Author's Note

Buckle up for the snooze fest. Jesus.

I mean... I guess most of the Original version has been a damn snooze fest, but oh well. You know how challenging it is to try and make this crap entertaining? Not very. I just wanted to be dramatic.

Lol

Continue on

I awoke in warmth not long after. My hearing was back ... mildly. I was wrapped up in a blanket, laying on one of the train car's beds.

"Hey Devan," Jen said. She'd been sitting in a chair opposite my bed. She stepped up to it. "You alright?"

Still a bit dazed, I simply sat up, shrugged, and looked at my hand. It was bandaged up fully from my wrist up. I felt my ears with my free hand, which were wiped clean of blood.

"God. How long was I out?"

She checked her watch. "You were only asleep for about fifteen minutes. I'm surprised you're up so soon."

"Well I feel horrible."

"Do you want a sip of water?"

"I guess." I threw the covers aside.

"I can get it for you ..." she offered.

"No. I'm fine." I threw my legs over the edge. "Is my hand gonna heal?"

"The nurse said so. You didn't get any fingers blown off, but it did skim off most of the skin on both your index and pinky."

My hearing was growing better by the minute. "I ... thought I had gone deaf for good."

"You would have, but Trixie put a heal spell in your ears. She's letting it grow back momentarily. Her name is Trixie, right?"

"Whoa ... yeah, she is. I didn't know she could heal deafness."

"She had some help from Twi and Celestia."

I stood up and stretched my legs. I'd almost forgotten that my chest was still taped up from Pete's attack. It was weird to stretch it, and it felt different than it used to.

"Yeah ... Snow changed your bandage. Nice abs," she winked.

This was extraordinarily weird coming from her, but I let it slide for now. "Where are the others?"

"They're checking out the station. They told me to wake you up in an hour if you weren't awake."

"What time is it?"

She checked. "Almost 9:30."

"Everybody is okay, right? Nobody else got shot?"

"Well ... unfortunately, Abby got her shoulder clipped. Other than that, no."

"She alright?"

"Yes. Just a bit shaken. Snow bandaged her up too."

"Alright."

"Devan?"

"What?"

"I had a talk with Twi. We're cool now."

"Really? That was quick."

"Yeah. I gave her the full story."

"It's just weird seeing you transform suddenly."

"Yeah ... I know. Devin was a mastermind at making us believe you were evil. He even convinced me that Celestia had killed my father. I really didn't want to believe him, though."

"Really? That's crazy."

"I know."

I followed Jen through the car. The sun shone through the broken windows as morning arose. The glass that'd been scattered on the floor was missing, supposedly swept up.

"Did you guys sweep up the glass already?"

"Trixie used her magic to throw most of it away."

"Oh." Trixie's magic ability was stronger than I realized. I'd never heard of magic curing deafness. Still ... I'd never heard of anypony being deaf in the first place.

Warm air from the last days of summer flowed through the open windows. Even though it was morning, it was still exceptionally warm. After grabbing a fresh water bottle from the kitchen, I followed Jen through the door and out onto the open car. The doors were flung open, so Jen jumped off and offered to help me down.

"Geez. I'm not handicapped." I still took her hand and allowed her to help me down.

"I know. You just look like you've been through a lot."

"No kidding."

The station was a little ways away. Dash had stopped farther away than I'd thought.

"Seriously," Jen said. "Doesn't it hurt at all?"

"My chest?"

"Well ... yeah. What about your hand?"

"It's sore, but it'll be fine. I didn't break any fingers." I demonstrated by wiggling all of them.

"Then why'd you pass out?"

"Probably because of my ears. You wouldn't believe how loud those bullets were. I think my eardrums exploded.

"Ouch."

The station door opened as we approached. Twi stepped out and gasped when she saw me. "You're up already?"

"Yeah. Find anything in the station?"

Dash came out as well. "Hey Devan! You're up early."

"I know."

"Can you hear alright?"

"It's getting better by the minute."

"Great," Twi said, "We checked out the station, but didn't find anything. We're ready to move if you are."

"No question. I'm ready," I replied.

"Are you sure?" Dash asked.

"Yeah. My legs are fine."

"Alright. Dash, gather everybody up out here."

She nodded and went into the station. Twi passed us to hop on the train once more. Jen and I stood, waiting. I noted the cool, breezy air. Tomorrow was the last day of summer and the temperature was dropping with the leaves.

Before the outbreak, I'd been excited about the arrival of autumn. Now I was worried about the temperature dropping too low. What if it began snowing?

The zombies would slow, sure, but we would freeze if the hospital was burned down. Twi hadn't gone over much of a plan despite walking to the hospital, but maybe reinforcing Twi's castle would be our best chance to survive the zombie mobs and possible boy attacks.

Bleh.

Thinking of more boys shooting up innocent surviving ponies was difficult. Hopefully we'd be able to detain them all and send them back to Earth. If we shot them, it'd have the same effect regardless.

Everybody regrouped a minute later. Twi brought out a cart and offered to pull Blaze and Drift. Blaze was hesitant, probably dishonored if he allowed her too. I didn't blame him. He had the role of doing things for Celestia and her instead, and it'd take away his feeling of fortitude as a guard.

"I can't make you do that," he said.

"It's fine, Blaze," Twi insisted.

"I can pull you instead," I offered.

"Did you forget about your hand?" he gestured.

"No. It just doesn't hurt that bad."

Everybody glanced at it questionably, looking me up and down. Apparently, it was hard to believe that I was feeling okay. But I was. I'd survived gunshots to the chest before, so I wondered why they thought I couldn't withstand a mere flesh wound on two of my fingers.

"I didn't pass out because of it. I passed out because of my ears."

"Suit yourself then," he replied.

"I'll help," Jen added.

"Sure," he said, "The more the merrier."

Twi stepped in, "Just to keep you informed Devan, we were attacked in the station by more boys. We need to keep an eye out on our surroundings."

"Really? Another attack?"

"Yes. A smaller one than the one fifteen minutes ago, however."

This caused my level of security to rise. If they'd been attacked again, there was surely more to come.

"Is everybody okay?"

"Yes. We took them out again, with no injuries."

"Good to hear."

Twi gave us the plan before we got moving. "Firstly, we'll head for the hospital. Once we get there, Devan, Trixie, Jen, Abby and I will scout out what's left of it. Everybody stays outside, keeping a lookout for signs of boys. If you see any, come inside immediately. Once we finish scouting, we'll tell you if it's clear to come. Everybody clear?"

We all agreed and started following Twi to, hopefully, a manageable scene.