windows on the side the shots were coming from were rupturing milliseconds before the bullets whizzed over our heads and shattered windows on the other side.

"Everybody scatter!" Twi yelled. "Get to a window and start firing!"

Everybody did. Jen and Abby bolted to the next car, followed by Snow, Luna, Trixie, Dash, and Spike.

Already loaded, I sat on a couch against the hostile side, lifted my m4 and shot away the remaining glass. Then I blind fired a good thirty shots before having to reload. Twi joined me. I poked up for a quick second to see what was going on. Within that second, I observed flashes in thick bushes not too far away.

Ducking back down, I threw another clip in it. Bullets whirred above our heads.

"They're hiding in bushes. I don't know how many of them there are," I told Twi.

"Alright. We'll be careful then."

"Yeah."

I set m4 over the couch and cautiously leaned up to look down the sights. I quickly unleashed another thirty rounds around the bushes, wiggling m4 back and forth in hopes of hitting multiple targets.

More flashes emitted from the bushes I hadn't gotten to on the left. I dove back down. Thankfully, the train's metal frame was strong enough to ricochet most of their ammo, and the weak couch could absorb the ones that got through.

The gun battle continued a few minutes. I'd let off over five clips, and Twi, with an m4 as well had just finished her fourth. Flashes and shots from the bushes were diminishing quickly. We were winning really easily, as I hadn't heard a single scream from the other cars.

A single shot from one of the bushes flew to our right, and rattled the engine. We heard buzzes before it shut off abruptly. Still poked up to give him another few rounds, I told Twi, "They totaled the train ..."

"I know." She thought.

I shot about half of my rounds before stopping to observe, which I wish I hadn't done. Looking for flashes, a few shone just milliseconds before my right hand throbbed violently in pain. A few more milliseconds went by before a supersonic crack soared close to my right ear. Another whiff of fast moving air flew by my left ear too soon after. Both of their cracks protruded my eardrums, and everything rung for a second before silencing entirely.

I dropped m4 and fell off the couch, unable to hear anything. I saw Twi fire a few soundless shots before jumping off the couch. I rolled on the floor, clutching my hand. My ears bled. My hand throbbed. I felt searing pain in my index and pinky finger, not knowing which one he'd shot. My hand was bleeding profusely, but all my fingers were still there.

Tears of pain dribbled slowly down my cheeks as Twi rolled me on my back. Her mouth was moving, but no words were coming out. I had gone deaf. She looked on and saw my bleeding ears, which confused her further.

She peeled away my left hand to observe the damaged one. My eyes were giving way. Everything was moving around in a wide circle. The door to the other car flung open, but my eyes were too blurred to see. They shut before I got the chance to see who it was, and I fell into darkness.